The Swiss use the railways over 50% more than Austrians, who came in second place in Litra's analysis.
Keystone / Gaetan Bally
Select your language
Generated with artificial intelligence.
Listening: Swiss are champions of rail travel in Europe
Switzerland remains by a large margin the European champion of train travel, both in terms of the number of journeys per person and the number of kilometres travelled.
In 2023, the Swiss travelled an average of 2,466km by train per resident (passenger-kilometres) and used this means of transport 68 times, according to the public transport information service Litra. Over the year, the number of passengers per kilometre increased by 13.2% and the number of journeys by 11.5%.
This means that the Swiss use the railways over 50% more than people in Austria, which came in second place in the analysis, both in terms of kilometres travelled per inhabitant and frequency.
Other countries that finished at the top of the list are France, Great Britain, the Netherlands, Denmark and Luxembourg. At the other end of the scale, the train is almost non-existent in Greece and used very little in Croatia, Bulgaria, Estonia, Lithuania and Romania.
In absolute figures, traffic in Switzerland passed the 2019 record (pre-Covid) by 2.5% last year, with 22.3 billion passenger-kilometres.
The study is based on data, notably from Eurostat, from the 25 EU countries with a rail network (i.e., excluding Malta and Cyprus), as well as from Great Britain, Norway and Switzerland.
At the global level, another study showed that only Japan rivaled Switzerland for the popularity of rail travel.
Translated from French with DeepL/gw
This news story has been written and carefully fact-checked by an external editorial team. At SWI swissinfo.ch we select the most relevant news for an international audience and use automatic translation tools such as DeepL to translate it into English. Providing you with automatically translated news gives us the time to write more in-depth articles.
If you want to know more about how we work, have a look here, if you want to learn more about how we use technology, click here, and if you have feedback on this news story please write to english@swissinfo.ch.
Popular Stories
More
Swiss Politics
In Switzerland, New Year brings ‘burka ban’ and pension hikes
Have you heard something about Swiss diplomacy that you’d like us to fact check?
Not all information circulating about Switzerland’s foreign relations is accurate or well understood. Tell us what you'd like us to fact check or clarify.
This content was published on
Swiss households are increasingly turning away from meat. The proportion of households that consume animal products without restrictions has fallen from around 71% in 2022 to around 64%.
Home ownership in Switzerland booms while rentals stagnate
This content was published on
Residential property prices in Switzerland continued their ascent last year, albeit at a slower pace towards the end of the period.
This content was published on
The Swiss army will once again support canton Graubünden in security measures for the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos.
Jay-Z paid for my whirlpool, says Swiss musician in plagiarism case
This content was published on
Swiss music pioneer Bruno Spoerri says he has rapper Jay-Z to thank for his hot tub. Jay-Z paid Spoerri CHF30,000 for sampling one of his works without permission.
Human remains found in 1957 plane wreckage in Lake Constance
This content was published on
A team of divers says it has come across human remains during an operation involving the wreckage of the Swissair DC-3 which crashed into Lake Constance in June 1957.
Swiss employers’ association proposes measures against wage dumping
This content was published on
Roland Müller, director of the Swiss Employers' Association, has put forward possible measures to prevent wage dumping in Switzerland with regard to the new EU treaties.
Swiss urged to help the climate by eating more healthily
This content was published on
The Swiss government's nutritional recommendations can make a significant contribution to achieving climate objectives, say NGOs – provided the most environmentally friendly foods are chosen.
Pfister criticises People’s Party calls for Amherd’s resignation
This content was published on
Gerhard Pfister, president of the Centre Party, has criticised the Swiss People's Party's demand for the resignation of the Centre Party's Defence Minister Viola Amherd.
You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here . Please join us!
If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.