Zurich public transport system prepares for ‘historic timetable change’

Zurich transport operators face "historic timetable change" Keystone-SDA

Passengers travelling on Zurich's trams must be prepared for changes: The transport company VBZ is facing the "biggest timetable change in its history". Numerous lines will run on different routes from December 14. In addition, no trams will run at Bahnhofquai to the east of main railway station for a year.

“There will certainly be confusion,” admitted VBZ Director Martin Sturzenegger to the media on Tuesday. Zurich city councillor Michael Baumer also described the plans as a “major change”. “This is associated with emotions, we are aware of that.”

+Get the most important news from Switzerland in your inbox

With the timetable change on December 14, VBZ will be increasing capacity to the Lengg/Balgrist hospital area during rush hours. The aim is to ensure that around 9,000 employees and 50,000 patients arrive at the hospitals on time.

This expansion will affect seven tram lines: Line 2, for example, will no longer run to Tiefenbrunnen station, but to the hospital cluster in Lengg. Line 4 will also no longer run to Tiefenbrunnen, but to Rehalp instead.

There will also be a new “Super Line 5” connecting the Lengg hospital area and Uetlihof with the railway stations on the left and right banks of the lake. There are also plans for tangential connections that do not run via the main railway station.

For this timetable change, 80 points systems have to be converted, 1,800 new stop signs produced and 7,500 new timetable notices put up. All new lines have been listed on the VBZ websiteExternal link since Tuesday.

No tram service at Bahnhofquai

However, the complete implementation of all new lines will not be possible until December 2026. This is because nothing will be running at Bahnhofquai for a whole year before then. The listed stop at the main station has to be converted to make it accessible for the disabled.

“This is very time-consuming and very complex,” said Sturzenegger. While car traffic will not be disrupted for the duration of the construction work, tram services will have to be completely suspended.

Five tram lines will change their route during this time. There are also two additional connections, tram lines 50 and 51, which are being created specifically for the construction site. Baumer and Sturzenegger recommend that passengers check their connections well in advance. The new timetable will be available from mid-November.

Adapted from German by DeepL/ac

How we work

We select the most relevant news for an international audience and use automatic translation tools to translate them into English. A journalist then reviews the translation for clarity and accuracy before publication.  

Providing you with automatically translated news gives us the time to write more in-depth articles. The news stories we select have been written and carefully fact-checked by an external editorial team from news agencies such as Bloomberg or Keystone.

If you have any questions about how we work, write to us at [e-mail].