Switzerland

Switzerland counts a large number of railway companies. Shared use of infrastructures exists for many years, as well as through-ticketing arrangements and integrated information systems. Concerns about the efficiency of the Swiss passenger transport system have recently triggered a reform of the legal and regulatory framework. This chapter focuses on Switzerland presents the legal and regulatory framework and the considerations which led to the current situation. It describes two case studies. The one illustrating the tendering of a line which was owned and operated by the Federal railways and the other illustrating the implementation of Cantonal legislation as a consequence of the regionalisation of the subsidisation of the regional railway services in the Canton of Bern. Regular passenger transport concessions give an exclusive right to scheduled transport passengers on a specific route. Such concessions are meant to give to the authorities an instrument to guarantee efficient public transport in the whole of Switzerland.