SBB dissatisfied with Eurocity’s Munich-Zurich
ZURICH | The Swiss Federal Railways (SBB) are dissatisfied with the Eurocity connections between Munich and Zurich. The trains are often late.
Because of the continuing unreliability of the connection, the SBB are now taking an unusual step: the Eurocity trains are no longer listed in the timetable information on the Swiss side for certain sections, such as die Aargau newspaper reported. Anyone looking for a connection to the airport or to Winterthur from Zurich will no longer find it – this also applies to the opposite direction. An SBB spokeswoman described the current step as “control measures”, as the newspaper writes.
The Swiss railways are still not satisfied with the stability – measures implemented so far have not led to a sustainable improvement, it said. Too many trains still reach their destination too late. The reasons for this are construction sites, infrastructure restrictions in Germany and isolated disruptions to the tilting technology of the Astoro trains, which means that the speed has to be reduced.
Even if the trains arrived in Switzerland just a few minutes late, they would have to follow Interregio in the direction of St. Gallen and Zurich and would be slowed down, the newspaper reports. And because of the heavy traffic, there is no time to catch up until Zurich anyway. Delays of around 30 minutes are therefore not uncommon. As a result, travelers could no longer reach their connecting connection.
The electrified section of the route on the German side went into operation at the end of 2020, and since December 2021 the travel time between Munich and Zurich should only be three and a half hours.