Dear SBB Community,
Members of the SBB Community repeatedly ask whether it makes sense to change the timetable shortly before Christmas and New Year. Many customers plan holidays at this time of year and want to book journeys, especially abroad, well in advance. However, it is often not possible because the timetable is unknown. This is annoying for customers as they cannot reliably plan their journeys over the festive period.
In this article, we give you some background information about the timetable change in December and explain why the date cannot easily be changed.
The date of the timetable change – set throughout Europe.
The dates for the timetable change have been set throughout Europe for the next few years. The “big” timetable change takes place simultaneously throughout Europe on the second Saturday in December. It is impossible to change this date in Switzerland as too many things depend on it. It would be like Switzerland suddenly introducing driving on the left. This means that the timetable is not yet available at the time when many travellers are planning their Christmas holidays and want to book in advance.
The Community of European Railways and Infrastructure Companies (CER) has identified 10 problem areas connected with ticket sales. In 1st place: “Travellers cannot book their train journeys far enough in advance, partly due to the timetable change.”
One reason for the poor planning capability is the competitive situation for train paths in Europe. Similar to a “slot” in aviation, a train path is the authorisation for a specific train to travel on a specific section of the rail network at fixed times. For example, the Italian railway acquires train paths between Paris and Lyon for its Frecciarossa trains. Flixtrain needs train paths in Germany, plus also all the freight services.
In countries with free competition, it is difficult to acquire these train paths at an early stage. Until the train paths are definitively allocated, a final timetable cannot be drawn up and tickets cannot be sold if, in the worst case, it may not be possible to provide the promised transport service.
How does SBB view the situation?
We have acknowledged the problem and sought dialogue with the Federal Office of Transport (FOT). We have submitted an application to Alliance Swiss Pass with the aim of being able to publish the data for the national timetable as early as June. This is a provisional timetable and is labelled accordingly, but it will largely enable the sale of tickets for after the timetable change.
But back to the question in the title: when is the earliest you can book your tickets?
Currently, before the timetable change, there is generally an advance booking period of 1.5 to 3 months. But this can vary from country to country. In Italy, for example, the booking periods can also change from train category to train category.
From next year, there will be improvements thanks to the earlier publication of timetables. However, in many countries, political and competition law frameworks do not permit earlier publication of the data and this prevents advance sales.
We wish you a very nice trip in Switzerland and abroad,
BR
Romano