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From Zurich to Geneva on the Tilting Train

Swiss Tilting Train
Switzerland is known for its well-developed and very punctual system of public transportation. I must admit that I got so used to its punctuality that a delay of 5 minutes is irritating to me. I am sure that in other countries a 5 minute delay would be considered leaving on time.  However, I don't want to talk about time tables today but about a special kind of train the SBB (Swiss federal railway company) is using on some of its longer routes: the Tilting Train.

I remember when I first rode the tilting train about 10 years ago. Everyone kept telling me that the tilting will make me sick (which I'm glad to tell you it didn't) but that overall it was quite a neat train - also because it was brand new. I was heading to the French part of Switzerland with a friend for a weekend and after the first tilts on the train we got used to it and the excitement was over. Actually, we found that the tilting was quite enjoyable.

Last weekend I rode the tilting train once again on my way from Zurich to Yverdon which is located in the French part of Switzerland, about midway between Basel and Geneva. While tilting to the left and right I thought of the news I read recently about a double decker tilting train. SBB actually already performed some tests with passengers on such a train. I wondered if the tilting would be much more noticeable when sitting upstairs and would SBB recommend people who get nauseous easily to sit downstairs only? The only thing I definitely understood is that the tilting makes trains faster and therefore use less time to reach the destination which is what most people expect from an efficient public transportation system. So, thank you SBB for getting us the tilting trains!

For those of you traveling to Switzerland and wanting to experience a tilting train check out this article Tilting Trains or check official website of SBB: sbb.ch. 



© 2011 IRENE WYRSCH "A HUMOROUS GUIDE TO SWITZERLAND" ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

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Comments

  1. AnonymousAugust 19, 2011 at 1:49 PM

    Hi Miss Peaches,
    Indeed, SBB is developing double decker
    tilting trains. They are intended for the
    Zurich-Bern-Fribourg-Lausanne-Geneva route.
    In particular, they are supposed to reduce
    journey times between Bern and Lausanne.

    The double deckers won't tilt that much as
    the current ICN trains for two practical
    reasons: first, we don't want you to get sick
    when sitting upstairs, second, we don't want
    to damage the train when tilting and hitting
    the catenary masts!

    Hope you'll keep to enjoy riding tilting trains
    in the future!

    Twan

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Irene WyrschOctober 24, 2016 at 6:01 PM

      Hey Twan
      do you have any update or knowledge as to the status of the double decker tilting trains?

      Delete

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