SBB Personenverkehr is the passenger division of Swiss Federal Railways, responsible for long-distance, regional and international services, ticket sales and passenger rolling stock. It is one of SBB’s operating divisions, alongside Infrastructure, Real Estate and the freight business.
SBB Personenverkehr employs around 15,000 staff, from drivers and train attendants to sales, maintenance and the transport police. In 2025 SBB carried a record 1.43 million passengers a day, up from 1.39 million in 2024, with punctuality at 94.1 percent.
The division is split into two halves. Passenger Services Production covers railway production, rolling stock maintenance, fleet projects, depots, transport police and safety; Passenger Services Markets covers long-distance, international and regional services, sales, marketing and first- and last-mile offers.
The long-distance concession
Switzerland lies outside the Single European Railway Area (SERA). Rail relations with the EU rest on the 1999 land transport agreement, which governs access and standards without extending full EU market opening to the Swiss network.
Long-distance services run under a concession granted by the Federal Office of Transport, valid from December 2019 to December 2029. It was the first time the concession was opened to applicants other than SBB, and the outcome left the great majority of the network with the incumbent.
SBB holds the concession but delegates specific routes to BLS and Südostbahn, an arrangement the three companies and the federal office intend to continue into the concession period beginning in December 2029. Regional traffic follows a different logic again, ordered and funded by the cantons and the Confederation.
Subsidiaries and shareholdings
Regional services are partly delivered through separately incorporated companies in which the division holds stakes: Thurbo, zb Zentralbahn, RegionAlps, Tilo and Lémanis, alongside SBB GmbH in southern Germany. Each operates as a local company within the SBB brand.
International services are run jointly with the neighbouring railways. SBB works with DB, ÖBB, SNCF and Trenitalia on cross-border traffic, with night trains coordinated through the Austrian network and Paris services through the Lyria joint venture.
That structure reflects a small market with long borders. Almost every high-value SBB long-distance route continues into a neighbouring country, so rolling stock approval and timetable coordination with foreign railways are core to the division’s work.
Fleet and cross-border approval
The Giruno, built by Stadler Rail as the RABe 501, is the mainstay of international services on the north-south axis, with 41 units in service. It runs at up to 250 km/h and is approved for Switzerland, Germany, Austria and Italy.
Multi-country operation dictates the specification. The trains carry multiple power systems and signalling packages, and use low-floor entry designed for both the 55 cm platforms common in Switzerland, Austria and Italy and the 76 cm platforms in Germany.
Domestic operation is shaped by the Swiss signalling migration. All lineside signalling points have been equipped with ETCS Level 1 Limited Supervision, while ETCS Level 2 is used on the base tunnels and selected main lines, with the long-term aim of cab signalling across the whole standard-gauge network.