End of an era for printed transport timetables

The print run has come to an end - the passenger run hasn't Keystone

The Swiss Federal Railways has announced that the three-volume, 3,800-page Official Timetable 2017 – which gives the times for every train, bus, boat and cable car journey across the country – will be the last one to be printed.

However, it will still be downloadable, and regional and city printed timetables – as well as posters in stations – will continue to exist.

The Swiss Federal Railways said on Thursday that while it receives 360 million digital queries a year, demand for the printed timetable had dropped from around half a million copies in the 1980s and 1990s to the current print run of 25,000.

The Federal Office of Transport said the sales revenue from the timetables no longer covered the printing costs.

The three volumes for 2017External link will be available from November 26 as a set for CHF16 ($16.40) from the federal railways and other public transport operators’ sales outlets. Volumes will not be sold individually.

Passengers can and will continue to be able to download route tablesExternal link from the official timetable.