Ever since the 1990 opening of the S-Bahn – the Zurich metropolitan area's rail network – ridership has been growing steadily and had more than doubled by 2006. From 2013, a new tunnel will allow trains on many S-Bahn and intercity routes to serve the new underground Löwenstrasse platforms at Zurich main station, then continue directly to Zurich-Oerlikon without reversing direction on the main station's stub tracks. Together with the Zurich transport authority (ZVV), the Swiss Federal Railways (SBB) have developed a service plan known as the Fourth Expansion that makes optimal use of this new through route. This plan does, however, require additional infrastructure enhancements on the S-Bahn network.

The Swiss SMA and Partner AG has published the actual new timetable 2009 for whole Switzerland together with the Swiss Federal Railways (SBB). In the new netgraph nearly all Swiss station departure and arrival times are published at only one page. A must see for each railway fan.

Download Netgraph - Timetable Switzerland 2009

SMA und Partner develops a new procedure to identify and estimate the potential demand of rail passenger

The new procedure developed by Zurich-based SMA und Partner AG enables for the first time to estimate the effect of offer variations on rail passenger demand betimes. The method’s conception provides very efficient results with a minimum effort. In contrary to the classical traffic forecast, a well-founded assessment of potential demand can be generated already at an early stage of the planning process.