Current Challenges in the Swiss Rail Network

Switzerland's rail infrastructure faces a dual challenge: increasing performance and safety requirements while simultaneously dealing with cost pressures and tight deadlines. Ensuring long-term network availability, safety and economic efficiency requires clear rules, reliable partnerships and targeted technological advancements.

General challenges and market mechanisms

• Planning certainty and investment: Expanding and maintaining rail infrastructure requires significant upfront investments in personnel, qualifications and machinery. These capital-intensive capacities depend on reliable remuneration and contractual models to ensure long-term security.
• Skills shortage: Regulatory requirements and operational standards continue to increase, including in track maintenance. Recruiting, training and retaining qualified specialists are becoming critical success factors and major cost drivers.
• Fleet strategies of infrastructure operators: Whether operators purchase their own rail infrastructure vehicles – including financing, depreciation and utilisation – or outsource these services has a direct impact on overall system costs. Make-or-buy decisions should therefore be based on verified life-cycle cost analyses, availability risks and the industry's innovation potential.
• Partnership models: Alliance models promote close collaboration between infrastructure operators and industry partners. Risks are addressed where they can be managed most efficiently. Framework agreements increase planning certainty, reduce transaction costs and strengthen long-term cooperation.
• Division of responsibilities and vertical integration: The allocation of responsibilities between operators and industry should be reviewed continuously. Increasing the operator's in-house capabilities can reduce supplier dependencies but requires clearly defined competencies and interfaces.
• Procurement practices and innovation: Awarding rail infrastructure projects in Switzerland is particularly demanding due to strict safety requirements, various technical regulations (RTEs), complex planning processes and construction under live railway operations. In addition, skills shortages, rising costs and limited time windows make project delivery increasingly challenging. Public tenders are therefore evaluated not only on price but also on criteria such as quality, economic efficiency, sustainability, scheduling, references and technical expertise. These requirements should be continuously reviewed together with industry to ensure they remain meaningful and practical. Collaboration on an equal footing reduces conflicts, enables cost optimisation and promotes pragmatic, innovative solutions, such as condition-based maintenance, data exchange between all partners and greater efficiency in planning and approval processes.

Conclusion

Switzerland's rail infrastructure benefits from a competitive market, high standards and strong technical expertise. To achieve future performance and availability targets, the industry primarily needs reliable contractual and partnership models, data-driven maintenance, strategic fleet and make-or-buy decisions, and a consistent approach to securing skilled professionals. This is the foundation for maintaining the balance between safety, quality and system costs.

With this topic, Swissrail has deliberately defined a strategic focus for 2026. The association aims to deepen the discussion on costs and efficiency while continuing to drive cultural change across the sector. Throughout the year, this focus will be accompanied by a series of articles in the express. In these contributions, Andreas Haas, Managing Director of Swissrail, examines the topic from different perspectives. This article is the second of four in the series.

This article is taken from the latest edition of the express. You can read the full magazine here.

Note on the translation: this text was translated using AI and checked by us. If you find any mistakes or something that is not clear, please let us know.