Switzerland's Two-Track Safety Record

It is a familiar refrain in the Swiss narrative of self-perception: excellence in engineering, reliability, and above all, safety. The 2025 safety report from the Federal Office of Transport (BAV) seems, at first glance, to add another verse to this comforting national anthem. But a closer reading reveals a dissonance in the harmony, particularly where the steel wheels meet the city asphalt.

For those travelling by rail, cable car, or ship, the country remains a veritable fortress of security. Not a single passenger life was lost last year, a statistic that many other European nations can only dream of, and the number of seriously injured remained in the single digits. In the grand European league table of railway safety, Switzerland sits comfortably in third place, just behind the United Kingdom and the Netherlands. This performance reflects a system that, for the most part, works with the precision of a Swiss watch.

However, this pristine image begins to fray at the edges of the nation's cities. The orderly world of intercity rail gives way to the chaotic ballet of urban transport, and here the statistics tell a different, more troubling story. In the domain of trams and buses, the trend is moving in the wrong direction. The number of passengers suffering serious or fatal injuries has been climbing over the past few years, culminating in three deaths in 2025. It seems the safety bubble that envelops the country's trains does not fully extend to its municipal networks.

The official diagnosis from the transport authorities is straightforward, and perhaps a little too convenient: the problem lies not with the public transport system, but with everyone else. Collisions are frequently blamed on other road users who fail to respect traffic rules. This may well be true, but the proposed remedy feels distinctly underwhelming.

In response, the industry and the BAV have launched a prevention campaign whose central, groundbreaking message is to urge passengers to hold on while in a moving vehicle. One might be forgiven for wondering if this level of public information was truly necessary, or if it serves to deflect from more difficult questions about traffic management, enforcement, and the inherent risks of mixing heavy public vehicles with increasingly unpredictable urban traffic.

While the headlines will rightly celebrate the remarkable safety of the Swiss railway system, a sense of unease should remain about the daily commute in urban centres. The country is a leader in transport safety, but the rising toll on its city streets is a reminder that even the most well-oiled machine can struggle with the grit of everyday reality. A campaign encouraging people to hold on is a start, but it hardly seems like a comprehensive strategy for a growing problem.

Written by Thorben Thiede thorben.thiede@alpineweekly.com