After only 6,6 percent of Swiss rail services were delayed last year, you may think that no form of public transport in Switzerland is ever consistently late. Now, a new report has found what the most delayed rail service in the alpine nation was last year, with the EuroCity (EC) from Munich to Zurich taking the top spot. In news that will surprise no one in Germany, Deutsche Bahn delays have been blamed for the disruption.
According to the report, published by Tagblatt, the 2.55pm EC service from Munich to Zurich, via Buchloe, Memmingen, Lindau-Reutin, Bregenz, St. Gallen, Winterthur and Zurich Airport, was delayed 88,6 percent of the time during the last timetable period - which ended in December 2022. On average, the 3-hour, 31-minute fast service between the capital of Bavaria and eastern Switzerland was 18,3 minutes delayed once it arrived at its terminus, if it arrived at all.
This extends to most of the rail services between Germany and St. Gallen, with 80 percent of all EC trains from Munich being delayed - 20 percent of them had delays of longer than half an hour. At one point last year, the constantly delayed trains forced authorities to restrict the service, because the tardy EC from Munich was getting in the way of on-time Intercity and Interregional trains.
In a statement that will generate smugness among people in Switzerland, and spark self-indulgent complaints from those in Germany, delays at Deutsche Bahn were blamed for the severe disruption. 20 Minuten explained that if the train arrives from Germany late, as it regularly does, the service is often stuck behind slower Interregional services. This creates a knock-on effect which results in even longer delays that can lead to the service being cancelled at St. Gallen or Winterthur.
On the flip side, while 80 percent of EC trains from Munich to Zurich were delayed, only 30 percent of trains going in the opposite direction left St. Gallen late. In addition, compared to the 18-minute average delay on services from Germany, Swiss EC services were only delayed by three minutes on average.
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