From the beginning of 2025, all trains operated by Swiss Federal Railways will run on renewable energy. The public transport provider said it would make train travel in Switzerland even more environmentally friendly than it already is, and help the country transition to net zero.
From January 1, all SBB rail services will use energy that comes from renewable sources, the company confirmed in a statement. To do this, the company will stop using non-renewable sources at home and only buy renewable energy from overseas.
Currently, SBB uses hydropower for 90 percent of its electricity needs, with the rest coming from nuclear power. In fact, the company has owned a stake in Swiss nuclear facilities since the 1970s.
Though nuclear power does not produce CO2, nuclear fuel itself is not renewable and emissions are produced when mining the uranium needed to produce power. Therefore, SBB will sell the nuclear power it owns on the market, while purchasing solely renewable energy in Switzerland and Europe.
The move is part of the company’s long-term goal to reduce its overall greenhouse gas emissions by 90 percent by 2040. “To achieve these goals, SBB is saving energy, relying on renewable energies and the circular economy, and replacing climate-damaging technical gases with more climate-friendly alternatives, such as more environmentally friendly refrigerants for air conditioning trains,” they explained.
They added that the railways remain the most climate-friendly way to travel, with trains producing just 0,3 percent of the CO2 generated by transport in Switzerland. By using just 5 percent of Switzerland's annual energy demand, the railways provide 17 percent of passenger and 38 percent of freight transport.
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