Swiss trains are not as squeaky clean as their image.

The national railways company SBB is so concerned about train litter that it has declared war on waste in rail carriages and stations that weighs in at tens of thousands of tonnes each year.

SBB said in a statement on Monday it has launched a national poster campaign to educate travellers and has started a trial system for sorting waste at Swiss stations.

In 2011, SBB said it scooped up some 32,000 tonnes of waste, recycling 5,730 tonnes of wastepaper, 51 tonnes of glass bottles and and 150 tonnes of plastic, discarded by travellers, often abandoned on trains or found in rubbish bins.

The amount of waste was one third more than the figure for 2006.

SBB is using Swiss personalities, including Gilbert Gress, once a French national football player and the coach of the former Swiss Super League club Neuchatel Xamax in its campaign.