Specifically, the company is eyeing a connection between Munich and Zurich, in addition to extending the Berlin-Basel line to Zurich.
This move is, however, contingent on the recently signed Swiss-EU agreement, one article of which aims to partially open up Switzerland to international rail traffic that would make it easier for foreign rail companies to access the country without having to partner with the national company, the SBB, as is currently the case.
What is it about?
Priority is given to national traffic on Swiss territory.
But a new deal reached with the EU during the latest round of negotiations, which concluded in December 2024, means that European law — and international train traffic — would take precedence.
This doesn’t necessarily mean that Flixtrain would be welcomed in Switzerland with open arms.
The SBB has long had a problem with trains from Germany, as half of them arrive in Switzerland late, disrupting the carefully coordinated Swiss railway timetable.
"The level of punctuality of the international system is totally different from ours,” according to SBB’s head Vincent Ducrot. "Delays therefore risk being ‘imported' into Switzerland."
Currently, the SBB has to keep special trains on standby to replace delayed trains on the Basel-Zurich route, and passengers travelling from Germany to Zurich often have to transfer onto Swiss trains in Basel.
"Today, if a German train arrives late in Basel, we stop it and send a [Swiss] reserve train instead,” Ducret said.
“But if we can no longer do this [due to the new agreement with the EU], it would mean that the train in question is accumulating delays but, above all, that it is putting the SBB system behind schedule.”
READ ALSO: Why Swiss transport authorities want to ban German trains
Flixtrain’s spokesperson, however, assured that "we do not want to interfere with an already well-established network, but to offer customers an attractive alternative on international routes."
When will the Flixitrain be able to launch the Munich to Zurich line?
It is not a done deal yet.
Under Switzerland’s system of direct democracy, the voters will have the last word.
The yet unscheduled referendum will not focus specifically on Flexitrain, but on all the newly-reached agreements between Bern and Brussels.
More links between Switzerland and Germany are on the horizon
Not just on the ground but also in the air.
From March, a German airline, Condor, will fly twice a day between Zurich and Frankfurt.
It will supplement the eight already existing daily non-stop flights operated between the two cities by SWISS and other airlines of the Lufthansa group, in order to increase the service between the two hubs.
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