Anyone who travels by bus and train in Switzerland has to prepare for quite serious changes. Because the Swiss will abolish the tickets printed on paper in machines by 2035. A sustainable role model for Germany?
In the long term, it will only be possible to buy tickets online in Switzerland . For example on a smartphone or at home on the PC. Ticket machines, on the other hand, will be found less and less at train stations in Switzerland in the future in order to further advance digitization. This is reported by Swiss Radio and Television ( SRF ).
FORECAST: FEWER AND FEWER RAIL CUSTOMERS ARE USING PAPER TICKETS
The deliberately long deadline of the middle of the coming decade will ensure that all generations are able to prepare for the abolition of the local “ticket machines”. Even today, only around 200,000 of the 1.8 million pensioners in Switzerland are out and about without a mobile phone. By mid-2035 it should be significantly less.
One reason for the abolition of ticket machines in Switzerland is that they will be used less and less in the future. Because more and more people are already relying on a smartphone ticket. But part of the truth is that it costs a lot of money to operate the ticket machines. Not only because they use increasingly expensive electricity, but also because maintenance costs are high. The paper for the tickets themselves and for receipts is also associated with additional costs.
AND WHAT ABOUT CHILDREN?
Meanwhile, it remains to be seen how the transport companies in Switzerland want to deal with people who will not have a smartphone or credit card in the future either . So far, it has only been said very succinctly that there should be solutions for these customer groups so that they too can continue to use local transport in particular. This would also affect, among other things, children whose parents do not yet want to hand over their own smartphone.
In 2018, almost 1,500 ticket machines could be used in Switzerland. By the end of 2023, around 400 older generation machines will be gone. Nevertheless, at least one ticket machine should remain usable at each stop until further notice. In the coming years, the Swiss Federal Railways (SBB) would like to examine closely how ticket sales are developing. If the machines at certain locations are no longer in demand, the end of the machines can be expected locally even earlier than 2035.
THE NUMBER OF DEUTSCHE BAHN TICKET MACHINES IS ALSO DECREASING
And the ticket machines of Deutsche Bahn? According to surveys by the market researchers from Statista, around 5,700 ticket machines operated by DB were still in operation in 2021 . In 2017, however, there were still more than 7,000. There are also ticket machines set up by private railway companies. It is not known to what extent the railways are already calculating a general end to the ticket machines.
