Published2 July 2022, 12:59
Since 2013, 55 ticket offices in stations have been abandoned. This year alone, 13 stations will be affected.
In many stations, an automaton replaces the staff at the counter.
CFF
This year, the railways are closing ticket offices at a number of stations they haven’t reached since, at least, 2013. Yesterday, ticket offices were closed at Herzogenbuchsee (BE), Cham (ZG), Pully ( VD) and Biasca (TI) as well as in the Zurich municipalities of Dietlikon, Hinwil, Kloten, Männedorf and Oberwinterthur. The travel center in Münsingen (BE) has been transferred to BLS. And it’s not over. On October 1, the centers in Sissach (BL), Wettingen (AG) and Zurzach (AG) will be closed. At the end of the year, SBB will probably still have 130 ticket offices served, which is 13 fewer than in 2021 and 55 fewer than at the end of 2013, reports the “Schweiz am Wochenende”.
These closures have consequences for users because it is not possible to do everything via smartphone. International tickets are still not available in the app, only in the online store, which is not designed for smartphones. Seats in the restaurant car can only be reserved at the counter or via a chargeable hotline.
In the weekly, Reto Schärli, spokesperson for SBB explains that the pandemic has reinforced the drop in ticket purchases at the counter. They are only 5% to do so. Personalized advice certainly remains an important customer need, and in medium and large travel centres, this desire is constantly increasing. On the other hand, the clientele of small travel centers is decreasing. “SBB must take this into account. Their mission is to manage public funds sparingly,” explains the spokesperson.
«Point de contact important»
Sara Stalder, director of the Foundation for Consumer Protection (SKS), plague. “Unfortunately, the SBB are not transparent about the use of these stations and the relevance, from an economic point of view, of closing the counters in these sometimes important localities, she said. For customers, open counters are an important point of contact for obtaining general information, buying more complex tickets… From our point of view, it is necessary to maintain a supply of counters in large and important localities – possibly in combination with other services, other service providers,” says Sara Stalder. However, while in 2017, nearly 50 kiosks, convenience stores and private travel agencies were still authorized to sell SBB tickets on a commission basis and to animate small stations, there are now no more.
On the side of Bern, nobody is moved by the situation. Federal Councilor Simonetta Sommaruga’s Department for the Environment, Transport, Energy and Communications (DETEC) is unlikely to oppose closures. Asked about this, a spokesperson referred to parliamentary interventions on the subject, to which the Federal Council responded by indicating that it did not want to interfere. “Defining the network of outlets is an operational task of SBB,” the federal government said in 2018. There are no rigid and fixed criteria for closing ticket offices. There is also no multi-year planning overview. The next wickets to be hit therefore remain a surprise.
(jbm)