SBB has put into place strict regulations on the use of toxic substances in order to protect our drinking water. For the same reason, the railway plans to equip all trains with vacuum toilets and foul water tanks.

In Switzerland drinking water is predominantly taken from underground aquifers. This imposes a special responsibility on SBB as its railway system often runs through the catchment areas of ground water aquifers. This is why a tight control is kept on the use of substances that could pollute this water.

Less weedkiller.

The railway needs to keep plants under and beside the tracks under control, as shrubs and weeds could destabilise the rails, cover signals or expose our trackside workers to accident hazards.

SBB employs a combination of various methods in its battle against weeds, and avoids the use of herbicides wherever possible. Instead, maintenance workers pull up the weeds or cut them back. This has reduced the demand for weedkiller to a quarter of the amounts previously used. Since the 1990s, only specific foliar herbicide has been in use.

SBB lays an impermeable barrier beneath the bed of new lines. This stops plants growing up through the tracks from below. In addition, it forms a barrier preventing the harmful fluids from seeping into the ground.

Cleaning up our act.

Not long ago, trains were only equipped with open toilets through which the waste water and faeces were flushed directly onto the track. Some 58 percent of SBB trains have since been fitted with sealed WC systems and waste tanks. The waste water is stored in these tanks and later treated in waste water treatment systems. There are hardly any open toilets left in long-distance trains any more. The few long-distance coaches without a sealed WC system currently still in service will be taken out of service in the next few years.

On the other hand, most of the trains on regional services are still fitted with open toilets. The exceptions are the new commuter trains in the Zurich, Zug, Basel and Ticino S-Bahn networks and the Seetalbahn. The existing fleet of push-pull trains will be modernised by 2017 and fitted with sealed WC systems.