Due to the increasing number of passengers and shorter travel times, our train crews can no longer check everyone's tickets. This has resulted in revenue losses for SBB amounting to some tens of millions of francs.

At present, roughly 1 million passengers travel with SBB every day. Up to now, about two thousand a day have bought tickets on the train. The number of on-board ticket purchases has steadily decreased over the past years. We have therefore decided to stop selling tickets on board trains after the timetable change on 11 December 2011.

Ticket checks from 11 December onwards.

If you are unable to produce a valid ticket during an inspection, you will have to pay a surcharge of at least CHF 90 in addition to the fare. However, route or class upgrades can still be bought without a surcharge. If you have forgotten your GA or Half-Fare travelcard, you can still present it at a ticket counter afterwards and request a refund (a service charge of CHF 5.00 will be deducted).

To minimise hardship and conflicts, however, the following exceptions apply:

• Surcharges are waived in the special cases that are clearly defined in the general passenger tariff (e.g. groups, people with disabilities, families). These also include cases involving "forgotten travelcards" (which, as before, incur a service charge of CHF 5.00).
• The train staff can also waive the new surcharge in other cases where there is special justification (e.g.: tourists, international journeys, people taking the wrong train) and issue a ticket with a service charge of CHF 10.

Make sure to purchase your tickets before boarding in the future – conveniently:

• with the SBB Mobile App on your mobile
  
• online in the SBB Ticket Shop
  
• at the ticket machines
• from the ticket counter at the station (Opening hours)
  

SBB wishes you a pleasant journey and a wonderful Christmas season.

More information regarding travelling without a valid ticket.