Single tickets.

• For a delay of 60 minutes or more, you will receive 25% of the ticket price in compensation.
• For a delay of 120 minutes or more, you will receive 50% of the ticket price in compensation.
• Compensation amounts of under CHF 5 are not paid out.

Travelcards.

For a delay of 60 minutes or more, you will receive the pro rata daily value of your travelcard or at least CHF 5 in compensation.

Claim form.

If you are entitled to compensation, please complete the online claim form no later than 30 days after your journey. Please note that no compensation can be paid to you at SBB Travel Centres.

Link to claim formLink opens in new window.
Link to accessible claim formLink opens in new window.

If you are entitled to compensation, please complete the claim form online. Please note: No compensation can be paid to you at SBB Travel Centres.

Link to claim formLink opens in new window.
Link to accessible claim formLink opens in new window.

Before departure:

If your journey can no longer fulfil your purpose for travelling due to a delay or cancellation, you do not have to undertake the journey and can have the price of your ticket refunded.

On the move:

If your journey can no longer fulfil your purpose for travelling due to a delay or cancellation, you may put a stop to your journey, return free of charge on the next suitable connection and receive a refund for the cost of the ticket.

If you miss the last timetabled connection to your planned destination due to a cancellation or delay, you are entitled to appropriate accommodation, including breakfast, in a mid-range hotel (which generally corresponds to the cheapest available room category in a three-star or three-star superior hotel) as well as transport from the station to the hotel and back.

If a taxi journey makes more sense, this will also be covered.

If you are affected, you must speak to the train crew or supervisory staff at the station. If you realise early that you will miss your last connection (the last connection may be in the early evening in some locations), you can also speak to staff at the station counter. They will help you to find a taxi or a hotel and can also give you a voucher, which you can then use for the hotel or the taxi. 

Equally, shared taxis can be organised in the event of larger incidents.

SBB is obliged to take passengers to their destination (final destination on the ticket) on the same day – even if they have to change trains several times or take a diversion. However, The Swiss Federal Law on Public Transport contains no provisions with regard to compensation for missing flight connections, theatrical performances, concerts, examinations and the like, or for loss of working hours.

To the extent that it is available at the station or on the vehicle, or can be delivered, you will be provided with meals and beverages in proportion to your waiting time.

Basic principle.

If you purchased your international journey in a single payment transaction at a Travel Centre in Switzerland, on SBB.ch or via the SBB Mobile app, you are entitled to compensation or a refund for the entire journey in accordance with the conditions below.

Conditions for compensation or refund.

• You arrive at your destination with a delay of 60 minutes or more (TGV Lyria: 30 minutes or more).
• Your train was cancelled without the railway company providing advance information. 

However, if you purchased tickets for your international journey from different sales companies or in individual, independent payment transactions, you have entered into separate transport contracts with the sales company or companies in question. In this case, you are only entitled to compensation or refund for the individual ticket affected by the delay or cancellation. In the event of missed connections, however, we offer you free onward transport to your journey’s destination as a courtesy.

You can find detailed information on this in the section ‘Agreement on Journey Continuation (AJC)’.

Recommendation.

We recommend that you always buy tickets for your entire international journey on SBB.ch, in the SBB Mobile app or at a Travel Centre in Switzerland.

• 25% of the ticket price for a single journey if your arrival at your destination station is delayed by 60 minutes or more (TGV Lyria: 30 minutes or more).
• 50% of the ticket price for a single journey if your arrival at your destination station is delayed by 120 minutes or more.

For the calculation of the total compensation, associated reservations and surcharges are taken into account in addition to the tickets, provided they were purchased together with the ticket.

Compensation amounts of less than CHF 5 will not be paid out.

You can submit your claim for compensation up to 90 days after your journey.

For tickets purchased from SBB.

If you purchased your international ticket from SBB and you are entitled to compensation due to a delay or cancellation, please submit the form below.

For tickets purchased from another railway company or from a travel agency.

If your cross-border tickets or your tickets for foreign routes were issued by another company, that company is responsible for processing them. 

Applications which are sent to SBB even though the tickets were not issued by SBB will be assigned to the responsible company for further processing. For faster processing, we therefore recommend that you send the application for compensation straight to the issuing company in such cases.

If I decide not to make the journey.

If you expect a delay at your destination station of 60 minutes or more (30 minutes or more for TGV Lyria) before the start of your journey, you can

• cancel the trip and receive a full refund of the fare. This also includes tickets for a return journey which is no longer required.
• get a refund for the portion already used and for the unused portion if you have cancelled the journey and returned to the station of departure.

If I travel on a later train.

If you start your journey on a later train, you are entitled to compensation in accordance with your rights regarding delays.

As a basic principle, it is the responsibility of the railway company at the point where you missed your connection to offer you alternative transport for your onward journey or to return to your point of departure.

Under certain conditions, however, you can organise your onward journey yourself:

• You have the written agreement of the carrier. This can also be a text message or an e-mail.
• You have waited for 100 minutes following the scheduled departure time of the delayed or cancelled train or the missed connection and you have not been helped during this time.

If either of the two conditions applies, you can organise your onward journey independently, but only by means of providers of public transport services such as rail, long-distance coach or bus. In such cases, we will reimburse you for reasonable and appropriate costs incurred. This means you must book your onward journey in the same travel or comfort class as you originally booked or lower. Additional expenses for flights, rental vehicles or fuel costs for private cars cannot be reimbursed.

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Guidelines.

• If you are travelling on a continuous transport contract and are unable to continue your journey on the same day due to a train cancellation or a train delay, or if it is not reasonable to continue the journey on the same day, you are entitled to appropriate accommodation, including breakfast, in a mid-range hotel (which generally corresponds to the cheapest available room category in a three-star or three-star superior hotel). You are also entitled to transport from the station to the hotel and back unless the railway company in question organised a hotel or taxi for you free of charge.
• If a taxi journey makes more sense, this will also be covered. 
• Compensation will only be paid out in exchange for original receipts. 

Please note that if you have several tickets booked with SBB for your journey, it is possible that the railway will not cover the hotel or taxi costs at the station where your connection was missed. If you have to pay for the hotel or taxi yourself, please submit the bill to us and we will reimburse your expenses in accordance with the upper guidelines stated above.

Interrail Pass holders are entitled to compensation if trains (or other transport services operated by the railways and shipping lines participating in the offer) are cancelled and/or delayed at their destination by at least 60 minutes. Special compensation conditions apply to pass offers from Interrail.

You have the same rights and entitlement to compensation that apply in the event of a delay or cancellation of a train.

Depending on the nature of the problem, you are entitled to compensation for unsatisfactory quality. Written confirmation from the railway staff is always the most important prerequisite when establishing unsatisfactory quality. Without confirmation, subsequent verification is not possible – compensation may be refused in such cases.

Quality shortfalls include, for example, faulty heating or air conditioning, a lack of seats despite reservations having been purchased, or if you had to travel on a night train in a seating car even though you had booked a seat in a couchette car. 

These applications are processed and settled by the company which sold the tickets or with whom the problem arose. However, the railway undertaking with whom the poor quality was experienced must first approve the compensation. Only then can a payment be made to you.

For example, if you had purchased a night train journey in a sleeper car from SBB and you find out upon departure that the sleeper car is not in service and you are allocated a private couchette compartment instead, we will have this confirmed by the railway company operating the night train. We will then process your claim. 

The Agreement on Journey Continuation (AJC) is a solution developed by several railway undertakings which offers passengers with separate, consecutive contracts of carriage the opportunity to continue their journeys under certain conditions as a commercial courtesy. This is an offer to which the railway undertakings themselves commit. It therefore differs from the rights which you can assert under the EU Rail Passenger Rights Regulation, for example.

Go to the AJCLink opens in new window.
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The railway undertakings involved are: 

• SBB/CFF/FFS (Switzerland)
• DB (Germany)
• ÖBB (Austria)
• Trenitalia (Italy)
• SNCF including TGV Lyria (France)
• Renfe (Spain)
• Eurostar International Limited 1(?)Show note Eurostar International Limited 1Eurostar International Limited (EIL) and THI Factory (THIF) operate their trains under the ‘Eurostar’ brandClose note (United Kingdom, France, Belgium and the Netherlands)
• NS (Netherlands)
• SNCB/NMBS (Belgium)
• THI Factory(?)Show note THI FactoryTHI Factory (THIF) and Eurostar International Limited (EIL) operate their trains under the ‘Eurostar’ brandClose note (France, Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands)
• CFL (Luxembourg)
• SJ (Sweden)
• DSB (Denmark)
• CD (Czech Republic)
• GYSEV and MÁV-START (Hungary)
• HŽPP (Croatia)
• PKP IC (Poland)
• SZ (Slovenia)
• ZSSK (Slovakia)
• Snälltåget (Sweden)(?)Show note Snälltåget (Sweden)Night trains in Sweden and between Sweden and Denmark, Norway, Germany and Austria.Close note
• Vygruppen (Norway) (?)Show note Vygruppen (Norway) includes trains and buses operated by Vygruppen AS, Vy tog AS and Vy tag AB.Close note

The AJC concerns a courtesy provided by railway companies in the event of missed connections between separate transport contracts. If you miss your connecting train on such an international journey due to a delay or train cancellation, you can use the next available train from the same carrier to continue your journey.

There is no entitlement to the reimbursement of hotel or taxi costs, however.

How does the continuation of the journey work in such cases?

Please obtain a confirmation of delay first (the type of confirmation may vary depending on the railway undertaking). It can be issued by the train crew or by the staff on site at the station.

At your connecting station (the station where you were supposed to board the international train that you missed), contact the relevant staff, e.g. at the staffed counter or at an InfoPoint. The staff will inform you about your options for continuing your journey and the conditions which apply.

The procedure is the same for all operators who have joined the agreement.

Conditions of the AJC agreement.

The following conditions apply to the use of the AJC courtesy scheme:

• You are in possession of separate transport contracts for an international journey. Each of your tickets constitutes a separate contract of carriage.
• When you made your original booking, you allowed for sufficient interchange time.
• The option of taking the next train without having to buy a new ticket does not mean that you are guaranteed a seat.

Example of use.

You are travelling from Bern to London via Geneva and Paris and you have purchased the journey using various providers (SBB plus a third-party seller). You are in possession of the following transport contracts:

• Transport contract 1: the Bern–Geneva–Paris transport contract issued by SBB.
• Transport contract 2: the Paris–London transport contract issued by a third-party seller.

The train from Geneva to Paris experiences an unforeseen delay, so you miss your connecting train in Paris. On the TGV Lyria train between Geneva and Paris, you have already received written confirmation of the delay from the train crew. 

With this written confirmation, you contact the Eurostar staff at the Eurostar station in Paris. The local staff will check that you allowed enough time for your connecting train and will then inform you when the next Eurostar train to London will depart, which you will then be able to use at no extra cost. Eurostar may not be able to offer you a seat on the next train as trains with compulsory seat reservations may already be fully booked. The next available connection will be booked for you, however.

If your next travel option is not until the following day and you have to spend the night at a hotel, we cannot cover the costs incurred by the overnight stay at the hotel.