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Zurich, Switzerland
This article provides Information and references about Zurich Switzerland's transport system.
Public Transport in Zurich Switzerland
Zürich is world-renowned for its extremely high-quality public transit system. It has one of the highest levels of per capita transit ridership in the world—no mean feat when one considers that it also has one of the highest levels of per capita income. People in Zürich are definitely "choice" riders, and the city's public transit system is good enough to attract them.
This article describes Zürich's urban transport system: a combination of trams and buses, its regional rail system (and connecting local buses), and finally how the two systems work together to provide outstanding regional transport service.
Urban Transport: Trams and Buses + Extensive Transit Priority
The first thing one notices about Zürich is that trams (the European word for streetcar) are ubiquitous downtown. The city considered changing its tram network several times (either placing the trams underground or replacing the trams with a metro system), but voters rejected spending money on these ideas. However, in 1977, Zürich voters did approve an initiative to make the existing surface transit system work better by providing transit priority for trams and buses.
Transit priority means that public transit vehicles are given priority over other forms of transportation through such measures as traffic signal control, transit-only lanes, and traffic regulations. Watch carefully as a traffic signal changes from red to green just when a tram arrives at the intersection. Transit priority was not a new idea, but Zürich has succeeded in implementing it to a greater degree than almost any other city in the world. Zürich's public transit priority program is described in Implementing Zurich's Transit Priority Program.
Transit priority is a more generic form of
bus rapid transit
(BRT). BRT consists of implementing a whole series of transit priority improvements together and often includes creating a separate right of way (i.e.
dedicated bus lanes
). An excellent example of BRT is Bogata Columbia's system called
Transmilenio
which was implemented by former Mayor
Enrique Penalosa
.
In contrast, transit priority consists of more surgical application of separate right of way with specific changes designed to increase the speed and reliability of public transport vehicles operating on surface streets.
S-Bahn - Regional Rail System
Transit priority keeps trams and buses running smoothly within the city of Zürich, and the region's suburban rail system, the S-Bahn (the 'S' stands for schnell or fast in English), connects the city with cities and villages within the region. The S-Bahn is operated by the Swiss National Railway under contract to the regional public transit coordinating agency: the Zürcher Verkehrsverbund (ZVV).
The SBB's German website includes a description of the new through-line under the Zurich Hauptbahnhof currently under construction. The new tunnel and station will significantly increase capacity and quality of S-Bahn service.
Today's S-Bahn network is the result of a massive building project completed in 1989 that included construction of a four-track S-Bahn station under the main train station (Hauptbahnhof), a tunnel under the old city, and a tunnel under the Zürichberg. The new station allowed S-Bahn trains to travel through the main station rather than using the push-pull operation required in the surface terminal; this allowed new routes and greatly increased the flexibility and efficiency of S-Bahn operations. (Interestingly, this significant project was only approved by voters on the condition that fares and schedules for all the region's public transit operations be coordinated — which led to the formation of the ZVV.) More history of the S-Bahn is available in Implementing Zurich's Transit Priority Program.
The S-Bahn runs on a clockface schedule: all the lines operate every half-hour (some are more frequent) at the same time each hour. For example, the S-16 trains leave Stadelhofen Station for the airport at 12 minutes after the hour and 42 minutes after the hour, all day long, from about 6 am until midnight. In the city of Zürich, there are often several different S-Bahn lines that operate on the same sections of track, so it is possible to take any one of these trains, leading to a much higher effective frequency than every half hour.
The S-Bahn schedule is also used to coordinate bus services outside the city of Zürich. For example, the S-Bahn train arrives at a given station every half hour. Approximately three minutes after the train arrives, the buses waiting at the train station depart on their routes. These buses return to the station approximately five minutes before the train arrives, allowing for easy transfers. At some of the larger stations, passengers transfer from express S-Bahn trains to local S-Bahn trains. A good station to visit if you want to see how this timed-transfer system works is Wetzikon (take the S-5 express S-Bahn from the Hauptbahnhof or Stadelhofen station).
Integrated Public Transport System
Many cities have developed three-level transit systems. These systems include buses or trams for short trips, metro or subway systems for intermediate-length trips within cities, and suburban rail systems for longer-distance travel within the region. Zürich has adopted its two-level system to serve all trip lengths by implementing the transit priority system, which allows the buses and trams to serve the shorter intermediate-length trips efficiently and quickly—and by building more S-Bahn stations within the city than typical suburban rail systems—which allows the S-Bahn to serve the longer intermediate-length trips. This combination of transit priority and S-Bahn is a very good fit for Zürich and costs far less than constructing a metro system.
ALSO ON THE LIVABLE STREETS NETWORK
REFERENCES
[1] Nash, Andrew and Ronald Sylvia. Implementation of Zurich's Transit Priority Program; Mineta Transportation Institute - San Jose State University, Report 01-13, October 2001.
[2] Nash, Andrew. Implementing Zurich's Transit Priority Program, Transportation Research Record #1835, Transportation Research Board, Washington D.C., 2003.
[3]Cervero, Robert. The Transit Metropolis: A Global Inquiry. Washington D.C.: Island Press, 1998.
PHOTO REFERENCES
KEYWORDS
Transit, Transit Priority, Light Rail, Bus Rapid Transit, Europe
