Best ways to save money on Swiss public transportation in 2024

Swiss public transportation

In Switzerland, we have a good public transportation network with:

• Trains
• Buses
• Trams
• Boats

Cable cars are also part of the public transportation, but they are different in that most passes will not give you free access to them. At most, you will get a 50% discount on them by having a day pass, for instance.

The Swiss public transportation system is generally of good quality and is generally on-time. On the other hand, it is expensive, especially for occasional users. In fact, it is so much expensive that people without a general travel pass regularly take the car instead because it can be much cheaper (if you already have a car).

One other issue about the system is that it is very fragmented. Like everything in Switzerland, each canton has a different system. Some cantons have simple systems and some cantons have very complex ones. In many places, you will also be expected to pay cash (buses for instance in many places), which is highly inconvenient.

There are two classes in the public transportation system. First class gives you slightly more space in the train, but the main advantage is that you have fewer people. So, you often have a better chance of finding a set in first class and can generally be quieter as well. However, first class obviously costs more. So, since this article is about saving money, I will only cover second class tickets.

One thing worth mentioning is that children under 6 travel for free on the Swiss public transportation network. So, you can enjoy many trips at a lower price when they are young.

In this article, I go over the main ways we can use to save money on public transportation.

Local passes

If you are a frequent user of a given region or a trip, you can usually get a local pass. Depending on the canton, they will have wildly different systems, but these passes are typically worth it if the trip is part of your commute or your habits.

For instance, if I have to go to Fribourg from my village, I have to pay 7.80 CHF (one-way) for a 15-minute bus ride. So, I need to pay 15.60 CHF for the round trip. The annual plan for this trip is 1062 CHF. So, I would need to go 68 times per year (less than 6 times per month) for the plan to be worth it. And this plan also has the advantage of not having to purchase a ticket each time.

In my canton, there is also an option to pay for a flexible plan for 100 days a year. This is great for people with part-time work or some days at home. In this case, the plan costs 545 CHF for the same trip. I would only need to go 35 times per year on this trip for the plan to be worth it. Not all cantons have this option, but it is starting to become more and more available.

In some cantons, you also have cheaper passes depending on when you take the train. For instance, there are some cheaper passes if you only travel after 7pm on the night. And there are also sometimes some cheaper options if you only travel after 9am during the day.

Unfortunately, each canton has a different system. But in general, these local passes are great value for frequent users. If you frequently commute over multiple cantons, you will likely need a general pass (GA Travelcard). Because combining multiple local passes is usually pricier.

Supersaver tickets

If you reserve your train ticket in advance (on the SBB website), you can get a Supersaver ticket. These tickets are up to 40% cheaper than standard tickets. If you can book a few months in advance, the savings can be excellent.

However, it is important to know that these tickets are only valid for the exact connection. This means you cannot take another train than the one you planned the trip for. Often, this is good, but if you miss your connection, you will need to buy another ticket.

Combine tickets

When you are going from one city to the other, you can also combine the train ticket for that journey with a local ticket for these cities.

For instance, if you book a trip from Fribourg to Zurich on the SBB website, you can then get an upgrade for the city of Fribourg and/or Zurich. In this example, it would only cost 5.80 CHF for each city. This could be great value if you need to take trams in Zurich.

As usual, you still have to compute whether this is worth it. If you are only going to take a single small bus in Fribourg, it is not interesting, but multiple buses would be a good deal. And it is important to note that these upgrades are not available with Supersaver tickets.

Saver Day Pass

Saver Day Pass are daily passes for the entire public transportation network. You can buy them for any day in the future (but not for today). And the more in advance you buy them, the cheaper you can get them.

You can only buy a day pass for a specific day. The price of the day pass is as little as 52 CHF if you do not have the half-fare card. And if you have it, you can find deals for as little as 29 CHF, but these deals are quite rare (only on Monday apparently), typically, you will get 39 CHF.

If you can plan multiple months ahead, the saver day pass can be an excellent deal. But if you are late, they are really not that interesting. If you buy a day pass on the day of your trip, it can still be appealing (if you have multiple connections, for instance), but you will not save much.

Day pass for children

Children between 6 and 16 can get a day pass for only 19 CHF. This allows them to use the full public transportation network at a superb price. If you have a long trip planned, this can easily be worth it. And it is one great way to alleviate the fact that children start to pay at 6 years old.

Children’s Co-Travelcard (companion card)

If you are often traveling with your children, you can opt for the Children’s Co-Travelcard. This card lets the child (from 6 to 16) travel for free on the entire train network. The condition is that the child must be accompanied by an adult with a valid ticket. And it also works on most of the bus and tram network. But it does not act as a full GA.

This Travelcard for children only costs 30 CHF per year. So, it is a great deal if you use the train often with your children!

Municipality Day Pass

For a long time, we have been able to get day passes at municipalities. These day passes are like a general pass on the entire public transportation of Switzerland. Until 2023, they were great deals, but the system has changed and is now significantly worse, although it could still be appealing. This system is almost the same as the Saver Day Pass, but you can get it cheaper if you are not too early. If you do it very early, this will not get you any cheaper deals than the Saver Day Pass.

You can only buy a day pass for a specific day. The price of the day pass is 88 CHF if you buy it less than 10 days in advance, and 52 CHF if you buy it more than 10 days in advance. If you have a half-fare Travelcard, you can get it for 59 CHF, respectively 39 CHF.

To buy them, you need to go to the office of your municipality and ask for tickets for the day of your trip. Since the recent changes, you cannot reserve them on the phone, you have to go to the office.

If you are planning a lot of travel on the same day, these cards can be attractive if you can get one at your municipality. But they are not great at the last minute. And the price without half-fare is not that great.

Swiss Travel Pass

The Swiss Travel Pass is like a general pass but with a limited number of days. This is great when traveling in Switzerland.

It is important to note that that Swiss Travel Pass is only available to non-residents. So, it can be a good deal for people living abroad and coming to visit Switzerland for a few days.

You can get it in multiple variants at different prices:

• 3 days at 244 CHF
• 4 days at 295 CHF
• 6 days at 379 CHF
• 8 days at 419 CHF
• 15 days at 459 CHF

For long trips in Switzerland with public transportation, these passes can be a great deal. And it is good to know that children under 16 can travel for free if one parent as the Swiss Travel Pass.

Half-Fare Travelcard

The Half-Fare Travelcard is a special card that lets you get 50 percent off on most public transportation. Contrary to its name, you do not get a guaranteed 50 percent discount. Indeed, on some short trips, you will get significantly lower discounts.

The Half-Fare Travelcard currently costs 190 CHF for the first year and 170 CHF starting from the second year. If you are between 16 and 25, you can get the youth card, for 120 CHF the first year (and 100 CHF from the second year).

This card has generally great value if you are an occasional user of public transportation, but not enough to justify a monthly or yearly pass. You can try to estimate how much you would pay without the card and with, and see whether this is interesting for you. For instance, my wife often uses the buses to the next city and occasionally the train with my son, and it is great value for her.

Half-Fare Plus

In 2023, SBB unveiled the new Half-Fare Plus plan. This plan sits somewhere in the middle of the Half-Fare and the GA Travelcard. However, it does not include the Half-Fare Travelcard. So, you must first buy the Half-Fare card before you can opt for the Half-Fare Plus plan, which is weird given its naming.

The system is a bit odd. It is basically a prepaid card for the Swiss public transportation system but with a bonus. You deposit some money and then, based on how much you deposit, you get a bonus that you can use during a year. At the end of the year, if you have money not yet used, they will reimburse it to you. But the bonus money itself is not refundable.

There are 3 different plans:

1. Half-Fare Plus 1000: You deposit 800 CHF and get 200 CHF as a bonus
   1. People under 25 deposit 600 CHF and get 400 CHF extra
2. Half-Fare Plus 1500: You deposit 1500 CHF and 500 CHF as a bonus
   1. People under 25 deposit 1125 CHF and get 875 CHF extra
3. Half-Fare Plus 3000: You deposit 2100 CHF and you get 900 CHF as a bonus
   1. People under 25 deposit 1575 CHF and get 1425 CHF extra

So, the more you deposit, the more bonus you get. But which plan should you choose? You will need to estimate your yearly expenses on public transportation and use that number to decide. I have computed which is best based on each level of yearly expenses:

1. From 0 to 380 CHF, you should use nothing
2. From 381 to 800 CHF, you should use the Half-Fare only
3. From 801 to 1700 CHF, you should use the Half-Fare plus the Half-Fare Plus 1000
4. From 1701 to 2600 CHF, you should use the Half-Fare plus the Half-Fare Plus 2000
5. From 2601 to 4895 CHF, you should use the Half-Fare plus the Half-Fare Plus 3000
6. From 4896 CHF, you should use the GA Travelcard

An issue with this plan is that you cannot use it at ticket vending machines or in offices. You need to buy all tickets from your app or on the SBB website to use your Half-Fare Plus. And there is no interest on your cash, so you may be losing out compared to keeping that cash in an interest-bearing account.

The Half-Fare Plus plan is a good way to save money without buying a GA Travelcard. However, I wish they had done something simpler. And I wish we did not have to predict our public transportation needs for the entire year to choose which of the plans they use.

GA Travelcard

The GA Travelcard is a special plan that will provide you with access to most of the public transportation in Switzerland. So, once you pay the GA Travelcard, you will not have to pay for tickets anymore. There are some exceptions, like cable cars, where this would only give you half-fare price. But in general, trains, trams, buses, and boats are included.

As of August 2024, here are the prices for the GA Travelcard:

• 3995 CHF for adults
• 1720 CHF for children
• 2780 CHF for youths (16-25)
• 3495 CHF for 25 years old
• 3040 CHF for seniors
• 2600 CHF for disabled individuals
• 2860 CHF for the second person in the household

As you can see, this card is not cheap. So, you have to calculate how much you would pay with and without the card to see whether it is worth it. Generally, if you are going every day by train to the office, this is quickly a significant gain. But if you are only going some weekdays, it may not be interesting. And for small trips or bus trips, there are often cheaper alternatives.

You can also pay monthly, but this will be pricier, so not appealing if you are looking to save money. And you can also get a monthly GA Travelcard, for 420 CHF. This is only valid for one month. This can be great if you are planning a train holiday in Switzerland, for instance.

Another advantage of the GA Travelcard is also convenience. Some people prefer the GA Travelcard even when it is not cheaper because they do not have to take tickets for each trip.

Overall, the GA Travelcard is good for saving money if you are a heavy user of the public transportation system. But if you are only an occasional user, it will be far too expensive.

A cool tip if you have a GA is that you can deposit your GA when you do not need it. If you are leaving Switzerland, for instance (or not planning any usage), you can deposit your GA and you will get back the days you deposit. You need to deposit it for at least 5 days in a row. And you can deposit up to 30 days per year.

Night GA for young people

If you are below 25, you can get a night GA Travelcard for only 99 CHF per year. This GA Travelcard works in the same way as the standard GA, but you can only use it from 7pm to 5am during and from 7pm to 7am during the weekend (and holidays). If you are often traveling during the night, this is the cheapest way to use Swiss public transportation.

Get a pass with your hotel stay

In some regions of Switzerland, you can get free public transportation with your hotel stay. For instance, in Vevey, you can get free buses in Vevey and around during your stay. This can save you a lot of money if you know in advance. So, it is a good idea to research whether your destination offers such a perk.

It is also important to know that there are sometime some conditions to obtains these passes. For, instance, you could only get it if you spend multiple days or only during certain periods.

Use Fairtiq or EasyRide

Another way to save on money is to use some automatic ticketing app, like Fairtiq or the EasyRide feature (from within the SBB app). When you use this app, you will swipe when you enter the public transportation and again when you leave. If you start with the bus and then leave later with a train, it will compute the ticket properly.

The advantage of this app is that it will use the lowest price based on your trip. It could use a day pass if that is cheaper than your trip.

The main disadvantage is that you have to remember to turn the feature on or off. If you do not, you will not get your tickets, and you may be fined once you are controlled. And of course, your phone needs to be turned on (with battery) all the trip.

Of course, these apps are not perfect because they will not work for multiple-day trips. And they will also not work for the cheapest price if you can plan your trip a lot in advance.

Pay with Reka

You can usually buy most Swiss public transportation tickets with Reka money. Reka is a social tourism organization. They are trying to promote tourism within Switzerland and try to make it cheaper. Among other things, they are offering Reka money, which is often accepted for transportation and trips.

The advantage is that you can get Reka money with a discount in multiple places. If you are lucky, your employer may offer you Reka money with a discount (could be up to 20%). And you can buy Reka money at Coop with a 3% discount. If you got enough of it, this means you can get at least 3% discount on each of your trips.

Pay with a credit card

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While it will not save you money, using a good credit card may give you cash back. For instance, the Certo One card by Cembra can give you 1% cashback on your purchases with the SBB (for trains). This will not make a huge difference, of course, but getting 1% back on expensive trains could be worth it if you are using trains a lot.

And you can also use your credit card on some buses, trams and other Swiss public transportation.

Conclusion

Public transportation in Switzerland is good, but I have always found it too expensive. Even a simple return train ticket can easily go over 100 CHF in Switzerland. Fortunately, there are ways to save money on Swiss public transportation.

Generally, being able to plan your trips in advance is the best way to save money on Swiss public transportation. The best deals you can get for day passes are deals that you can only get if you reserve your ticket a while in advance. And the same is true for Supersaver tickets, for instance.

One unfortunate fact about the Swiss public transportation is that each canton has its system. This means that if you do a cross-canton trip, you may have to research multiple systems. And some tips to save money on public transportation will only work in some cantons.

If you want to save money, you can read about my favorite techniques to save money each month in Switzerland.

What about you? Do you have any other tips to save money on public transportation?

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