The Swiss are some of the keenest rail users in the world, rivalled only by the Japanese. On average each person in Switzerland travels 1,739 km (1,080 miles) on public transport compared to an average of 1,897 km (1,180 miles) by the Japanese. Every year, the SBB carries over 306 million passengers on its 3,000 km of track. 

Passenger numbers on long-distance and cross-border routes also continue to rise.

International rail links 

For long distance, the work going on as part of the Rail 2000 programme and the NEAT is designed to link into trans-European routes. In western Switzerland, which feels sidelined by the alpine project, the SBB is cooperating with French railways, SNCF, to establish a direct Paris-Milan connection via Geneva.

Switzerland is contributing CHF 100 million (66 million euros) for the construction of a new high-speed line between the French cities of Mulhouse and Dijon, part of a route linking Paris and Zurich. In June 2007 the opening of the relevant stretch cut the Paris-Basle journey by 90 minutes to three and a half hours.

On a local level borders are disappearing as transport companies get together to offer an integrated service to international commuters. This is true not only in and around the two major frontier towns of Basel and Geneva, but even in the Lake Constance area where there is no comparable city. In each case the SBB is one of the key transport providers.