I moved to Basel in 2010 through my former employer and now have been offered a new job in Schaffhausen by a different employer.
I want to find out if anyone here is doing the same commute and how they are travelling and if it's bearable?
I live in Frenkendorf in Basel Land and these are the possibilities of commute:-
A. Use Swiss rail approx 2 hour door-to-door
B. Swiss railway up to Basel (going opposite direction), then tram to Bad Bahnhof and then DBahn to Schaffhausen approx 1 and half hour d2d.
C. Drive to Rheinfelden (10 mins) and then catch the DBahn to Schaffhausen (50 mins) approx 1 hour d2d
The one advantage I will gain on the 2 hour commute using Swiss railway is that I'll have time to myself and finally finish reading all the books that I've half read and left on the bookshelf, I may even treat myself and go first class.
Using the car to catch the DBahn at Rheinfelden will mean that the wife will be without a car and the DBhan will be expensive. However, moving to Schaffhausen is out of the question at the moment as we've finally settled in Basel (no kids) and established friendships. The prospect of moving again is daunting.
Driving all the way is also a possibile expensive luxury but that would be dangerous as I'll have to do motorway miles and sleeping behind the wheel is an obvious risk!
I'm keen on using the Swiss railway as the GA card seems cheaper than the DBahn card and the GA will be more useful to me in Switzerland.
Are there any other SENSIBLE options that I've missed out?
i did the opposite commute for a while and it isn't great since it takes 4 hours out of your day.
with a young family, you also need to weigh up whether you ever want to see your kids during the week other than for a few minutes in the morning or when they are already asleep.
the GA is not valid on the german route so you'd need to buy 2 regional rail cards too (i did this) or go to schaffhausen via zurich (for me, I saved 30 minutes going the German route and didn't care if it cost more).
don't bank on reading too much. i was so tired, i ended up sleeping on both outbound and return journeys.
option C is probably the best.
though i'd consider moving to schaffhausen. it's the best city in switzerland.
There are a couple of guys in my office who live in Basel & work in Schaffhausen.
One rents a cheap 1-room flat here in town, and lives here during the week. Drive in Monday morning, drive home Friday lunchtime. But he lives in Basel stadt on the weekends, big flash place apparently...
The other drives from Basel Land every day back & forth, he leaves home at 5.30 in the morning, in the office at 7 or so. Leaves when he can but very often isn't home until 8pm or later.
That's what I do, except from FR to my office which is located outside of Morges and takes me 1 hour 45 min. Have to walk 15 min to the train station in FR (there's also a bus I could take), 45 min train ride to Lausanne, 12 min train to Morges, 5 min bus ride and a brisk 10 min walk to the office. Then there is the waiting times in between of max 10 min at each.
I do get up at 05:00 am and I'm in the office at 07:45 and truthfully the commute in the morning is very relaxing and calm in deed. The walks wakes me up and I do get to read news papers on the train, listen to music I never get a chance to a home and even get to do some work on my laptop going the opposite direction. I would not want to miss it for the world BUT we're all different and the only one who will know if this is going to work for you is you. Now I'm a big believer in public transportation and got myself a GA/AG card and gives me the extra bonus of unlimited trips all over the country (my other half also has the GA card so we're both covered). Not sure if this works for you though?
We are in a similar situation, my husband has a 1.30 journey d2d. Before we moved to our new house and he changed jobs he had 15m d2d.
At 1st he was like, its ok i relax, i listen to music, i read, i sleep, but after 1 year of doing it, its taking it out of him, he feels the time spent waiting for or in the trains wasted and is becoming deeply unhappy, i also i am sad that he spends less time at home and has less time to spend quality moments with us. We are atm considering buying a 2nd car (leaving me without a car is not an option) or moving closer, but we have the complications of uprooting children.
My advice to you, either move near or change jobs. The stress is not worth it.
The Swiss GA is fully valid for the DB Regio Express from Basel Bad Bf to Schaffhausen ( Via Erzingen, Baden DE ) and vice-versa. I have used it many times and did not have to acquire any other ticket for it.
Thanks for this great post! FR is Fribourg, right? Do you have a first class GA? If so, does it help the commute more relaxing? Can you work on the train? Yes, lots of questions but I'm considering doing the something similar myself.
Yes, FR is Fribourg (I also live in the city of Fribourg)...
I don't have the 1st class GA/AG card as there is very little difference tbh so sticking with the 2nd class. All seats have a 220V power outlet (at least on the IC double deckers) and there are also 220V on the "older" IR trains I believe (anyone to confirm)? The double decker trains all have individual trays/tables in the arm rest except for the window seats which shares a sturdy fold out table.
Many commuters do sit with their laptops working away and as mentioned before, I do once in a while myself. Only "problem" is that there are a few "holes" in the 3G coverage on Orange but nothing major.
One big plus in my case is that there are trains every 30 min or so from Lausanne to Fribourg so no problem should I miss on train for whatever reason. Also, if the trains are not running (when they hit cows or whatever), you can always re-route via Neuchatel but it takes a bit longer.
I'm sticking to it for the time being as I enjoy the train ride (especially the double deckers as they are very quiet in deed)...
I had a quick look on a map and saw the rheinfelden german train station is close to the border.
I would maybe try to look to find a flat near to the bridge going over tothe station so you could go with a bike which would free up the car. Plus Rheinfelden has good connections towards Basel and Zürich.
Regarding the price and I know someone who does this and it's considerably cheaper. I forget how much zones he needs but I checked quickly the Schaffhausen and Waldshut ticket prices and for Schaffhausen you pay at most 110Fr, for the Waldshuter one at most €48 which is roughly Fr60 so per month it would cost you roughly 170Fr with the DB. The GA costs 310 Fr a month so you could save 140Fr a month unless you would use the public transport for that much in Switzerland but jrspet says the GA is also accepted on this line so worst case is it won't cost you anything more than the SBB.
I leave in Allschwil and commute to Baden,AG everyday. It takes me around 1h20m d2d. I have tried driving as well that took me almost 1h, however, I have found that time extremely wasted cause you are not doing anything except driving. Maybe you can listen to an audio book, but it is still not comparable to making use of your time in the train.
Some carriages on IRs have power sockets, but not all. It's a bit of a lottery, certainly on Basel-Zürich. There is one double-decker without power as well, which was a bit annoying the one time I really needed it to work travelling to and from Lausanne.
At least most train journeys in Switzerland are shorter than the life of most laptop batteries
Are you absolutely 100% sure that the Swiss GA card is valid from Bad Bahnhof to Schaffhausen, because this sounds too good to be true as I've already asked this question at the Bad Bahnhoff train station and their reply was "no".
Furthermore, does the detour via Erzingen and Baden add extra time to the journey.
My initial plan is to try out option A,B and C for a month each and see which one is more bearable. I know I will eventually have to move but moving to Zurich seems more lively (with lower tax) than Schaffhausen although everyone here seems to prefer Schaffhausen.
I thought I was the only one who will be doing this commute, but looking at the thread I was obviously mistaken. I wouldn't mind car sharing in the future, if anyone is interested please PM me.
On a seperate note, I was too scared to post anything on these forums nowadays as I see alot of comments from others' posts where users' help come in the form of "try googling", "try search". They make the effort of being just plain rude or scarcastic without actually answering the question, which deters people from using this forum.
Yes, when it comes to train tickets and passes you can't take what jrspet says as the correct, official response. However, he seems to get away with these things and when I plucked up the courage to do the same thing (in my case, buy returns from Basel Bad to Stuttgart and say I had a Bahncard when I didn't) it all worked fine, through all on-train inspections!