The proper way to deal with this issue is to eliminate the tax deduction for traveling in 1st class. People should be able to deduct a 2nd class GA from taxable income when used for work, 1st class? No deduction, or a smaller one.
At the same time, the Swiss Federal government provides key financial support to SBB. So, taxes matter. From this perspective, taxes from other sources are used to support SBB while 1st class travelers can reduce their taxable income. For short: 1st class in the train is subsidized by other taxes.
Three, if you are wearing a chunky down jacket, like the portly gent I was sitting next to earlier in the week. It was like sitting next to a bouncy castle.
Legroom? The morning train to the office is full, there is NEVER a free seat… so I just drive. It takes longer and is more expensive; but no way in hell I’m going back to arguing with people to make space to get on/off a train.
Why is it that angry people always argue about a wrong or at best sub-optimal solution to their problem? If 2nd class is too packed I’d rather want twice as many trains on that line. The crowd would distribute between the trains and it’d be easier to manage their schedule - IMO that’s even more than win win.
We live in a Switzerland where qualified personnel to operate a train line is scarce. The train line that serves my town was shut down for a few months because no people to operate it.
Train jobs are well-paid, but fewer people than needed want them due to stress. So, not that easy to implement the win-win solution.
A lot of problems around here might be solved by automation or training and hiring more workers.
But people have strong and unfulfilled emotional needs. They want a post office worker that greets them in their dialect. Talking to the cashier at Migros is a human right, automated check-outs are evil and unSwiss. Doctors, train drivers? Nope, talkers are more important. Society has their priorities right.
I rather thought about a Japan train crew who’s task is to push people into the trains… sometimes the situation is quite similar in Switzerland, people holding the door open even though the signal to depart has been given, people jumping to the door even though the train is already starting, etc… and how the trains are supposed to be safe and punctual?
There are still quite a few single track sections of railway in Switzerland which is also an obstacle to increasing the number of trains running on that line at any one time.
Our train had an accident once. A soft water pipe from the construction works was pulled by the train and stuck between the wheels on the panoramic route. Our train crew needed about 40 min to cut the pipe, durch which our train blocked the traffic in both directions. It messed the schedule for the next several hours. Some of the trains had to unload the passengers and return to Chur, because there was literally no place for them to wait at the small stations.
