As the title says, for an Interregional train 4 out of the 11 carriages/wagons (so just short of 50%) are 1st class. This is the Basel to Zurich IR 36 and has happened twice for me so far. So you get four pretty much empty first class carriages and then 7 completely packed 2nd class carriages, almost standing in the isles the whole way.
For the past year (albeit with disruptions from covid) its been 2/11 carriages. I So my question - is this a new strategy of SBB to get people to upgrade to 1st class. Or is it a scheduling thing and just sort of happens occasionally.
Just a pedantic comment: 11 is closer to 12 than 8, so the percentage is closer to 1/3 than 1/2.
Apart from this, it's not unusual for me to see more than 2 1st class wagons.
About the attendance, I would hope that SBB does some optimization, but it's not rare to see 2nd class packed between Zurich and Bern. Sometimes peak hour is just peak hour, despite a double composition of double-decker trainsets...
Avoid rush hours? Well first class gets quite busy as well, if that makes you feel any better. If you are one of those who are generally irritated by the existence of the 1st class, keep in mind that in case it gets eliminated, 2nd class tickets will get more expensive coz as of now 1st class partially covers the costs of the 2nd.
nope - not on the routes I take they're empty. and the utilization of 1st class I don't see how any of the revenue from there covers the costs of the 2nd
A lot of this depends on where the train was coming from, ie into Basle, and where the train is going after Zürich.
At certain times of the day First Class is just, or even more full than Second. But the rolling stock needs to be positioned to be at the right place at the right time.