The ticket inspector gave me slightly disgusted look and asked English or Deutsch and then asked me for 5 CHF extra only.
Must be my lucky day or the inspector was in a good mood.
The other day I was sitting in the first class, where as I had second class ticket. (By mistake too drunk too realise and train was leaving so just got on the first open carriage door"
Yes. The ones with SN marked on them require you to supplement-pyjama costing 2CHF, they run on weekends. You can buy it at any of the CFF ticket machines, look under "other tickets" and you can buy it in advance (i think), which saves you from a panicky, drunken search on the machines while running for the last train.
The 0130 train does not require this ticket, however the 0145 and 0215 ones do....urgh in fact the 0215 is a bus from Flon, but you get the idea.
On one of the few occassions I've taken a train, I needed the night ticket, didn't have one. The conductor told me I should have one and I appologised, he asked if I had a mobile and he actually showed me how to use it to pay the 5 chuffs, and never fined me. In truth I was pretty well oiled so he actually did it for me
Save 988 as SBB on your mobile, and text 'zvvnz' and it will send you a text back, show this to the conductor and your set.
I already said that >.< Nobody reads my posts anymore ....
Oh yeah , I started the reply and forgot to post it as I got distracted. Great minds think a like, wait up though, 'Tash said it too...<>
For what it's worth, supplements for night services (and I have to say the night buses in Zürich are the cleanest, best-behaved night buses I've ever seen, particularly after experiencing the joys of the Nitelink in Dublin) usually have two purposes:
a) Staff are on overtime and there are usually extra staff, so this gets pricey (the guys who marshal people onto buses at Bellevue, the extra conductors on the S-Bahn)
b) Night services are often considered to be operated outside of the "public service" remit for which daytime public transport gets generous subsidies from the government, so the full cost of the service has to be recouped at the farebox.
I certainly wouldn't assume that either the SBB or VBZ make big profits on night services.
One interesting point is what happens if your journey crosses two different tariff unions - for instance, a friend of ours who lives in Kreuzlingen took the night train home last night from visiting us in Zürich. Services within the ZVV have one supplement (Fr5,-), while the Ostwind tariff union (which covers Thurgau and surrounding areas) also has its own Fr5,- supplement. Turns out that in this case it's interestingly asymmetrical - the ZVV supplement is recognised for people travelling onwards into the Ostwind region, while the Ostwind supplement isn't accepted by ZVV members. Lesson - if in doubt, buy the ZVV supplement!
Well observed, on all accounts.