Switzerland, the land of logic (Switzerland)

Member Name: Orangeb

Product:	Switzerland
Date:	09/08/01 (97 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Good system, Clean and punctual

Disadvantages: England isn't the same

As proud as I am to be English, whenever I go to Switzerland I am more and more impressed by their logicality. Or maybe I am unimpressed by our illogicality, I'm not sure.

In Switzerland, if you catch a train to a town or city, you end up in the middle of that town or city. In England, if you catch a train to a town or city, you tend to end up in a train station which usually happens to be quite a walk or bus journey from the actual destination. Why? Isn't it logical to be able to jump off a train and come out on one of the main roads of where you want to be? Surely it makes more sense, and what's more, it encourages the public to use their public transport system much more.

As well as having train stations in more convenient places, often they combine several methods of travel into the same area.
For example, when I was getting a ferry to Thun, I caught the train first. The train station was right next to the lake, where the ferries stopped. There was a bus stop on the other side too. How easy is that to make good connections? You literally have to walk down some stairs and you can either catch a ferry or a bus. Rail, road and water all next to each other.

Their public buses also carry post. They are known as "post buses", that doesn't make them any less irregular than our buses, they just do two jobs at once.

If you are flying out to Switzerland, you hand in your luggage at Heathrow and the next time you see it is in your hotel room.
When you leave, you give your luggage to the hotel reception and the next time you see it is on the carousel at Heathrow.
The "fly-rail" system. The hassle-free way of transporting your luggage. After a journey to London and a flight to Switzerland, the last thing you want to do is to lug heavy bags around on the trains, so they do it for you.

What's even better about all their public transport, is that it is bang on time. Always. Every
station has the same clock and the trains don't leave or arrive a second late. I have never caught a train that has been late in Switzerland and considering we travel everywhere by train mostly, that is exceptional.

Their stations are clean just like their buses and trains too. People just seem to have so much more respect over there, they don't drop litter like we do.

If the government want us to use public transport more then they need to do something to improve it, about both punctuality and cleanliness. I suggest they take a leaf out of the Swiss' book.

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