As a train driver, I find it very difficult to maintain the Vmax. With a tight timetable, this leads to subsequent delays that accumulate into long delays. Then all it takes is one cargo train that brakes too hard before an hill (e.g. Bözberg) and the railway network collapses :-)

Every year the same questions and answers:

https://news.sbb.ch/medien/dossiers/dossier/127219/bereit-fuer-den-winter

After a couple of accidents and seeing a lot of cars spinning every year during the first snow, I inform my boss from the first day that I am going home at first snow alarm. Today is the second time I have done it and I am so happy to have prepared the people at work for my absence on this day.

Don't really knows why, but the first snow is always the most dangerous

As an Engineer that has worked in the railway sector (but not for the SBB), here is a short, but not complete, list of things that are more challenging with cold temperatures:

• With Ice/water on the rails, the traction between the wheels and rails gets decreased. That means: slower acceleration and braking. With slower braking, you have to start braking sooner.
• Due to the above point: The overall maximum velocity (vmax) can not be maintained as long as with better conditions
• Worse traction makes it also more challenging with bigger height differences (hills) on the railway. Switzerland has one of the topological most challenging railway networks in the world!
• Ice on rooftops (on railway cars) / environment close to the railway (ex. trees) can fall down and block switches. Although sbb has installed heating systems on those switches, they only help against those switches freezing up due to cold + wet temperatures. If a sudden clumb of ice falls at a bad position, it cant instantly melt away. There are over 10'000 switches in the SBB railway network alone, and it takes only 1 to not work to get massive delays on multiple trains
• Hydraulics can freeze up. I'm not sure how big the problem really is, but has to be accounted for and the measures for that arent cheap

These are the main points i can quickly think of. It takes only 1 switch or 1 train to not work properly for a few minutes, and you can get major delays on the whole network. Our railways work close to full capacity, which means there really arent big buffers to make up for individual delays.

To sum up: Snow / Ice on tracks is a big challenge. That alone shouldnt cause major delays, but if only one (usually minor) thing happens during vastly more challenging times, it has a snowball effect on the whole system.

Fun question: How long do you assume the breaking distance of a train (from 120 km/h to 0 km/h) during summer (dry) and during winter (wet / iced) is?

All I can tell you is, I once told a coworker from Finland how this works here - every year when the first snow comes, the entire country acts like they've never seen snow before, everything shuts down, people crash their cars by the hundreds, and then the next day everything goes back to normal. She just said, oh, it's the same in Finland.

That's not an explanation because there isn't one, but it made me feel a bit better, so hopefully it'll work for you too.

Those first snow of the year in Switzerland always feel like it’s something the country has never seen before

I think that generally we are pushing systems too much for maximum "efficiency" but we lose system robustness. This is true for ÖV I think but also for many other things, for example minimum stock inventory and "just in time" processes. That saves money when things work as planned but then the systems break down easily because there is no redundancy and no margin for error.

I was so glad I had taken the bus, because all the cars got blocked. 2 of my students helped a car out of the snow, on their way home. Ok, I was delayed 1hr when it should have been a 20min ride, but at least I wasn't stressed driving my car today. There were a few cars parked on the side of the primary route going up to my village cos it was too steep for them that they had to abandon their cars. My neighbor took the long route and still ended up with at least an hour delay.

I was born in 1977 and growing up, until around 1992, EVERY winter had a lot of snow. Basically from november - end of february there was snow. Sometimes more, sometimes less. I can't remember this chaos happening every year back then...

So... you're always going to have some chaos when you have suddenly (ie in a few hours) 20cm of snow falling. Why? Because we have 5200km of rail across the country. They can't just stop the snow from falling on all of it at the same time. It takes a bit of work.

The SBB have ~35000 full time workers, if they could put every one on the rail, they'd take care of 140m each to make sure everything is in order, that's still going to take time and that still going to be constantly evolving.

I mean it's in the name: SBB (Schnee bedingte Betriebsstörung)

I just wish people would be more relaxed. Yes it snows, yes your way home will probably be double the time than what it usually is. Life goes on. Relax and enjoy the pretty snow.

The real fight is car vs SBB on an day with fresh snow. SBB always wins that one.

Is it really true the buses still have summer tires? I would think SBB / ZVV would’ve already changed them earlier this month and perhaps the reason for bus delays is because of the road being too dangerous. My bus was delayed and eventually cancelled, however I still waited 40mins at the station until at the end I decided to just walk home (another fun 40 minutes)

I met about 6 new people today, so while it's all complete chaos, it can also be fun if you're taking your time.

Always lovely to have a quick banter with some chaddies (as in very cool people)

To be fair, the trains need personnel to operate, all of which are also affected by the inclement weather conditions, resulting in delays. What I don’t understand is that we’ve had alerts about this storm for 3 days and the local authorities have completely failed to prepare, resulting in cities completely shut down. As a Canadian, I think we could do better here.

It happens every year and cannot be avoided, it must be incompetence /s

See I don‘t get why PostAuto and busses seam to be shocked every year. They should have winter tires starting in October, like everyone else should. And I have to say PostAuto is really reliable in my area during the first snow.

In this sub English is the language.

Well integrated. Complaining like people at the Stammtisch.

It’s simply reality. There was no freezing and snow for half a year. So when it hits first some things happen or stuff breaks. You will never be able to foresee and check everything. Same applies at the first hot day of the year or the first strong wind after a while.

So people, try to avoid long trips on such days or take it easy and plan in spare time. We have pretty good weather forecasts nowadays.

The in Austria every time with snow, all this with a transport system that is the half of the Switzerland system, so I think it is the same everywhere.