Switzerland eyes high-speed European trains; Nature wakes up earlier in Switzerland; Americans in Switzerland call for Tesla boycott

News for 18 March 2025

Swiss Federal Railways is considering up to 40 high-speed trains that could service international connections, such as Italy and France. The fleet could also be used for other destinations such as Barcelona or London from 2030. More and more customers in other countries are travelling to and from Switzerland by train, and further growth is expected.

Swiss Railways is working on expanding cross-border connections in cooperation with partner railways. The company will need more trains in future, while at the same time replacing older vehicles in the second half of the 2030s.

There are currently no routes in Switzerland that can be travelled at speeds internationally defined as high speed. Trains that can travel at over 300 km/h are defined internationally as high speed. The maximum speed in Switzerland is 200 km/h, according to the Swiss Railways website. The trains would therefore only travel at high speed on the foreign section of the respective routes.

The exchange of information should take place in April or May of the current year, SBB also announced. A possible tender is expected to take place in 2026.

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Once again this year, nature has woken up earlier than normal, between a week and ten days ahead of schedule, according to the meteorologists. They explain that this is due to the mild winter months. Temperatures throughout Switzerland in January and February 2025 were generally much warmer than the average for the period 1991-2020, the Meteonews weather service said. January was 1.5 degrees warmer and February 1.7 degrees. The first ten days of March were 2.5 degrees warmer than the multi-year average.

According to Meteonews, the longer growing season has a number of positive and negative consequences. It benefits agriculture, particularly market gardening, cereals, berries and fruit. However, the risk of damage caused by late frosts is increasing. The same applies to the pressure of pests, which survive milder winters more easily.

Meteonews reports that hazel trees began to flower in the last ten days of January, more than two weeks earlier than in the 1950s. The weather service adds that forsythias and tulips began flowering around a week to ten days earlier.

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US citizens will protest the political influence of Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla and a key part of Trump’s administration, by demonstrating near Tesla dealerships in Geneva and Lausanne on Saturday from 12 to 2 pm.

“Together, Musk and Donald Trump are committed to destroying the US federal government and US democracy,” said Dr. Tory Mallett, Chairperson of Democrats Abroad Switzerland in a press release.

They are also intervening in foreign countries, including Switzerland, by cutting funding for UN organisations and NGOs in Geneva.