The train is an ideal touring partner for mountain bikers: there are very few bike tours in Switzerland that don't start near a train station. On the way to the tour, you can study the map with the marked route in detail. And on the return journey, you can relax and look back on the route you have covered instead of having to sit behind the wheel of a car.

But the Federal Railways seem to have lost their love for cyclists. They first got into trouble with cyclists when they introduced compulsory and chargeable reservations on ICN tilting trains. Now cyclists are once again being offended by the use of these tilting trains on the Gotthard line. Today, almost exclusively Cisalpino and ICN trains run between Ticino and German-speaking Switzerland. On the former, bicycles are completely prohibited, even if the bike is packed in a "Tranzbag" and would therefore count as hand luggage. On the latter, the transport capacity for bikes is minimal and, due to the reservation requirement, costly and unsafe.The train journey to Ticino is more complicated than ever before, but the return journey is even more difficult: This is only possible just every two hours and if you miss the 5 p.m. train in Lugano, you have to look for a hotel room or prepare for a regional train odyssey with multiple changes. For bike tours in Ticino, since this season it is shamefully recommended to travel by private car. This is a bitter pill for us mountain bikers, as three excellent bike destinations - Bellinzona, Lugano and Mendrisio - could be reached directly by intercity train.

While SBB is regarded as one of the most progressive and modern railroads in the world, it is increasingly being sidelined when it comes to cyclists. Neighboring countries have long since left the Swiss railroads behind in this respect and even the "small" Swiss private railroads are more than a nose ahead of SBB. BLS, the Matterhorn-Gotthard Railway and the RhB all have special carriage units with ample space for bicycles. The biker is a welcome and even courted guest. SBB, on the other hand, relies on briefcases and beauty cases as the maximum luggage volume.