The PostBus organization announces the reservation requirement as a positive step: "Anyone who takes their bike on a PostBus journey should also have a guaranteed place for it." For this reason, free bicycle transport on the Chur-Laax, Chur-Lenzerheide and Lenzerheide-Davos lines will no longer be possible from June 3. Reservations can be made via the SBB app or the SBB webshop. It costs two francs and can be made until shortly before departure, provided there are free seats available. The basis for this is the SBB reservation system. According to the PostBus organization, this would make the trip more relaxed and there would be no scramble for free bike spaces at the PostBus stops.

This is a pilot project. The "Resabike" reservation system has already been in place in the canton of Valais for several years. If Postbus in Graubünden has had good experiences with the test operation of a bike space reservation via the SBB app and in the SBB webshop, this system is to be introduced throughout Graubünden as well as in Valais and the Bernese Oberland from 2025.

The new reservation obligation will apply between 3 June and 20 October 2024 on the following lines:

• Chur-Flims-Laax-Falera (line 90.081)
• Chur-Lenzerheide (90.182)
• Lenzerheide-Davos (90.183)
• Lenzerheide-Zorten (90.184)

Commentary: Pink-colored regression and flight into a lack of ideas

PostBus may present this step through its pink PR glasses as a benefit for customers. In reality, however, it is a considerable loss for the canton of Graubünden, the poster boy for mountain bike tourism. The Swiss Federal Railways (SBB) prove that compulsory reservations are a considerable step backwards in terms of customer service. Since they have introduced this on many lines, bike trips have not become "more relaxed", on the contrary. The return journey in particular usually turns into a gauntlet because mountain bikers cannot decide well in advance when they will return from the tour.

Since the process has been digitized and last-minute reservations are easier to make, the situation has improved. However, many bikers now make several reservations on different connections in order to secure their return journey. In the case of no-shows, the bike space that could have been taken by someone else remains free. And woe betide you if you as a family come up with the idea of traveling by bike and train - if the reserved seats are then spread across the entire train composition. Or if you want to board the train as an unsuspecting tourist with your bike, you will be at the mercy of the train attendants. These scenarios will now also be experienced by PostBus customers in Graubünden.

You can spin it any way you like: it's a step backwards for mountain bikers in Graubünden. A step backwards, of course, for a once innovative pioneer who now finds himself in the mundane lowlands of compulsory reservations. It is an open fact that in mountain bike cantons such as Graubünden or Valais, a transport capacity of five (Graubünden) or six (Valais) bike hooks per Postbus is a far cry from the pleasing and targeted demand. Public transport has long been a bottleneck for tourism development. However, he apparently sees himself as the savior of customer satisfaction with such an approach.

In 2021, Ride already pointed out in a blog post that mountain bike tourism can no longer grow due to such mini-capacities, among other things. If the sport is to develop further, new ideas and visions are needed for dealing with public transport. The introduction of a reservation requirement, on the other hand, is a flight into a lack of ideas.