Much has been written in recent months about the general reservation requirement for bicycles on all SBB Intercity trains and the last word has probably not yet been spoken on this matter. The fact is, however, that new reservation regulations have been in force since March 21, 2021. If you want to continue riding your bike by train, it's a good idea to take a detailed look at the reservation rules. They are even more complicated than expected.

From 21 March to 31 October, bike parking must be reserved daily on the following lines:

• Basel/Zurich - Ticino (Gotthard Base Tunnel)
• Basel - Biel and St. Gallen/Zurich - Biel. Gallen/Zurich - Biel - Lausanne (Jura-Südfuss)

Reservation only from Friday to Sunday and Easter Monday, Ascension Day, Whit Monday, 1 August:

On all other Intercity connections. The reservation fee is CHF 2 and can be purchased via the SBB app. It is only valid for one ride. The return journey must be reserved separately.

Bicycle reservations are compulsory on trains every day of the year: 

• Eurocity
• ICE
• Railjet

Bookings can be made in the app for the Railjet within Switzerland and for the IC to Stuttgart. For all other Eurocity and ICE trains, bike reservations can only be made at the counter, as the reservation systems of foreign railroads do not have an interface with the SBB app. To reiterate: if you want to take your bike with you on an EC or ICE train, you must go to the ticket counter.

The TGV Lyria via Basel to Paris does NOT transport bicycles. Certain international trains only carry bicycles if they are taken across the national border. The same applies here: take a very close look at the timetable and symbols.

Include bike transport in your route planning

In addition to planning your route, you should also carefully study the information on train connections. If the desired connection is an ICE or similar, then it is best to set off for the station an hour earlier. If a connection has the bicycle reservation symbol (bicycle in a rectangle), then you must make a reservation. If a connection does not have a reservation symbol, it does not. If you select a train connection that requires a reservation and no bike reservation appears in the ticket selection, then the seats are already fully booked.

The reservation ticket also contains the carriage and parking space number. If only a carriage number is allocated, the train will have a luggage carriage where the bike will be collected by an SBB employee.

Booking the return journey

Bike tours can rarely be planned down to the minute. If you don't want to take the risk of missing the train with the reserved bike space, you need to wait until it is clear which train you will be taking before making your reservation. Caution: If you wait too long, you run the risk of all bike spaces being taken.

Bike ticket and bike pass

Of course, you still have to buy a ticket for your bike on every train. A reduced ticket must be purchased for a bicycle (as for a child). From a certain travel distance, it is worth buying a bike day pass for 14 francs.
You also need to make a reservation if you have a bike pass ("Velo-GA"). Anyone who already had a bike pass when the new rules were announced received a one-off 25 reservations.

Free bike transport in your bag

All these complications make the bike bag more attractive again. Furthermore, if you put your bike in a bag with the front wheel removed, you don't need a bike ticket or reservation on the train.

Petition for more bike spaces

SBB's main interest is to steer bike transport in a more orderly direction - bike chaos in the train carriage is a safety problem and too many bikers at the train entrance can cause delays. The reservation requirement is intended to ensure that there are only as many bikes on the platform as there is space for on the train. After all, the Federal Railways have also promised to increase transport capacity for bikes on peak days. Whether this will be enough to cope with the increasing popularity of mountain bikes, racing bikes and the like, as well as traveling by train, is anything but certain. Space for bikes on trains threatens to become a scarce commodity. If the journey there can still be planned precisely, the return journey threatens to become a tactical challenge. For the Pro Velo and VCS organizations, it is clear that the path taken by SBB is the wrong one. They have therefore launched a petition to make it clear to those responsible how many SBB customers want more space for bikes on the train.