[wereHamster]

In switzerland the GA (https://www.sbb.ch/en/travelcards-and-tickets/railpasses/ga....) is valid on most public transportation, including those which are partially or completely private. And the card gives you reduced fare on many of the ski/mountain lifts. Also, I can buy a ticket for most of the participating companies with a single iPhone app (the 'SBB Mobile' app). The SBB btw is state owned.

[allendoerfer]

In Germany there are different companies operating trains, which is mostly abstracted away from the customer, so tickets are valid on different trains from different companies and can be bought at the same place most of the time. The intentions of this system are good and even if DB bullies its smaller competitors i like the concept. But much like in software, it gets messy, when the abstraction breaks and there is an exception to the rule. Users not knowing the underlying system get confused.

The SBB enjoys a perfect image here. I rose up near the border to Basel, where local trains are operated by the SBB. People mention all the time, how evil Die Bahn is, how perfect it once was, what terrible mistake it was to privatize it and how perfect the state owned SBB is.

Anecdotally i once went from Frankfurt to Milano by train. It arrived in Basel 20 minutes late, went through Switzerland without any incident, arrived in Italy, got stuck in a tunnel for an hour and had to change directions back to Switzerland. The train before us had broke down directly after the Italian border. Was glad to see my prejudices satisfied.