It appears as though Swiss railway’s changes to ticketing policy has turned into a major PR disaster, especially for a nation that’s always prided itself on the quality of their train services.
If the BBC report is remotely accurate, it looks as though they’ve introduced a penalty fare system along the lined of that introduced by some train operating companied in Britain, and just as has happened in Britain, it’s had the effect of penalising honest travellers rather than habitual fare-dodgers. As in Britain many are wondering if that’s really an unintended consequence at all. Their system seems excessively harsh; at least British train companies allow their conductors to use their discretion, and make allowances for ticket machines not working. And their penalties are far higher than the British equivalents. Does a broken ticket machine really mean you can’t travel, or is that inaccurate reporting?