I have noticed that the SBB Mobile app is very generous in allocating transfer times which can make travel less efficient and requires additional planning effort on my part.
An example
I want to travel from Zürich, Seilbahn Rigiblick to Lenzburg. It is now 11:45. I check the timetable and it shows me the following connection:
Sadly, I know I won’t be able to make the 11:47 tram. I’ll probably arrive at 11:50 so I’ll miss it. Guess I’ll take the next connection in that case. According to the App or website, my next option is at 12:14. I’ll arrive 30 minutes later.
If I then split up my travel into two parts, that is:
- Zürich, Seilbahn Rigiblick to Zürich HB
- Zürich HB to Lenzburg
I can see that there’s actually a tram leaving Rigiblick at 11:52 that arrives at the tram station next to the main station at 12:01.
I also see a connection from Zürich HB to Lenzburg departing at 11:08.
However, because the time allotted for the transfer from the tram station to the platform is 7 minutes and the tram arrives at 12:01 and the train leaves at 11:08, the App / website won’t show this connection to me, as it calculates that I won’t be able to make it.
Problem 1: Arriving later than necessary
From personal experience, I know I can easily make it. It probably takes me four minutes or three if I hurry. The app doesn’t show me the connection though. If I blindly trust it, I’ll now arrive in Lenzburg half an hour later even though I would have easily made it!
Problem 2a: Requires manual work
What I do now (or have to do - depending on your viewpoint) is to check the connections individually as I have done with the screenshots provided above. This makes things much more difficult. I have to enter the journeys individually, keep the information in my head (or write it down somewhere) and essentially plan myself. It is very cumbersome.
Problem 2b: Requires knowledge of possible connections & manual work
Rigiblick to Lenzburg via Zürich HB is fairly straight forward. For a longer journey, e.g. from Rigiblick to Luzern, there might be different options altogether:
- Rigiblick - Zug - Luzern
- Rigiblick - Olten - Luzern
Are these real options that make sense? I honestly do not know and that is precisely the point. The App might not show me multiple different options due to transfer times. But for a longer journey that I’m not familiar with as much, I won’t even know these possibilities even exist. Now I’d have to go through the list of connections, see that sometimes the train goes via Zug and sometimes via Olten and then repeat the same process as for Problem 2a for the individual connections.
If it’s two possible connections, I now need to check 4 individual connections. What is there’s another stop in between or simply a third possibility? It is simply not feasible to do this. I’d have to work with a notepad and write things down to figure this out.
Suggestion
Let us personalize the transfer times. There already is an option to increase the transfer time by 50% or to double it in the search settings. Extend this functionality with decreased transfer times.
Going further, it might even be possible to let users personalize individual train stations (e.g. user knows Zurich main station by heart and therefore wants a lower transfer time but might have to orient themselves in Lausanne and won’t want to transfer in a hurry).
Obviously the second option goes further and becomes more complicated. The first one would already be a nice addition.