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Switzerland: What does SBB CFF FFS mean?

Question by Guest | 2024-10-01 at 16:25

I'm currently travelling by train in Switzerland and so I have some time to think.

That's why I noticed that on the Swiss trains as well as on the train stations, there are again and again the letter combinations "SBB CFF FFS" appearing in exactly this order. Can anyone tell me what that means?

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2Best Answer2 Votes

These are the abbreviations for the Swiss Railway in the three official Swiss languages German, French and Italian:

  • SBB: Schweizerische Bundesbahnen (German)
  • CFF: Chemins de Fer Fédéraux Suisses (French)
  • FFS: Ferrovie Federali Svizzere (Italian)

The fourth official language of Switerland, Romansh, which is only spoken by a small minority (around 0.5% of the population), does not appear in the official logo of the Swiss railways. In Romansh, the abbreviation would be VFF (Viafiers Federalas Svizras).

Incidentally, the abbreviations mentioned are also used by the Swiss railway as a sequence of notes before announcements (of stations). At large stations, all notes are played (Es - B - B -- C - F - F -- F - F - Es), at smaller stations only those of the local language. Since the letter "S" does not exist as a note, E is used instead.
2024-10-01 at 17:11

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