Author: switzerlandtimes.ch

Sunrise, Switzerland’s second-largest telecoms company, is planning another round of job cuts. Up to 450 positions could go, equivalent to almost 16% of its current workforce, reported RTS. The cuts form part of a broader overhaul of the company’s operating model. Sunrise says it wants to focus its organisation more closely on customer retention, network quality and reliability, while speeding up the development and launch of new products and services. The company has not yet said how it will be organised after the restructuring or which divisions will bear the brunt of the cuts. Staff working in shops, sales and…

Instead of sending staff to walk the tracks and inspect them by eye, Swiss Federal Railways (SBB) uses specially equipped diagnostic trains and artificial intelligence to examine around 2,000km of track each month, according to SRF. Rather than inspecting the railway at walking pace, the trains travel at up to 120kph, measuring and filming the track as they go. AI then analyses the images to identify damage and defects. The technology is not new. SBB began experimenting with AI for track inspection about a decade ago, but the early results were disappointing: the system produced too many errors. Advances in…

Temu and Shein are sending a growing number of packages to Switzerland. A Chinese logistics firm now wants a share of their delivery business. Helped by heavy advertising and rock-bottom prices Chinese online retailers are squeezing domestic e-commerce firms. Now a Chinese logistics company is following them into the market and may squeeze existing parcel delivery services. Speedaf is building a parcel-delivery network in Switzerland which could quickly become significant, Stephan Wagner, a logistics professor at ETH Zurich, told SRF. Its planned sorting capacity—up to 50,000 parcels a day—is sizeable for a newcomer. At full tilt, that would amount to…

Low water is making inland shipping less reliable. More freight may move by road and rail, pushing up transport costs—and, eventually, consumer prices. In August the Rhine at Kaub, a key measuring point in Germany, fell to just six centimetres, a record low, according to Reuters. The Rhine was not alone. Rivers across Europe, including the Danube in Hungary and Romania, the Po in Italy and the Loire in France, also reached exceptionally low levels. Such conditions could become more common. Today, extremely low water levels might be expected to persist for about 40 consecutive days. In future, that figure…

The Swiss passport remains one of the world’s most powerful travel documents, ranking ninth globally in the latest Passport Reports index. Swiss citizens can travel visa-free to 119 destinations. Another 54 allow entry with a visa on arrival or an electronic travel authorisation. Only 25 destinations require Swiss travellers to obtain a visa in advance. Travel is virtually unrestricted across Europe, the Americas and the Caribbean. Swiss passport holders have access to 93% of destinations in Oceania and 72.2% in Africa. Switzerland fares less well within Europe. It ranks 13th among 47 countries, behind several EU members, including Germany and…

The Swiss National Bank (SNB) has left its policy rate unchanged at zero, the lowest policy rate in the world. Inflation remains subdued. Consumer prices rose by 0.8% in August, the highest rate in two years but still comfortably within the SNB’s definition of price stability, which covers inflation of between zero and 2%. The central bank expects inflation to rise to 1.2% in the fourth quarter, largely because of higher oil prices, before easing again during 2027. Its latest forecast puts average annual inflation at between 0.7% and 0.8% in 2026, 2027 and 2028, before edging up to as…

A clear majority of Swiss voters oppose both initiatives due to be put to a referendum on September 27, according to the second poll conducted by gfs.bern for the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation (SBC). More than 60% now say they intend to reject the neutrality and food-security proposals. Support for the two initiatives has fallen sharply since the first survey in early August. If the vote had been held in early September, 63% would have rejected the “Safeguard Swiss Neutrality” initiative, up nine percentage points. Support fell by eight points, to 34%. The initiative, launched by the group Pro Suisse, would…

Diesel prices in Switzerland have risen to a record high. A litre now costs an average of CHF 2.41 nationwide, according to the Touring Club Switzerland (TCS), surpassing the previous peak reached in 2022. Since the begining of the year the price has risen 35% from CHF 1.78 a litre. Petrol prices are also climbing. A litre of unleaded 95 costs an average of CHF 2.10, five centimes more than a week ago. That remains below the 2022 record of CHF 2.31. Since the begining of the year the price has risen 27% from CHF 1.65 a litre. The TCS…

Revolut already has 1.3m customers in Switzerland. Now it wants a Swiss banking licence. Why? A new force may soon emerge in Swiss banking—though it is hardly a newcomer. Revolut, a British fintech firm, already has 1.3m customers in Switzerland. The firm has applied to the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (Finma) for a banking licence. For now, many Swiss customers use Revolut as a secondary account, particularly when travelling or spending abroad, where its fees are often well below those of traditional banks. A Swiss licence could help Revolut turn those occasional users into primary customers. It would bolster…

Switzerland travelled by train more than ever in 2025. Passengers covered almost 24bn passenger-kilometres, a third consecutive annual record, according to federal data. That was 3% more than in 2024 and confirms the recovery in rail travel since its sharp fall during the covid-19 pandemic. The increase was driven mainly by more journeys rather than longer trips. Passengers made 675m rail trips in 2025, 4% more than a year earlier. The average distance travelled per journey rose by about 1%. Rail use thus grew much faster than the population. Switzerland’s population increased by almost 1% between 2024 and 2025, to…