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Switzerland tops the list for most rail travel

The average Swiss climbed aboard one of these 59 times in 2014. Keystone

Switzerland has train transport down to a science. Last year the average Swiss took the train 59 times, over a total distance of 2,288 kilometres – the highest figures of any European country.

The Swiss Information Service for Public Transport (LITRA) published the figures on Tuesday from data collected by the International Union of Railways (UIC).

The data showed a slight increase over last year’s average number of trips (53) and a slight decrease from last year’s total distance (2,307 km).

Globally, only Japan beat Switzerland, with an average 72 train trips per person in 2014. Luxembourg came in third (40), followed by Denmark and Austria (29), the United Kingdom (26) and Germany (25).

As for distance, Japan came in second with 2,042 km, followed by Austria (1,367), France (1,271) and the United Kingdom (1,056).

The data are based on information from the Swiss Federal Railways, as well as Swiss rail companies BLS and BLS Cargo.

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