Reservation will improve the planning of bicycle carry-on

Using a Postbus to transport a bike is meant to be a positive travel experience. Information about transport capacities and a guaranteed space for your bicycle at the desired travel time contribute to this experience. For this reason, PostBus is introducing mandatory reservations for bicycle transport from the start of the 2025 summer season. This applies to most tourist routes on which the Postbuses are equipped with a rear carrier or a trailer for bicycle transport. A total of 50 trailers and 340 rear carriers on vehicles enable this transport option on around 150 routes. The corresponding routes are indicated in the online timetable.

On tourist routes

Mandatory bicycle space reservations apply in the summer in Graubünden, Central Switzerland, the Bernese Oberland, Valais and in some cases in French-speaking Switzerland. The summer season generally lasts from the beginning of May to October. Passengers will find precise details in the timetable. For the time being, this requirement does not apply to Ticino. Similarly, reservations are not mandatory in agglomerations where customers can transport their bicycles in the passenger area.

Passengers can reserve a space for transporting their bicycles easily via the SBB app, in the SBB online shop or at a counter. The price per reservation is 2 francs. This amount is in line with industry standards and applies for one whole travel route, e.g. from Zurich to Lenzerheide by train and Postbus. PostBus hopes that the moderate fee will create a certain level of commitment. This is because experience with the free reservation system “Resabike” in Valais has shown that many customers booked multiple transport slots and then only used one to travel. This meant that precious capacity was blocked.

Flexible until shortly before departure

Thanks to the electronic reservation option, passengers can submit a reservation request until just before the departure of the Postbus and see right away whether there is still space for their bicycles. Once a reservation has been made, customers can cancel it free of charge up to 30 minutes before departure. This means that cycling enthusiasts can take the weather into consideration in their route planning.

Over 100,000 bicycles per year

The possibility of taking their bicycles with them in tourist regions is becoming ever more popular among PostBus passengers. This is confirmed by the statistics: whereas PostBus transported around 25,000 bicycles in Graubünden in 2014, the figure for 2023 was already over 50,000. Altogether, PostBus transported over 110,000 bicycles on the tourist routes in the cantons of Graubünden, Valais and Bern in 2023. In Valais, around 19% more reservations were made via the “Resabike” system in 2024 than in the previous year. These figures do not include passengers who transport their bicycles inside Postbuses in an agglomeration.

A relaxing journey for everyone

On popular routes, the success of PostBus’s bicycle transport service increasingly resulted in capacity bottlenecks. Not all bicycles could be transported, as the number of spaces is limited. That is why, based on the experience with “Resabike” in Valais and a pilot project with mandatory reservation in Graubünden in the summer of 2024, PostBus decided to introduce mandatory reservation of bicycle spaces on highly frequented tourist routes. The goal is to make travel more relaxed for passengers and drivers by doing away with difficult discussions in the future when the number of bicycles exceeds the number of transport spaces available. In Valais, the new reservation system replaces the existing “Resabike” system.