News, Background
How fair weather services are determined by PostBus
When planning your hike, weather forecasts are often the key factor. They are similarly important for PostBus when providing its fair weather services – as it has recently done on the Schwägalp route. PostBus always expects good weather, at least when it comes to the timetable.
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Hiking when the weather is nice is generally more pleasant than when it rains. Clearly many people agree as the demand for public transport to destinations is usually particularly high when the weather is good or the weather forecast is good. It means PostBus often has to react flexibly and provide additional vehicles as required (known as “supplementary carriages” in technical jargon).
Simpler planning, more reliability
Instead of organizing vehicles and drivers at short notice, at PostBus there are a few places that offer fair weather services. The timetable is usually condensed on weekends and public holidays, as long as the weather forecast was promising a few days earlier. Fair weather services simplify the planning of operations and are a response to the fact that many people plan their excursions based on the weather forecast and not the current weather.
There are already some fair weather services in the Klöntal and on the Brunni route. From the 2024 summer season, a third PostBus service will be added to the Schwägalp route, which will offer fair weather services. If the weather forecast is good, the hourly service becomes a half hourly service on this route. The service is valid at weekends and on public holidays from 12 May to 20 October 2024.
Dry weather means nice weather
But who is in charge of the fine weather, or at least the fair weather services, and how do passengers find out whether Postbuses will run more frequently on the coming weekend? The decision is in the hands of the team leader at the relevant PostBus location. In the case of the PostBus route from Urnäsch to the Schwägalp, they will make their decision by Wednesday evening, taking the weather forecast into account. If sunshine is expected for the whole day, the decision will be easy. If the forecast is uncertain, the team leader bases their decision on MeteoSwiss’s criteria for “dry weather”.
- Precipitation ≤ 2 mm
- Rainfall probability ≤ 20%
- Wind ≤ 15 km/h
In the case of fair-weather courses, “fair weather” means “dry weather”; the expected temperature is not decisive in this respect. PostBus considers the forecast for Saturday and Sunday separately. It may be the case that there are no additional services on Saturdays, but there are on Sundays because the weather forecast for that day looks better.
From Thursday in the online timetable
From Thursday morning, hikers and public transport users will be able to see whether fair weather services will be available on the following weekend. They need to check via the online timetable. Fair weather services are standard for planning, and this is shown accordingly in the online timetable. If PostBus decides not to provide the additional services due to a poor weather forecast, a note will be displayed in the online timetable.
The decision is final
And by the way: PostBus is decisive. Once a decision has been taken for the following weekend, no changes are made. This is the case even if the forecast on Friday has changed from that of the previous Wednesday evening. The processes described have proved very successful in the Klöntal valley and on the Brunni route. PostBus is confident that the additional fair weather services will also prove to be popular between Urnäsch and Schwägalp.
