In this interview, Reto Schorno, managing director of the Swiss Runners association, explains how everyone can benefit from the Swiss Runners Ticket.

This contribution is presented by RailAway

Reto Schorno, the most obvious advantage that the Swiss Runners Ticket offers runners will surely be the free journey to the race and back. What else do they get out of it?

The Swiss Runners Ticket is a big plus for everyone who cares about sustainability. By travelling to the event and back by public transport, runners can reduce their carbon footprint and therefore help to make the race more sustainable. Another advantage is the safe and stress-free journey to the event. If you travel by public transport, you won’t get stuck in a traffic jam, you’ll arrive on time and you won’t have to look for a parking space. 

And what about the event organisers? How do they benefit from the Swiss Runners Ticket? 

That really depends on the run. For runs taking place on a national scale, it’s an opportunity to attract more participants. The free journey to the event and back can be the deciding factor in whether someone decides to enter the race. But the Swiss Runners Ticket agreement is also great news for mountain regions. In these areas, ticket prices for public transport are often quite high and the Swiss Runners Ticket can make the event considerably more attractive for runners.  

Why don’t all event organisers make use of this offer?

For more local races, the offer doesn’t make as much sense as participants generally travel from the region in question. These events usually try to cooperate with local transport companies, for example a fare network. The offer also isn’t ideal for locations where there is insufficient capacity on public transport. For example, if there’s just one Postbus an hour, it will be practically impossible to transport all the participants.  

Let’s go back in time a bit. What were the original reasons for introducing the Swiss Runners Ticket? 

There were attempts to put together an offer even before my time as managing director, but they unfortunately never came to fruition. The initial negotiations for the Swiss Runners Ticket as it is today were held in 2014 and 2015. They focused on looking into the impact on runners and the event organisers. Our conclusion at the time was that everyone stood to benefit. 

How important is your collaboration with SBB RailAway?

RailAway makes the whole thing possible. They are our point of contact within the public transport sector and handle agreements and negotiations with various transport companies. It means we have a partner that is familiar with the world of public transport and supports us professionally. This saves a lot of resources for us.

And what are your hopes for the future?

The process of getting the free tickets could be made easier. At the moment, it isn’t a completely smooth process, and so we would like to optimise it in the near future. We could also make the offer known more widely so that even more runners can make use of it. 

Why are Swiss Runners members interested in continuing the free ticket for public transport? £

The Swiss Runners Ticket is and will remain an excellent offer. It’s attractive for both the event organiser and the runners and also contributes to increased sustainability. So there is great interest in continuing to provide the offer.

Running events offering the Swiss Runners Ticket in 2022:

• Swiss Snow Walk and Run
• Reusslauf
• Kerzerslauf
• Luzerner Stadtlauf
• 20km de Lausanne
• Grand-Prix Bern
• Auffahrtslauf
• Bieler Lauftage
• Schweizer Frauenlauf
• Aletsch Halbmarathon
• Swissalpine
• StraLugano
• Jungfrau Marathon
• Greifenseelauf
• Murtenlauf
• Hallwilerseelauf
• Ascona-Locarno Run
• SwissCityMarathon

 Further information can be found at sbb.ch/swissrunnersticket