Schweizerische Bundesbahnen SBB, Internationaler Personenverkehr
Europe at a glance: our route map for direct connectionsmap for direct connections
A city break in Venice or an important business meeting in Berlin? There are direct day and night connections to major European cities from various Swiss railway stations. The trend towards more environmentally conscious travel and choosing the train even for longer journeys prompted SBB to create an overview map of direct train connections to European destinations. With our route map “Direct connections to Europe”, SBB now shows its customers all important international connections at a glance on its website.
Creating clarity – visually appealing, structured and informative
Direct rail connections from Switzerland to Europe are becoming increasingly popular. Our client SBB is well aware of this. The aim of the project was to display day and night connections on a clearly structured, easy-to-use web map. Some routes offer both day and night connections. To enable travellers to see at a glance whether a day or night train, or even both, is available for their destination, we created an easy-to-understand and attractively designed route map.
When selecting a line or station, users can call up a complete list of the corresponding connections. A drop-down pearl chain also shows all intermediate stops, making it an ideal source of inspiration for new travel ideas directly from the nearest major station.
For the growing importance of night connections, there is also a separate map with our Darkstyle base map in the background.
Flexible, precise and automated: user-friendly data updating
The heart of the solution is our geoCMS Cartaro. Here, SBB can independently maintain all connections that are to be displayed on the map. Europe-wide train networks are available for this purpose, on which any connections can be freely entered. In addition to distinguishing between day and night connections, stops, brief descriptions and links can also be added. In keeping with the international nature of the map, the content can be entered in four languages (German, French, Italian and English).
A specially developed algorithm automatically generates the route network plan based on this data. Even during processing, SBB can preview the plan before creating the current vector tiles at the touch of a button.
This allows editors to add new connections or edit existing ones with minimal effort. By maintaining the routes in Cartaro, they have maximum flexibility with their entries and at the same time benefit from the automated generation of the map at the touch of a button.
Looking ahead: even more service for rail passengers
International rail transport will continue to grow in importance, offering many opportunities for further development of the ‘Direct connections to Europe’ map. The map is integrated into the SBB website under direct connections and night connections to Europe and, like most of our maps for SBB, is also available on the Trafimage web map portal.
Line network maps also provide a good overview for other applications. In addition to recording them in Cartaro, we also offer the option of automatically calculating route networks for maps with more lines based on timetable data.
