It is the largest rail and transport company of Switzerland; it operates on most standard gauge lines of the Swiss railway network.

It also heavily collaborates with most other transport companies of the country, such as the BLS, one of its main competitors, or Südostbahn (SOB), to provide fully integrated timetables with cyclic schedules.

The company is commonly referred to by the initials of its three official names, in German, French and Italian – defined by federal law SR/RS 742.31 (SBBG/LCFF/LFFS) Art.

[e][3][2][4][10] While the official Romansh name, Viafiers federalas svizras (VFF), can be found in federal laws and associated documents,[3][4][2][11] as well as Romansh-language media,[12] it is not used by the company itself.

Other subsidiaries are Thurbo, RegionAlps, AlpTransit Gotthard AG, Cisalpino, and TiLo (the latter in conjunction with Italian authorities).

Swiss Federal Railways hold significant shares of the Zentralbahn (ZB) and Lyria SAS.

This foundation takes care of historic rolling stock and runs a technical library in Bern, document and photographic archives, and the SBB poster collection.

[citation needed] In 1982, SBB introduced the Taktfahrplan (clock-face schedule), with trains for certain destinations leaving every 60 minutes, greatly simplifying the timetable.

[citation needed] On 12 December 2004 the first phase of Bahn2000, an ambitious programme to improve the company's services, was put into effect.

[20] The core element was the Zurich HB–Bern–Basel SBB triangle, where travel times between the cities was reduced to under one hour, resulting in good connections from these stations for most trains.

On 22 June 2005, a short circuit on a long-distance power transmission line in central Switzerland led to a chain reaction.

The entire Swiss railway network was out of service during rush hour and an estimated 200,000 people and 1,500 trains were stuck at stations or somewhere on the track.

The situation led to high-voltage fluctuations and finally breakdown and emergency shutdown of the entire power supply.

The Swiss Federal Railways have many listed buildings from well-known architects such as Herzog & de Meuron, Santiago Calatrava, and Max Vogt.

On 13 January 2019, Bloomberg reported that SBB was in talks with German aviation company Lilium GmbH to create air taxis to carry customers from train stations to their final destination.

The first electric trial runs using single-phase alternating current were made in 1903 on the line Seebach – Wettingen together with the Maschinenfabrik Oerlikon (MFO), using the future Ce 4/4 locomotives ("Eva" and "Marianne").

A shift of paradigms happened in 1946, when the age of modern bogie-based locomotives without trailing axles started with the Re 4/4 I (1946), followed by the Ae 6/6 (1952), Re 4/4 II/Re 4/4 III (1964–1971), Re 6/6 (1972), Re 450 (1989) and Re 460/Re 465 "Lok 2000" (1992–1994).

The Swiss Federal Railways were split into three divisions: passenger, freight and infrastructure, each with independent locomotive supply policies.

On 12 May 2010, the Swiss Federal Railways announced its largest order of rolling stock; buying 59 double-deck EMUs (Twindexx/RABe 502) from Bombardier Inc., plus an option for another 100 trainsets.

For stations of bilingual cities, the language of announcement changes at the time of stop: when trains travelling from the French-speaking region to the German-speaking region via the bilingual city of Biel/Bienne, announcements are made in French until arriving at Bienne, and then switch to German after departing from Biel.

SBB CFF FFS also operates international EuroCity (EC) and EuroNight (EN) trains while within Switzerland, while Deutsche Bahn operates Intercity Express (ICE) services to, from, and (a few services) within the country serving Swiss cities such as Interlaken, Bern, Basel, Zurich, and Chur.

TGV Lyria serves several Swiss cities including Geneva, Lausanne, Basel, Zurich, Bern, and Interlaken.

[33] Since 2018, the SBB uses numbers and distinct colors for all its InterCity (IC) and InterRegio (IR) lines (like a subway network) to ease connections.

The IC, IR and RE (RegioExpress) lines (including alternative routes) are as follows: InterCity (IC) are mainline trains in Switzerland connecting the country's major agglomerations, the range of services (in Switzerland) of which is located between InterRegio (IR, inter-regional) and EuroCity (EC).

For example, SBB started a collaboration with the recruiting matchmaking service, Jacando,[36] and their own co-working space in Zurich.