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Except for Geneva, all major Swiss cities have been losing inhabitants since about 1970, while the wider metropolitan areas are still growing. Young people are still moving away from peripheral rural regions. Therefore some peripheral alpine valleys in Switzerland (not the well known tourist destinations, however) might soon face real big problems to keep their infrastructure up and running and to find anybody willing to take over local political offices. In total, Switzerland's society is rather becoming more urban.

Lucerne has incorporated its suburb Littau in 2010, so the current population is about 76,000 inhabitants. The incorporation does not affect the population number given for the metropolitan area (city including suburbs).

Besides, suburbs are growing together and Switzerland's Mittelland region stretching from Lake Geneva to Bodensee is not so far from being just one metropolitan area. Jokingly, people are already addressing the economical center Zurich as Downtown Switzerland and there is a rock band from the Swiss capital Bern ironically calling themselves Züri West ...

Switzerland's major cities and towns

For road maps with detailed route proposals and estimated journey time see: www.map24.ch,
for maps of Swiss cities and towns see: www.ortsplan.ch, www.search.ch or www.google.com

Distances within Switzerland

Distances between cities and towns in Switzerland

1 mile = 1.609 km

How to read this distance table

To keep the table compact, smaller towns can only be found in the rows of the first column, while major cities appear in the other colums as well but with abbreviations only (first column gives abbreviations in brackets, note that abbreviations of cities are not common in Switzerland). Please note that the shortest way is not necessarily the fastest one. There are only two alpine expressways (A2 St. Gotthard and A13 San Bernardino), while there are lots of pass roads with low speed limits due to hairpin curves. Besides, not all pass roads are open all year.

Time needed

Net travel speed by train is about 100 km/hour on main lines and 50 km/h on alpine narrow gauge lines. For travel by car calculate 100 km/h on expressways, 50 km/h on distances below 50 km or in the alps and 20 km/h within metropolitan areas (between cities and their suburbs, see tables below). These figures include effects of speed limits, traffic lights and a certain amount of traffic congestion you are likely to encounter on a daily basis.

Please note that other internet services calculate travel speeds more optimistically. For example one popular service calculates 13 minutes for a 7.2 km journey within Lucerne and its metropolitan area with heavy traffic and dozens of traffic lights corresponding to a net travel speed of 33 km/h [21 mph] - which might be correct in the middle of the night when you find yourself more or less alone on the streets and all traffic lights are just blinking yellow ...

Transit tourists using the alpine routes from northern Europe to Italy should calculate an extra four hours of stop-and-go or even standstill due to heavy congestion on Easter and Pentecoast weekends from Thursday to Tuesday as well as on July / August weekends from Friday to Monday. If you're using a recreational vehicle (RV) or a trailer, add five hours for crossing the alps for reduced uphill and downhill speed and narrow curves as well as for stops needed to letting an overheated engine cool down.

Public transport: trains and buses

For train and bus timetables see www.sbb.ch
Please note that there are no public long distance buses in Switzerland as trains run at half-hourly intervals between cities (and hourly to towns) and are much faster and more comfortable than buses. Besides the capacity of 1,000 passengers per intercity train is absolutely needed from 6:30 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. and from 4:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. You will find public buses within cities and between cities and suburbs in addition to trams as well as bus lines from cities and towns to almost any village in the countryside. Timetables for buses to villages as well as for ships on lakes cruising according to a schedule are integrated on www.sbb.ch. You may even buy one single ticket for a complete journey including train, bus and ship at ticket machines on train stations.

Distances to airports

• Add 5 km for any Swiss destination from Geneva airport (GVA) to distances from Geneva city (GE).
• Add 9 km for any Swiss destination from Basel-Mulhouse Euro-Airport (BSL) to distances from Basel (BS).
• Zurich-Kloten airport (ZRH) is located 12 km north-east of Zurich, see column ZRH for distances to Swiss towns.

Distances on "Diameter Routes"

Mid-sized Swiss Cities in Western Switzerland

Major Suburbs in the Lake Geneva Region

Cities & Towns in the Mittelland Region

Major Suburbs of Basel

Cities & Towns in Central Switzerland

Major Suburbs of Lucerne

Major Suburbs of Zurich

Cities & Towns in Eastern Switzerland

Cities & Towns in Southern Switzerland

Short quotations allowed but with precise declaration of origin (Link).
Reproduction of substantial parts and pictures in printed or electronic form only with explicit written consent by the editor.