Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Buy a train, bridge or tracks from the Swiss Railway

sbbresale.ch

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

101–110 of 119 posts

Re: Buy a train, bridge or tracks from the Swiss Railway

#101

Post by secretsatan »

nairboon wrote: post #45
classified wrote: post #33

Holy fuck, they do have a bridge to sell you. Although it's only available from 2027-04-01. April fools?

It's available from 2027-04-01 to 2027-05-01, so basically deconstruction will be done during April. The bridge seems to be legit from 1876. Local news says they'd rather sell it to someone for cheap to support circular economy than throw it into the trash. https://www.tagesanzeiger.ch/sbb-verkauft-historische-brueck... You might be able to make a good deal here, buy a bridge for 100 bucks.

Pretty sure that here in switzerland, demolition has to be as recyclable as possible, straight up selling the whole thing would be cost effective i guess.

Re: Buy a train, bridge or tracks from the Swiss Railway

#103

Post by amunozo »

s1artibartfast wrote: post #87

The Swiss Federal Railways is a really interesting organizational model. It is run as government owened private corporation. it can issue it's own bonds and the swiss states (cantons) enter purchase contract negotiations with it for service. The federal goverment beurocrats provide arms length objectives, and the coorporation figures out how to acheive them. SBB profits do not feed into the government general fund, b…

And employee told me that SBB is the second biggest landlord in the country and real state is its most profitable branch. I cannot confirm it, though.

Re: Buy a train, bridge or tracks from the Swiss Railway

#104

Post by gpvos »

mrlonglong wrote: post #91
gpvos wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The infrastructure operators have to allow anyone with a train operating license on their tracks, and such license is very nontrivial to acquire. Usually you would hire a train from a train operating company, and those companies are not required to rent out their trains - although several have been set up explicitly with that goal, of course.

Back in Victorian times very rich people owned their own railway carriage which they would have hauled across country.

Basically like it still is in the US.

Re: Buy a train, bridge or tracks from the Swiss Railway

#105

Post by bombcar »

fineIllregister wrote: post #14
kortilla wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is there someone that does this frequently with a breakdown in costs and their experience? This sounds lit as a goal for an eccentric millionaire.

I don't have personal experience, but I've heard it's not viable. The biggest issue is that Amtrak offers the service on a "best effort" basis, which means that if the train you want to hook up to is running late (which this frequently are due to conflicts with cargo traffic), they won't hook your car up, and you have to wait for the next train, which also might not be able to hook you up.

Part of doing this is knowing the rules and the “real rules” - you have the car attached at an end node (Los Angeles or San Diego, say) even if your group gets on in Burbank.

Re: Buy a train, bridge or tracks from the Swiss Railway

#106

Post by mamonster »

amunozo wrote: post #103
s1artibartfast wrote: post #87

The Swiss Federal Railways is a really interesting organizational model. It is run as government owened private corporation. it can issue it's own bonds and the swiss states (cantons) enter purchase contract negotiations with it for service. The federal goverment beurocrats provide arms length objectives, and the coorporation figures out how to acheive them. SBB profits do not feed into the government general fund, b…

And employee told me that SBB is the second biggest landlord in the country and real state is its most profitable branch. I cannot confirm it, though.

They are the 2nd biggest after Swisslife (I think?), but the profitability is kind of a bad metric because they are required to both fund their pension fund (36 thousand employees) and invest into infrastructure from this money. They make something like 250mio CHF before their commitments to infra + pensions and only have 30 million left over.

There are now a lot of complaints/demands that they should be required to make more affordable housing with their portfolio.

Re: Buy a train, bridge or tracks from the Swiss Railway

#107

Post by amunozo »

mamonster wrote: post #106
amunozo wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And employee told me that SBB is the second biggest landlord in the country and real state is its most profitable branch. I cannot confirm it, though.

They are the 2nd biggest after Swisslife (I think?), but the profitability is kind of a bad metric because they are required to both fund their pension fund (36 thousand employees) and invest into infrastructure from this money. They make something like 250mio CHF before their commitments to infra + pensions and only have 30 million left over. There are now a lot of complaints/demands that they should be required to…

That's what I heard yes, that SwissLife was the biggest. I kind of like the idea, but at the same time it creates a lot of conflicts of interest.

Re: Buy a train, bridge or tracks from the Swiss Railway

#108

Post by Symbiote »

cybrox wrote: post #79
adityamwagh wrote: post #67

They are selling a bridge?? https://sbbresale.ch/offers/6a19702ea15ad61283c952ae

Why not? I'm pretty sure they know roundabout what it would cost to tear it down, so why not see if someone is willing to buy it because they think they can get the work done cheaper and make a profit off the raw material.

The opposite -- it said elsewhere they will accept a low offer if it means the historic bridge is preserved.

Re: Buy a train, bridge or tracks from the Swiss Railway

#109

Post by GJim »

dhosek wrote: post #30
wongarsu wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When London Bridge was sold in the 1960s it was also on the buyer to pick it up from its original location and transport it to the US

I remember the day I decided to finally go see the London Bridge and I drove over it three times trying to find it.

> I drove over it three times

You tried driving in central London? Are you mad?

Re: Buy a train, bridge or tracks from the Swiss Railway

#110

Post by panick21_ »

rsynnott wrote: post #82
panick21_ wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Monorails suck and are properity garabage. Is a recepy for bad transit at increase cost.

This one seems to work... surprisingly well, considering how bonkers it is: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wuppertal_Schwebebahn I've always wondered why they've been so generally unsuccessful; conventional elevated rail works fairly well, and at least in theory they should be much cheaper and less obtrusive.

I didnt say they dont work. You just end up with highly costume properitery stuff.
Post reply on HN