It can happen to anyone — a moment of inattention and you leave your belongings on a train in Switzerland. What does (usually) happen next?
As soon as you realise that you got off the train without your stuff, notify the railway company, SBB, by submitting a report online, filling in all the details.
If someone honest (as many Swiss tend to be) sees your forgotten belongings and notifies the conductor, odds are strongly in your favour that you will eventually be reunited with your lost property.
But, this being organised and orderly Switzerland, there is a proper procedure that needs to be activated in order for you to recover your bag (and whatever else you left behind).
What exactly needs to be done?
Regardless of where in Switzerland you forgot your belongings, they will end up in the central ‘Lost & Found’ office in Bern.
However, once your report is filed and received, your bag will be waiting to be retrieved at the station of your choice.
The SBB does charge you for this service, with the amount based on the kind of travel card you have: 5 francs with GA Travelcard, 10 francs with Half Fare Travelcard / annual season ticket, or 20 francs without either.
An interesting thing will happen if you carried euros or any other foreign currency in your wallet.
As reported by Watson news platform, you will not receive your original currency back, because it will be converted — and restituted to you — in francs.
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Why is that?
It is the typical procedure for these kinds of cases, according to SBB spokesperson Frédéric Revaz.
When you report your bag and money lost, you will be asked not only for the exact amount and currency, but also the number of bills that were in your wallet (you’d better develop a photographic memory).
Once the lost bag reaches Bern, money is removed “for security reasons,” Revaz said.
The bag is then sent (minus the cash) to the train station of your choice, but since smaller ones may not carry foreign currency, the SBB’s solution is to have the lost amount converted, into the equivalent sum in francs.
“Returning the amount in francs is the safest and simplest way,” Revaz added.
