Thurbo is a railway company with mostly S-Bahn-style services in Switzerland (cantons of Aargau, Grisons, Schaffhausen, St. Gallen, Thurgau, Zürich), southern Germany (states of Baden-Württemberg, Bavaria), and northwestern Vorarlberg, Austria, jointly owned by Swiss Federal Railways (90%) and the canton of Thurgau. It operates regional transport on a network of 658 km belonging to SBB CFF FFS, with the exception of the route Wil–Weinfelden–Konstanz, which is only maintained by the latter and except tracks in Austria and Germany. As of 2022, the company owns 110 Stadler GTW EMUs and carries 25.8 million passengers a year. The fleet will be renewed with Stadler Flirt Evo trainsets from 2026 onwards. The acronym Thurbo (pronounced as Tour-bo in German) is derived from the river Thur (or the canton of Thurgau, respectively) and the first two letters of Bodensee (German name for Lake Constance), probably on the basis of the homophone turbo.

Description

Thurbo was founded in September 2001 by Swiss Federal Railways (SBB CFF FFS) and Mittelthurgau-Bahn (MThB). Its main business is regional passenger traffic. Infrastructure Kreuzlingen - Weinfelden - Wil SG, taken over from Mittelthurgau-Bahn, is operated by Thurbo but maintained by SBB CFF FFS. Thurbo operates many lines in the Ostwind transit district, including all services of Schaffhausen S-Bahn (since 2013), and most services of St. Gallen S-Bahn. Some lines are part of Bodensee S-Bahn, which includes transborder services between Switzerland and southern Germany (Baden-Württemberg, Bavaria), some operated by SBB GmbH using EMUs of Thurbo, and Austria (Vorarlberg). Several ZVV lines of Zürich S-Bahn are also operated by Thurbo, for example the S26 service in the canton of Zürich between Winterthur and Rüti ZH, or the S36 between Bülach and Waldshut (Germany). Due to increased demand, some services previously operated by Thurbo are now operated by SBB CFF FFS using either double-deck EMUs (e.g., RABe 511) or Re 450 class locomotives pushing or pulling double-deck passenger carriages. THURBO also operates a RegioExpress (RE) between Herisau and Konstanz (Germany) nicknamed der Konstanzer by locals.

Operation

The following services are (or were) operated by THURBO.

Former Mittelthurgaubahn

RegioExpress

Schaffhausen S-Bahn

St. Gallen S-Bahn

Previous operations

Zürich S-Bahn

Previous operations

Rolling stock

THURBO's fleet consists of Starting in 2026, the current fleet will be replaced stepwise with Stadler FLIRT Evo trainsets as part of a large order by SBB, Thurbo and RegionAlps.