Switzerland

Switzerland is a landlocked country of about 9.1 million people at the meeting point of central, western and southern Europe, bordered by Germany, France, Austria, Liechtenstein and Italy. It divides into three: the Alps, which cover most of its territory; the Jura mountains along the French border; and the plateau between them, where most Swiss actually live and where Zurich, Geneva, Basel, Bern, Lausanne and Lucerne all sit.

That split is the whole shape of Swiss railways. Across the plateau the federal railway — whose name, SBB CFF FFS, is simply the same name in three of the country's languages — runs a dense, frequent, famously punctual network between the cities. Off the plateau, the lines climb: rack railways, narrow-gauge mountain routes and cable-worked ascents, a great many of them operated by companies other than the federal one, reaching passes and glaciers that most countries would leave to the road. The two halves are sold as one system: SBB issues tickets for public transport journeys across the whole of Switzerland, and day passes that cover a day's unlimited travel, so getting from a city to a mountain is a matter of connections rather than arrangements.