Zurich's Central Station has taken first place in the European railway station index 2026 for the fifth time in a row. According to the Consumer Choice Center, delays here amount to just 4 percent, and the average waiting time is 1,2 minutes.
The ranking covers 60 of the continent's busiest stations. Punctuality, accessibility, in-station services, Wi-Fi and route coverage were assessed. Swiss stations on the whole demonstrate a national punctuality rate of 94,1 percent.
Second place went to Paris's Gare du Nord: there delays fell to 5 percent, and waiting time to 0,4 minutes. Third was Amsterdam Centraal. Fourth place belongs to Poland's Wrocław Główny, while fifth was shared by Bern's station and Paris's Gare Montparnasse.
At the opposite end of the list are German stations. Bremen's Hauptbahnhof came last: 63 percent of trains delayed and an average wait of about 20 minutes. Of the 19 German stations in the ranking, not one made the top ten, and 15 ended up in the bottom half.
Lucerne recorded the lowest percentage of delays — 0,3. The Europe-wide delay rate was about 29 percent, while in Germany it was 49,4 percent, with an average wait of 14,74 minutes.
Such results highlight just how much investment in infrastructure and management affects passengers' everyday experience. The reliability of railways remains a key factor for those who choose the train over a plane or a car.
