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Reviews

SBB RABe_501 3


Overall rating very good
5 reviews
8,2/10
Seat comfort: 7,2
Coach equipment: 8,6
Lighting: 7,4
Noise level: 8,2
Temperature: 9,6

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8,6
  • Seat comfort: 7
  • Coach equipment: 9
  • Lighting: 10
  • Noise level: 7
  • Temperature: 10

Seats were ergonomic but quite frim. They recline a little with a lever under the seat via sliding the seatbase forward, however legroom is very limited in bays of fours, though that is unfortunately expected for that kind of seating. Power sockets can be found between the seats themselves, one socket per seat, if I remember correctly. One of these is a Swiss, and the other is an EU standard Schuko plug. The Swiss one will be compatible with all if not ungrounded EU devices, such as phone chargers and stuff.

Large overhead racks, no issues there. Windows are pretty tall on the seats situated in the low floor parts of the train. However, the ones over the bogies will be fairly small. This train has level boarding for 760 mm platforms and for 550 mm in some coaches. This makes boarding with large bags fairly painless, thumbs up to Stadler for that. This does mean ramps throughout, however I found them unproblematic to traverse. A lot less problematic than stairs, at the very least.

A/C worked fine, so did the Wi-Fi (even inside the Gotthard Basistunnel = GBT). There are information displays, and announcements are made in multiple languages.

Lavatory doors have these cool capacitive door handles, that is pretty neat. What isn't neat is the way they decided to gender separate the bathrooms. Since then, they have reversed this, but there still is a urinal booth sorth of thing that only male passengers can use. (Biology, go figure.) Not cool, SBB.

Ride quality was good, though not exceptional. It is important to note, that the fastest I went with the Giruno was 200 km/h in the GBT, so nowhere near top speeds. Noise levels were not great in the tunnel (not that there is any train quiet in a tunnel), and were great at lower speeds, but that is really not where a train like this shows it's true potential. One note, is that if you are seated near a motor bogie (which I did on purpouse), you WILL hear the traction equipment. Now if you are a railfan, that is great, I enjoyed the hell out of it. To some it might get slightly annoying, however. All that said, it is still not loud, but it is an extra noise regardles, and it is louder than traction equipment on trains like the Frecciarossa 1000s. I did also observe pressure keeping to be great at the speeds we did.

TheHorisonBOi | 11.8.2026
9,8
  • Seat comfort: 9
  • Coach equipment: 10
  • Lighting: 10
  • Noise level: 10
  • Temperature: 10

Seats are good but hard

Dodo | 10.7.2026
5,0
  • Seat comfort: 3
  • Coach equipment: 5
  • Lighting: 1
  • Noise level: 7
  • Temperature: 9
Bmz51 | 8.7.2026
8,6
  • Seat comfort: 9
  • Coach equipment: 9
  • Lighting: 8
  • Noise level: 8
  • Temperature: 9
simobarrato | 7.7.2026
9,0
  • Seat comfort: 8
  • Coach equipment: 10
  • Lighting: 8
  • Noise level: 9
  • Temperature: 10
TPG836 | 6.7.2026
The review applies to the following coaches:


SBB RABe_501 3
54 4


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