[Preventing railway suicides in Switzerland]

To investigate the development of railway suicides over time in Switzerland and the possible effect of the Swiss Federal Railways (SBB) prevention program.Descriptive-statistical secondary analyses of the Swiss cause of death statistics for the period 1969-2023. The annual incidence rates of railway suicides and all other suicide methods were analysed by age groups (<30, 30-64,>64 years) and sex.Railway suicides followed the general decreasing trend until the early 2000s, reaching a turning point in 2004. For around 10 years, the rate of rail suicides increased until 2013, while the general suicide rate continued to show a downward trend. In 2013, the SBB implemented a multimodal suicide prevention program. From 2014, the rate of railway suicides fell again during the most recent decade.The start of the prevention measures correlates with the decrease in railway suicides, which suggests the effectiveness of the measures.