So many people have asked me how the Swiss achieve their extraordinary level of transport integration.

Helmut Eichhorn runs the SwissPass Alliance, the industry body that makes Swiss public transport feel effortless.

We talk through the machinery of integration: a federal legal duty to offer one ticket, shared back-end platforms for fares and information, standards with a few exceptions and a culture of operators getting in a room (with coffee) to thrash out compromises that last.