There are some big catches involved. You need to have a Swiss phone number to get bitcoin, so you're not completely anonymous... and of course, you're out of luck if you're not a resident. You also can't buy tickets with bitcoin at the machines, so don't think your bitcoin mining operation will pay for your next trip to Zurich.

The experiment is meant to verify whether or not there's a market for bitcoin. That may be difficult to prove. Even a relatively receptive country like Switzerland only has a limited number of physical stores that accept bitcoin, and there are only so many people willing to swap out money they already have. SBB's advantage may simply be exposure. There are many rail stations in Switzerland, and people who don't know the first thing about bitcoin may hear about it for the first time.