Bright news is that 2013 should be better
Swiss Alps, winter 2012
BERN, SWITZERLAND – Glum news out of Bern for the Swiss tourism industry Tuesday 22 May won’t surprise anyone: the strong franc and weak euro are hurting the tourism industry this year. The latest forecast for the summer season is a drop of 1.7 percent overall, but 3.4 percent for tourists from abroad.
Two factors that are saving the situation somewhat are strong demand at home, with the Swiss visiting their own country, and continuing strong demand from Asia. Seco, the economics ministry, notes that while strong demand from Asia’s emerging economies helps, they remain too small a share of overall tourism to make up for significant losses from neighbours France, Italy and Germany.
The glum outlook follows a morose winter season, down 3.4 percent compared to the previous year, but with Swiss resorts showing a 6 percent drop despite wonderful snowfalls, due to poor weather in December followed by bitter cold in February.
The forecast for 2013 is brighter, expected to rise 1 percent with a 2.7 percent for 2014.
Traffic jam on the A9 last Wednesday evening
LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND – Smart highways could be around the corner in Switzerland, with EPFL, the federal polytechnic institute in Lausanne, undertaking a study to improve traffic flows by using stoplights to enter highways, with funding from the Swiss Federal Roads Office.
There may be a growing sense of urgency to resolve highway traffic jams; Lausanne recently argued for more money more rapidly for trains in order to smooth out timetables for public transport and thus reduce city traffic jams. And EPFL says some recent studies show that from 2009 to 2010, an only 2.6 percent increase in highway traffic raised the number of reported traffic jams by a third.
The team has already concluded that a more effective solution would be monitoring and regulating traffic flows over a longer stretch to reduce traffic jams. The goal is to develop intelligent traffic management systems to optimize traffic flow on highways in real-time, by enforcing variable speed limits on highways and setting up traffic lights on the highway’s access ramps, EPFL says in a statement.
Lights can cut delays by 10-20%
“Experience from around the world has shown that ramp metering can reduce delays on highways by between 10 to 20 percent,” says Nikolas Geroliminis, head of the Luts (laboratory of urban transport systems) programme at the university. “Reduced congestion leads to less stop-and-go traffic, less gasoline consumption and CO2 emissions.”
Traffic lights to enter highways date back decades and are used in many parts of the world, but Switzerland’s situation has two special features. Entry ramps are very short in many areas and traffic jams in urban areas, with narrow streets, can quickly spread back from the autoroute entrance to city centres.
System-wide strategy needed
“What we need is a strategy that can control the influx of cars on all of the highway access points simultaneously to adapt to the queue on the road,” says Geroliminis. he explains. Queues on access ramps and highway congestion can be reduced by controlling speed limits and highway access across a large portion of the network, he argues.
His research group is developing an algorithm to control the traffic lights and speed limits. “Using data obtained from traffic monitoring devices mounted along the highway and on access roads, the algorithm would act as a virtual traffic warden, smoothing traffic by regulating the speed limit and restricting traffic flow onto the highway in real-time”, the EPFL statement says.
The team has selected two frequently congested highway segments they say, one of them in Vaud, to provide traffic data and serve as a test sites for their models.
The data obtained could be used to test the fesability of their method using computer simulations. The next question is whether the roads office would be willing to fund a full-scale field implementation of their strategy, but backing could well come from the regional development programme and the city of Lausanne, which are looking to improve traffic flows in the next decade.
Loose wood and petrol in the tunnel caused huge detour and 20km traffic jam at start of holiday
Motorists coming out of the 20km traffic jam were met near Vevey by a very local cloudburst that did little to speed up traffic
LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND – Vaud police are looking for a driver who lost a pallet of wood Wednesday afternoon on the A9 autoroute. The wood slid off the unknown vehicle about 100 metres into the Flonzalley tunnel after Lausanne, heading in the direction of Vevey. The wood scattered and was run over by eight vehicles, hitting the gas tank of one of them. Several other vehicles that either hit or tried to avoid the wood were spun off the road.
Fortunately, say police, there were no victims, but the damage to property is considerable.
The petrol that spilled from the damaged tank spread along several hundred metres in the tunnel. Police quickly closed off the area for 25 minutes and sent some of the traffic on a long detour towards Yverdon and Bern before it headed back in the direction of Valais.
One lane was opened later, but with traffic was predictably heavy at the start of the four-day Ascension holiday weekend, a traffic jam some 20km long bogged down traffic as far back as the Ste Croix junction at Crissier. Traffic moved at a crawl until well after 18:00, when both lanes were opened, just as very local showers hit the area.
The accident required six police teams, fire trucks, special highway department units and a high-pressure cleaning machine.
Police are asking anyone with information about the driver and the vehicle that was carrying the wood to contact them at +41 21 644 4444 or to contact the nearest police station.
Truck overturned, en route to Gondo, on the Swiss-Italian border, closed the Simplon pass Tuesday afternoon
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – A truck overturned Tuesday 15 May at 14:20 on the downhill side of the Simplon pass, heading towards Italy. The 56-year-old Italian driver was injured slightly. The road was closed following the accident.
He was returning from Visp in canton Valais to Torino, Italy when the truck went onto its side on a hairpin bend near Gondo.
Police have not yet determined what caused the accident.
A9 new radar speeding fines kick in 16 May
LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND – One year of testing and improving the ANPR radar system on the stretch of A9 autoroute between Aigle and Bex has come to an end and starting tomorrow you’ll pay the price if you put your foot on the pedal too hard.
Police in Vaud say fines will be issued starting 16 May.
Foreign drivers will also be fined or worse
Foreigners beware, you’re included: police here have agreements with France and Germany and fines and other penalties are sent automatically directly to them. Reminder: the Swiss autoroute speed limit is 120kph unless marked otherwise.
Jean-Christophe Sauterel, head of communications for Vaud Police, told GenevaLunch that drivers from elsewhere can also be denounced to police in their own countries; the difference is that the process is simply not automatic.
The ANPR radars, unlike traditional ones, measure a car’s speed over a distance, rather than at one point. Trialing the system over the 8km Aigle-Bex area just before the border with canton Valais has shown that the system is effective in smoothing out the flow of traffic and improving safety. Speeding has fallen by 40 percent overall, and speeding at more than 10kph above the limit has gone down by 60 percent on the largely straight, flat stretch of road.
The radar was put into use in May 2011, but ran into problems in June and July when unusually hot weather caused the devices, made by Multanova, to function incorrectly some of the time. The latest devices, a new generation model, have been adjusted over the past few months and integrated into the automatic fines system.
Beware, drivers with trailers
The one group whose speed has not been reduced significantly is cars and campers with trailers, who are limited to 80kph. The new radars recognizes and measures different types of vehicles according to their allowed speed limits, and police in Vaud are urging this group to slow down or pay the price.
Canton Vaud tells Bern: pump money into public transport
The slow boat to Lausanne: the canton would like to see low-energy but high-speed options developed
LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND – Cleaner air, healthier citizens, faster transport – Canton Vaud’s infrastructure department head François Marthaler says we can have it all, by speeding up investments in public transport, and he is calling on Bern to do so.
Marthaler’s demand in a statement from the cantonal council Friday 11 May comes on the heels of the first federal microcensus for transport and mobility, issued last week. The federal figures, combined with other cantonal numbers, show that train use is on the rise and cars are gradually slipping from favour.
Switzerland until recently ran a census every 10 years, but the use of digital databases has made it practical to compile annual microcensuses that focus on a limited number of subjects which were previously part of the longer-term census.
Regular use of public transport up
More than 60,000 people took part in the mobility microcensus. It shows that cars used as a share of overall transport have fallen from 77 percent in 2000 to 75 percent in 2005 and 72 percent in 2010. The number of cars per inhabitant has also been sliding, from 530 per 1,000 during the 2001-2005 period to 512 per 1,000 last year.
Worth noting: population growth was 1.9 percent, or 13,500 people more, from 2010 to 2011.
Vaud residents are becoming more regular public transport users, with 46 percent of them having some form of special rate “abonnement” card, compared to 37 percent in 2005.
The canton argues that the CHF6 billion earmarked by the federal government as an optional budget item to speed up the expansion of regional train service is the minimum for what needs to be invested.
Improving car traffic will make public transport function better
The council makes the argument that the project to improve the ring road around Lausanne is crucial to help the shift to public transport: if traffic is drained from Lausanne more rapidly onto the autoroute, public transport in the city will function more effectively.
Another crucial part of the transport picture is bicycles and pedestrians and here, the council notes, Vaud lags behind the rest of Switzerland. The potential to develop bicycle and pedestrian paths is huge, says the council, which would like to see these developed more in the greater Lausanne area.
Looking north from Cornavin station in Geneva, area of planned extension
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Swiss travelers increased their use of trains by 27 percent from 2005 to 2010 and one of the fastest-growing train routes, in terms of passenger numbers, is the Lausanne-Geneva line. The CFF and Geneva have begun studying its options for the next stage after its current renovations: extending the station to handle traffic that will double on the line by 2030.
The CFF rail company announced 1 May that it has concluded that the best solution is to extend the station north of the existing rail tracks.
An alternative proposed by a group called Collectif 500 is for an underground extension of the station, but the CFF says that after five meetings with the group it has become apparent that growing north of the station is the best alternative.
Collectif 500 is holding its next meeting Monday 14 May to fight the decision, which appears to have the backing of the Cantonal Council.
The extension would involve demolishing 350 buildings, most of them owned by the canton, of which about 300 would be rebuilt, says the CFF. But for Collectif 500 the project, labeled “absurd and incoherent”, would force 1,000 tenants out of their homes in three neighbourhoods, Grottes, Malatrex, Ilôt 13.
And it takes them only 92 minutes to cover the distance
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – The Swiss are on the move, with train travel inside the country up in particular, figures from the new federal “Microcensus” show. Each Swiss resident six years or older “covered a daily distance of almost 37km within Switzerland in 2010.
Two-thirds of that distance was covered in cars, but train travel is on the rise in this nation that rides the train more than any other country’s residents: up 27 percent in five years.
The growth in road traffic parallels that of the population, which increased 5.5 percent from 2005 to 2010.
Swiss remain world travelers
The Swiss travel 20,500km a year, a distance equal to going halfway around the globe, and one-third of that is spent on travel outside the country, the microcenss shows.
The 37km were covered in 92 minutes, including waiting time and transfers, the statistics show. They were gathered by questioning 63,000 people.
The Federal Statistical Office (FSO) and the Federal Office for Spatial Development (ARE) carried out the Mobility and Transport Microcensus, part of the new modular census that “analyses today’s accelerated social change much more effectively than was previously the case” with the old 10-year censuses.
Here’s how we moved: 23.8km by car, 8.6km using public transport and 2.8km on foot or bicycle.
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Fame has suddenly hit the Graubuenden hamlet of Obermutten and so far, it’s just what the townfolk wanted. Mayor M Wyss and G Flatscher, who owns the single restaurant, decided last year that the village, with all its typical Swiss mountain charm, should create a Facebook page that would increase visitors.
He made one firm promise, to post every visitor’s photo on the village notice board if they “liked” the page. Soon the notice board was covered, and as the buzz picked up speed, the village’s barn walls also began to be covered with the pictures.
The page now has more than 17,000 likes and the English version of a video showing the village has had nearly 44,000 views (the German version: 3,500). And tourism has picked up, reports tnooz, a travel industry web site. “The Obermutten page now has more fans than some of the most popular tourist traps in Europe and the regional Grabunden tourist board site has since its web traffic soar by 250%. But more importantly, at the height of the ‘campaign’ four out of five fans regularly interacted with page and each other – a figure its creators reckon is higher than pages belonging to Lady Gaga, Justin Bieber and Coca-Cola.”
Here’s the first video of 11 the village has posted on its page, and a more recent one, in English. You also get a peek at some ibex.
https://www.facebook.com/obermutten
Parent company plans 3,500 job cuts worldwide “in coming years”
ZURICH, SWITZERLAND – Airline Swiss and its mother company Lufthansa both showed losses for the first quarter of 2012, a year that the parent firm expects to remain difficult. Lufthansa posted a loss of euros 397, despite higher passenger traffic that resulted in revenues of euros 6.6 billion, a 5.6 percent increase.
High oil prices were the main culprit but the company noted its earning were also hit by “the air traffic tax imposed in Germany and Austria and the costs of emissions trading in force in Germany since 2012 all had an adverse effect on the Group’s operating result.”
Swiss showed an operating loss of euros 6 million and its sister airline in the Lufthansa Passenger Airlines group had a loss of euros 67m, out of a total loss of euros 442m for the group.
Lufthansa says its cost-cutting plan “is to be achieved partly by cancelling loss-making routes and restricting capacity growth, which has been set at zero for 2012 and a maximum of four per cent for the years 2013 and 2014 each.” It is stepping up its investment in first-class service, saying it intends “to remain the European airline with the most First Class seats by far.”
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – The new doubledecker trains called Duplex Regio CFF that will be put into service on two lines by 9 December 2012 had their first ride on the rails Thursday 26 April. The trains were unveiled for officials and guests on a run from Romont to Geneva.
The trains are part of a fleet of 13 that will provide 33 percent more seats and more trains overall in French-speaking Switzerland. Passenger traffic in the region has increased by 44 percent in the past eight years.
The new trains, which each have 337 seats (277 in second class), will be used on the Geneva-Lausanne-Romont and Geneva-Lausanne-Vevey CFF lines. The trains will be doubled during rush hour, with 674 seats each.
They will be put into operation progressively, with the first one going into service in June. The CFF will hold open houses in September in seven cities to introduce the public to the new trains.
One of the most recently added velopass stations: EPFL's Innovation Quarter, in Lausanne, in November 2011 (photo: velopass)
BERN, SWITZERLAND – Switzerland now has a national self-service bicycle rental system, with the purchase by PostBus Switzerland for an undisclosed sum of the Lausanne company velopass. PostBus moved into the mainly urban bike rental business in August 2011 when it opened its PubliBike network in German-speaking Switzerland. Velopass has the country’s largest bicycle-sharing system, with 11 cities that operate 20 networks in French-speaking Switzerland and Ticino.
The group has some 800 bicycles, 11,000 subscribers and has logged more than 245,000 bike rentals since it opened in 2009.
The new deal combines the two to provide national coverage and passes purchased for either one will be valid throughout the combined network. PostBus calls it the “logical outcome of close cooperation between the two companies in the central Valais canton network (Sion) since November 2010″. The company says the bicycle sharing system “brings added value to Switzerland’s current public transportation system services”.
The nine employees of velopass will keep their jobs under the new owner.
Bicycle-sharing is used mainly by commuters and city-dwellers rather than tourists in Switzerland, although the bicycles are available for 24 hour passes. Annual subscriptions cost CHF25 to 60 a year depending on how much of the network the client chooses to access. The first 30 minutes are free and cyclists pay CHF1 an hour after that. Regional and national passes come with two free hours.
The passes can be ordered online, including 24-hour passes that cost CHF5 (plus a one-time registration fee of CHF10), but three days must be allowed for delivery by mail.
Another bike rental system that combines well with the public transport systems is Rent-a-bike, run by the CFF rail company.
LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND – The Tour de Romandie bicycle race gets underway Tuesday 24 April, with racers facing nearly 700 km run over the course of the six-day race and 8,800 metres of altitude differences.
Tuesday’s prologue takes the riders along the Ouchy quai in Lausanne towards Morges. The first race is Wednesday, from Morges to La Chaux-de-Fonds and it ends in Crans-Montana Sunday 29 April.
Vaud police are alerting motorists that traffic facing the oncoming race will be stopped and drivers will have to be patient while the race passes, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday. Areas affected:
Wednesday 25 April
Morges - La Chaux-de-Fonds
Departure Morges, Quai du Mont-Blanc (12h35) – Echichens – Romanel-sur-Morges – Aclens – Gollion – Allens – Cossonay (12h54) – La Sarraz – Pompaples – Arnex-sur-Orbe – Orbe (13h14) – Mathod – Montagny – Les Tuileries – Grandson (13h35) – Onnens – Corcelles-Concise – Concise (13h46) – Canton de Neuchâtel
Friday 27 April
La Neuveville – Charmey
Departure Canton de Berne (13h30) – Canton de Fribourg (13h50) – Mur (14h03) – Guévaux – Vallamand – Vallamand-Dessous – Salavaux (14h09) – Canton de Fribourg – Missy (14h17) – Vallon – Ressudens – Grandcour (14h23) – Canton de Fribourg – Yvonand (14h48) – Arrissoules – Rovray – Chavannes-le-Chêne – Combremont-le-Petit – Cremin – Lucens (15h20) -Curtilles – Sarzens – Brenles (15h35) – Canton de Fribourg
Saturday 28 April
Bulle – Sion
Departure Canton de Fribourg (12h25) – La Tine (13h05) – Rossinière – Les Moulins – L’Etivaz – La Lécherette – Col des Mosses (13h42) – La Comballaz – Aigle (13h57) – Bex (14h10) – Canton du Valais
La Suisse celebrating 100 years on Lake Geneva, in 2010
LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND – Swiss Navigation Day Sunday 29 April comes with some of the best deals in ages for travel on Lake Geneva.
The CGN, which owns the fleet of Lake Geneva steamers as well as the Navibus lake commuter fleet, will be offering up to one-third off regular ticket prices for the day, so a day ticket for a CFF half-price card owner will be only CHF20, for example. Children pay CHF10 and first class will be CHF30 instead of CHF90 for the day.
The Simplon will make a Geneva-Lausanne roundtrip excursion, with a stop in Yvoire. The La Suisse steamboat will do the trip from Lausanne to the beautiful Lavaux terraced vineyards, one of CGN’s most popular trips.
The company will have gourmet cruises and for those with a more modest budget the menu for the day is CHF20, children’s dish CHF113.50.
Track 1 in Geneva: station makeover will mean changes to train schedules 20-22 April
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – The major overhaul of the Geneva train stations and its tracks, a three-year project, will have an impact on traffic this coming weekend, 20-22 April.
The CFF rail company’s list of changes, which go into effect Friday at 21:50:
ICN (intercity) trains cancelled between Geneva airport and Nyon: travelers should take the InterRegio train from the airport to Lucerne line, which will stop at Nyon (normally doesn’t) – the InterRegio trains leave the Cornavin station in the city centre four minutes earlier than the ICN trains;
some EuroCity and RegioExpress trains will be extended from Geneva to the airport, to ensure regular links;
The regional Coppet-Lancy-Pont Rouge trains will not operate between the Genève-Sécheron and Lancy-Pont-Rouge stops; buses will replace them between Genève-Sécheron and Cornavin, leaving Cornavin 10 minutes earlier to make sure travelers can make their train connections;
Anyone going to Lancy-Pont-Rouge should take the number 15 tram.
Service will return to normal with the first trains Monday morning 25 April.
A bumpy ride to Zurich was due to pilot fatigue
ZURICH, SWITZERLAND - A January 2011 flight that landed seven Air Canada passengers in hospital in Zurich was initially declared to be due to turbulence, but Canada’s Transportation Safety Board has found otherwise.
The government body issued a report Monday 16 April that says Air Canada flight 878 from Toronto to Zurich 13 January of last year had a 46-second “pitch excursion” due to pilot fatigue.
The plane’s first officer took a nap, with the captain’s permission, but when he awoke he confused Venus an a US military plane flying in the area. Soon after he took action to avoid the plane, as he saw it, and the result, in official terms, was “an altitude deviation of minus 400 feet to plus 400 feet from the assigned altitude of 35 000 feet above sea level. Fourteen passengers and 2 flight attendants were injured.”
The accident, analyzed at length in the CTSB’s report, draws attention to the issue of airline pilot fatigue. The report notes that:
“Night flights from North America to Europe have an inherent risk of fatigue for North American–based pilots. Most of these pilots fly a small number of night–time legs per month and revert to sleeping at night when not working. The circadian system of pilots who fly only a small number of night–time legs will not adapt to working at night, and these pilots are likely to display performance decrements during the night–time legs in spite of any countermeasures.
“To counter fatigue, some pilots will try to nap before a night–time leg. While this can be helpful in some cases, it cannot prevent fatigue in all pilots. Moreover, it is not always possible to obtain an adequate amount of good quality sleep during the day 9 and, coupled with a small number of night–time legs, performance decrements will persist.
“In addition, these types of flights are characterized by long periods of darkness with few operational demands while mid–Atlantic, creating inherently soporific conditions. It is not until the flight approaches the coast of Europe at dawn that pilots experience reduced sleepiness as the daylight and circadian rhythms start to alleviate some of the fatigue. Nonetheless, the high workload requirements of approach and landing have to be borne at a time when there is a significant risk of pilot fatigue.”
New trains linking German-speaking Switzerland and Ticino will cut travel time
Three years ago tunnelers celebrated the two ends of the St Gotthard meeting; in 5 years the tunnel will better link Zurich and Ticino
ZURICH, SWITZERLAND – The CFF Swiss rail company 16 April put out for tender at least 29 new trains, a CHF800 million project to put wheels on the tracks of the new St Gotthard and Ceneri tunnels in 2017. Traffic will double on the north-south Swiss train route once the tunnels are opened, says the CFF, travel time will be cut and the emphasis will be placed on punctuality.
The order will be for 29 trains, with an option for more based on need.
The new trains will be able to reach speeds of 249 kph and can be as long as 400 metres, creating 70 percent more seats than the trains currently in operation, which are 230 metres long.
The exact amount of time to be saved by travelers will be known this summer, when the preliminary schedule is published; the CFF insists that a greater priority than speed is ensuring that the trains respect the timetable.
The new trains, which will feature electronic reservations, will improve passenger comfort and convenience, says the CFF: the number of seats occupied will be displayed inside and outside the cars, restaurant car, quiet spaces, family and business spaces, electric plugs for all seats, good cell phone reception and a local WLAN wifi connection.
The new self-propelled trains will provide stronger links between Switzerland and Germany in the north and Italy in the south, with the trains set to meet their rail standards, which will allow them to deliver passengers to urban areas across the borders.
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – The six thermal baths resorts in canton Valais are joining forces for marketing purposes and investing CFH100 to increase Valais’s attraction as a thermal spa centre, they announced Wednesday 11 April. Two-thirds of the money will go to more hotel beds and the rest to improving the baths.
The six are: Breiten, Brigerbad, Leukerbad, Saillon, Ovronnaz and Val d’Illiez. The projects for each vary, from Brigerbad’s consstruction of an indoor centre to Ovronnaz will get a new spa and Saillon a new hotel.
Leukerbad (Loeche-les-bain in French), with 10 thermal baths, is building an apart-hotel as its share in the improvements
Two-wheelers can expect police checks
Police in Switzerland step up preventive actions when the weather turns warm and bikers take to the road and particularly to winding mountain roads (photo, Valais Alps)
LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND – Police in canton Vaud are repeating what they say was a successful preventive project a year ago, to alert motorcyclists to dangers over the Easter weekend.
Police teams will be visibly out in a number of areas to encourage motorcyclists to give their bikes safety checks and to openly discourage them from using stretches of road that are popular with bikers for racing.
Eight motorcyclists lost their lives on Vaud roads in 2011 and six were caused by the motorcycle drivers, statistics released in late March show.
The dates and places where police say they will be very much in evidene:
Friday 6 April, Nyon route Blanche and La Givrine route de St-Cergue
Saturday 7 April, Ste-Croix route de Mauborget and Col du Mollendruz
Sunday 8 April, Château d’Oex route de l’Etivaz and Col des Mosses
Monday 9 April, Crissier rue du Timonet and RC Lausanne-Vevey Sous-Dézaley.
Swiss autoroute jam earlier in the week, on the A9
ZURICH, SWITZERLAND – The Gotthard tunnel at noon Friday 6 March had stationary traffic for 9 km on the north side, as Good Friday traffic builds up, the federal road service’s Truckinfo site shows. Traffic is very slow heading south from Chur due congested conditions, but several other parts of the country, particularly autoroutes around urban centres, have very slow traffic doe to accidents and road works.
The site is updated every five minutes.
Check the Easter traffic alert from the Swiss highway department for peak times on main routes.
Photo: ©2012 SBB/CFF Swiss rail
BERN, SWITZERLAND – The CFF is putting on 13 extra trains and adding cars to a number of trains between Thursday 5 April and Monday 9 April to handle the long Easter weekend traffic.
The additions will create some 30,000 extra seats, with the CFF noting that it wants to encourage travelers to avoid clogging roads, but that they should be able to travel seat, in comfort.
Most of the extra seats are on trains to and from Valais, Graubuenden and Ticino, the country’s biggest tourist regions.
CFF web pages with details on Easter traffic and extra trains
Swiss taxi waiting for customer - Photo courtesy of TaxiSwiss
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Swiss cantons and communes should allow greater competition among taxi services, says Comco, the Swiss Competition Commission. Services from other areas should be given more freedom, in particular the commission says.
Local authorities in several major Swiss cities are not applying federal competition regulations, says Comco, citing the federal Internal Markets Law, when it comes to allowing out-of -area taxis to work within their communes. Comco’s report, issued last week, is based on research into taxi services in Basel, Zurich and Bern.
The report recommends that authorities issue operating concessions (licenses) to taxis from other localities and that they open parking areas for taxis to all cab operators without discrimination.
A recent German study shows cab fares in Swiss cities to be much pricier than those in Germany and Austria.
Swiss taxi waiting for customer - Photo courtesy of TaxiSwiss
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Ever feel like it’s more expensive taking a cab in Switzerland than in other countries? It’s not your imagination. According to a comparative study of taxi rates in Austria, Germany and Switzerland, for most types of trips, the Swiss have the highest daytime cab fares.
The German portal ab-in-den-urlaub.de, compared taxicab fares in 128 cities in the three countries. The results show that taking a taxi in a Swiss city costs twice as much as in most major German cities. The highest rates are found in Basel and Bern, with Geneva and Zurich not far behind.
The survey compared the base price, standard rate-per-kilometer and cost for 20 minutes in traffic.
On average, a 5-km ride including five minutes of traffic stops costs more than CHF28 in Switzerland. In western Germany, the same trip goes for less than CHF9. In Berlin or Hamburg, it is less than CHF15. Vienna cab fares are even lower.
Hailing a cab in Bern costs CHF6.80 plus CHF3.90 for the first kilometer. The price decreases only slightly in Basel CHF6.70, Geneva CHF6.50 and Zurich CHF6.20. Lugano is the least expensive of the large Swiss cities at CHF5.20. Although Lausanne was not included in the German study, cab fares are similar to those in Zurich.
Hailing a cab in Berlin costs less than CHF4 while in Vienna it is considerably less at just over CHF3. However, don’t let the low base price fool you; sitting in Vienna traffic for 20 minutes costs CHF15.75 while in Zurich the rate is “only” CHF11.50.
ZURICH, SWITZERLAND – A 50-year-old Italian clocked doing 209kph, with an average speed of 200kph, had his license confiscated and he is banned from Swiss roads, say police in canton Graubuenden. The man was spotted by police on the A13 between the border and Landquart, where the speed limit is 120kph.
GENEVA / ZURICH, SWITZERLAND – Airline Swiss announced Tuesday 27 March that it will be increasing long haul flight fares 2 April, by CHF10-30 in economy class and CHF50-100 in business, for flights from Switzerland.
Changes in the market account for the price hikes, says the company, which notes that first class fares and special offers are not affected.
EasyJet confirmed Monday that it will begin a trial of allocating seats on five lines, possibly including Geneva, in April. The plan was announced last December, but losses in the airline industry have put some plans on hold.
To be part of the Easter crowd or not: your decision, when it comes to Swiss roads and traffic
BERN, SWITZERLAND – The Swiss Federal Highway Office has issued its annual Easter vacation and spring holidays traffic warnings.
Switzerland sits at the centre of European’s north-south routes and the rush to head towards warm, sunny beaches has an impact on roads that will be saturated with Swiss travelers.
The detailed list of dates and roads to avoid if possible is published in French and German.
Key dates on all roads
Friday 30.03, 16:00-20:00
Saturday 31.03, 09:00-18:00
Wednesday 04.04, 12:00-20:00
Thursday 05.04, 08:00-22:00
Friday 06.04, 07:00-17:00
Friday 13.04, 16:00-20:00
Saturday 14.04, 10:00-16:00
Friday 20.04, 16:00-20:00
Saturday 21.04, 10:00-16:00
Saturday 28.04, 10:00-16:00
New Bombardier double-decker trains require larger shed
ZURICH, SWITZERLAND – The first shovel of dirt was lifted 16 March for the new Herdern train storage shed in Zurich, a visible sign of how growing rail traffic is affecting Switzerland. The CFF rail company today carries 40 percent more passengers than in 2004 and one of the solutions to handle the continual growth in traffic was to order bigger trains in 2010.
The company ordered 59 new Bombardier double-decker trains, which cost CHF1.9 billion, that will begin linking French- and German-speaking Switzerland via main stations in 2014. The trains can carry 1,200 passengers each and they are 400 metres long each, necessitating the new shed, which will be the third longest building in Zurich.
The layout of the interior of the trains is currently under discussion following a decision last week by a high court to accept some of the complaints from two groups about handicapped persons’ access, notably concerning the level of the entrance to the trains and the restaurant accommodation.
The court ruled, however, that their demand for an elevator to the upstairs restaurant was a “disproportionate response” to the problem of inadequate access to good services.
ZURICH, SWITZERLAND – Fabian Cancellara, Switzerlands’s four-time world champion cyclists, is getting a different kind of publicity with the new spring campaign from bpa/bfu, the Swiss Safety Council. “Lovelo” about loving your bike – with a helmet on – has a simple message: put your helmet on right by testing with two fingers above your nose and tightening the strap properly.
Postbus, popular with cycling travelers in Switzerland
BERN, SWITZERLAND – The familiar, traditional yellow Postbuses that crisscross Switzerland are adding wifi, with 300 of the buses equipped starting in April.
Expect a spate of smart phone video clips from delighted travellers who immediately upload the charming three-note horn call the buses have made for years as they round the curves of Swiss mountain roads.
The wifi will be free and ticket prices will not be affected, with Swiss Post largely financing the project.
The initial rollout 12 April concerns buses in eastern Switzerland, Aargau and Valais, but once underway Swiss Post plans to equip 100 buses a month. The company expects to be able to have wifi on 70 percent of its fleet within a year.
Postbus carries 120 million passengers a year.
The biggest challenge, it notes in a statement issued Monday 19 March, is “especially with UMTS network coverage outside of cities and urban areas where reception is partially weak, making it impossible to offer free WiFi on all of the approximately 800 PostBus routes. While PostBus’s priority is to offer comprehensive WiFi wherever good reception is available, some WiFi-equipped Postbuses may occasionally circulate in areas with poor reception.”
Postbus in Valais
A pilot project with six buses in the Sion area in 2011 worked well and prompted the company to expand the trial.
Passengers will have to supply a cell phone number, to which a registration code will be sent, giving them access to the network.
To those who are wondering if they can tail the bus and pick up free wifi: it’s only available inside the bus.
Details, Postbus wifi
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – The Geneva Motor Show closed Sunday after welcoming 702,014 visitors during 10 days, a 4.7 percent dip that may have been due in part to the arrival last week of spring weather.
The show featured 150 world premieres, but the big hit with the crowd was the green cars section, now in its fourth year. Some 10,000 people test drove cars at the green pavilion, giving automakers a clear signal that public interest is there.
The CFF rail company put on 13-15 trains a day to accommodate the heavy traffic to and from Geneva.
