Geneva's buses and trams
BERN, SWITZERLAND – Fewer people died in train accidents in Switzerland in 2011, compared to 2010, but the number of deaths related to trams and buses rose. The country saw 13 deaths from trains last year, down by 5, most of them due to crossing train tracks and movements by freight trains.
The 18 other accidents, involving buses and trams, were mostly due to crashes by vehicles with other forms of transport, including bicycles and motorcycles, or with pedestrians.
Patrouille Suisse ready to swoop over the slopes in Crans-Montana between World Cup ski race runs
View from Crans-Montana area at dawn Friday, a weekend filled with promise for World Cup skiers (click on image to view larger)
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – A good time was had by all, but the repeat of 1987, when the Swiss dominated the World Cup ski competition in Crans-Montana, never quite happened 24-26 February.
The sun was mostly shining, the skies were filled with the roar and impressive aerobatics of the Patrouille Suissse planes, and Swiss skiers put in a good but not brilliant performance.
Didier Cuche, in his final run on a Swiss course before he retires at the end of the season, came in first in Friday’s Super-G, with five Swiss in the top 20, but as the crowd of 23,000 and the snow both warmed up, the Swiss performance slipped a bit.
A fleet of buses including scores of Swiss postal cars, and a one-way system for local roads, get the crowd of 23,000 ski fans moving smoothly
The second leg of the Super-G Saturday saw Cuche in third place and Beat Feuz, the new Swiss hope, in 10th, with Austrian Benjamin Raich winning the run.
The Giant on Sunday gave Cuche a 15th place but Didier Defago put in an excellent appearance and came in fifth. The event was won by Massimiliano Blardone of Italy in a surprise performance and Marcel Hirscher of Austria, who now leads the overall rankings, was second.
Didier Cuche is now fourth in overall ranking, and Beat Feuz third, with five events left in the season.
Crans-Montana event details, TSR, Fre and FIS live reviews
Geneva's trams, buses, have new schedules starting 11 December
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Geneva public transport system (TPG) buses and trams will run on new schedules, new routes and new fares starting 11 December, the same day the new CFF Swiss rail schedule goes into effect.
This year’s annual changes are more significant than in some years, the result of a major and ongoing overhaul to better service the growing population. The new system can be reviewd line by line on the TPG web site, in French. To make sure your line is still running and at what time, you can also enter your itinerary on the route planner, in English.
New fares are available in French and English.
If you’d rather ask a question in person, you can either go to one of the TPG associates who are walking around stops and stations wearing bright orange jackets or go to the Plainpalais Circle temporary booth.
Palestinian envoy raises ire of Canadian gov’t
Egyptian TV’s interview with Shalit shocks some as exploitation
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – It is not being hailed as a gesture with implications for Middle East peace, but there is widespread relief over the release of Israeli prisoner Galid Shalit by Palestine’s Hamas after five years, and 477 Palestinians who have been held for different lengths of time.
Mid-morning Swiss time Shalit’s arrival in Egypt had been confirmed to Israeli authorities, who loaded 477 prisoners onto Red Cross buses, for release to the West Bank and Gaza, according to the Jerusalem Post. They will cross into Egypt, and from there bused to their homes, once Shalit is on Israeli territory. “Schalit will be guarded by soldiers of the Israel Air Force’s 669 unit, who will accompany him until he is home safe in Mitzpe Hila,” the Israeli newspaper reports.
Another 500 Palestinians are scheduled to be released at a later date.
Palestine remains in the news in Canada for an unrelated incident: “Linda Sobeh Ali, the chargé d’affaires of the Palestinian delegation in Ottawa, is just one cut above persona non grata,” reports the Globe & Mail. “The Canadian government called her in for a high-level dressing down, made a formal protest to the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank, and has decided to ‘limit communication’ with her until a replacement arrives.” She upset Ottawa by tweeting a link to a YouTube video of a tearful Palestinian girl who is shouting “with passion, reciting a poem in Arabic, ‘I am Palestinian.’ The English subtitles on the video include a passage where millions are called ‘to a war that raze the injustice and oppression and destroy the Jews.’”
Shalit was interviewed by Egyptian TV before he was transferred to Israel. The 24-year-old appeared short of breath but otherwise healthy and he said he was nervous. Israeli media reported that several officials were shocked at what they saw as “exploitation” by media before he was released to his homeland.
BERN, SWITZERLAND – Every two years the Swiss public transport system gets a timetable shakedown, where communes, cantons and other interested groups have their say, and schedules are adjusted to correct problems.
The changes to buses are now up, and the revised train table will be published later in the year.
The public also has a chance to have its say. The new timetable can be consulted online, and comments sent in, until until 14 June.
Reduced local trains during repairs, Geneva-Versoix
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Major maintenance works on the railroad lines will result in regional trains between Geneva and Versoix being stopped after 21:00, starting 11 May, until 6 June, Monday/Tuesday nights to Friday/Saturday nights.
InterRegio, Intercity and RegioExpress trains will run on their normal schedules.
The nights of 1/2, 2/3 and 3/4 June, trains will run on their normal schedule, says the CFF rail company.
Buses will replace the trains. The Geneva Cornavin station bus stop will be at Place Montbrillant behind the station.
Update, 06:50: questionnaires are being handed out this morning, Thursday, on the A1, the lake road, in trains
Expect delays for the regional travel survey, but take time to contribute
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Commuters and other travellers beware: build in extra time if you are travelling into Geneva, no matter how you are getting there, because of the major regional traffic survey getting underway early Thursday morning 24 March, the group responsible for the survey has told GenevaLunch.
DON’T try to avoid the surveys, authorities beg: this is your opportunity to influence regional travel solutions.
Drivers in particular should expect slowdowns from 06:30-20:00 on the days the survey moves to highways and roads into Geneva, from now until mid-April.
Motorcycles, bicycles, pedestrians will also be stopped.
Each road will be surveyed just one day.
The survey is being carried out jointly by French, Geneva and Vaud authorities to obtain a clearer picture of transport needs today and in the future, in order to accurately plan a regional transport programme. They are asking travellers to allow time to help with the survey in order to get a cross-section of the population that is as broad as possible with answers that provide a wealth of information.
Motorists taking the A1 autoroute into Geneva will be pulled over shortly before Founex and drivers on the lake road can also expect to be stopped, but the exact area has not been announced. People taking trains and buses into the city will also be handed surveys.
Police warn that pulling drivers over for the survey will cause traffic delays on roads. These will not be as bad as in 2005 and 2002 when similar surveys were done, police note, with more reinforcements this time to get traffic moving again quickly.
Earlier, detailed announcement, GenevaLunch
Traffic in front of the WTO, heading into Geneva: expect delays (photo, Jared Bloch)
Geneva and Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - People travelling into Geneva by any method can expect to be stopped and handed a questionnaiare between 21 March and mid-April.
Vaud, Geneva and neighbouring France are pooling their efforts to better understand commuters’ and others’ transport needs in the region by organizing a vast survey of current needs.
Three weeks, 30 border crossings, 100,000 questionnaires:
“The questionnaires will be handed out on all of Geneva’s borders to everyone going into Geneva, whether they are on foot, using two wheels, in a car or bus or train, between 06:30 and 20:30,” says Geneva’s Mobility Office, which is coordinating the work with five other government agencies from the region.
“Each area will be covered for just one day,” it notes.
This is the second in the Swiss dream ski week, where Nick and Liam Bates, regular contributors to GenevaLunch, see how much great skiing at top Swiss resorts they can pack into one week. Be sure to check their tips at the end.
Liam and Nick Bates in St Moritz, canton Graubuenden
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Nick and Liam left the car at home near Lake Geneva, with some reluctance since they are used to driving to the slopes. They caught a fast CFF InterCity train for Zurich, then headed for St Moritz.
Both had passes for first class travel; Liam, who lives in Beijing, had a Swiss Pass for foreigners, which meant one 8-day ticket that covered all trains as well as city transport, the mountain trains they used and cablecars in the resorts they visited.
Initial calculations were that a car would be cheaper and handier, but by the end of the week the two had changed their minds. Two Swiss Pass tickets for eight days would cost just under CHF1,000 but a rental car plus CHF300 petrol to cover the same distance, plus parking fees at some hotels and lift areas would quickly have cost the same.
“We never missed having a car, at all,” says Nick, who would have done all the driving since Liam does not have a Swiss license. “In many ways the train was much more pleasant. You don’t have to worry about maps or where you’re going. And when you’re feeling tired, it’s nice. You can have a glass of wine, read a book or watch a movie on your laptop.”
You can go out to dinner at the end of the day, relax and drink without considering if you’re staying under the legal driving limit, he notes.
First class is busy for a reason: it has advantages
Liam, who normal travels as cheaply as possible, and who expects other people to, was surprised to see how busy first class trains are.
First class cars have bigger seats and more luggage space, and you tend to see more foreigners on them, Liam noticed, probably because so many foreigners buy special offer packages before they come to Switzerland.
These often include first class travel because these cars are usually more conveniently located for making connections and for getting in and out of stations more easily or quickly.
Commuters who work on the train regularly often have general subscription passes for first class. The Swiss have the world’s highest rate of use of trains in the world, and rush hour on commuter trains can get very busy.
GPS, cell phones, Alpine right of way – how to get where you’re going, trouble-free
Furka pass, Switzerland
Geneva and Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Friday 18 February is the start of a busy time on mountain roads in Switzerland, the peak time for school holidays and families heading for the mountains.
For those unfamiliar with mountain roads, or the rest of us who can always use a refresher, here are the basics, from canton Vaud:
- On steep roads, do not brake excessively because this can cause brakes to overheat and quit working. Stop and turn off the car for a few minutes when you can, to let it cool down.
- If the road is too narrow for cars in both directions to pass, the car coming down the hill should stop to give the right of way to the car coming up the hill. If there still is not room the car coming down is expected to back up. Exception: if the car coming up is clearly close to a place where there is room to pull over, it should do so.
- Groups of vehicles, such as several trucks, have priority over individual cars. Trucks and buses have priority over cars. Buses have priority over trucks.
- On narrow passes/tunnels in the mountains, you must be able to stop half the way of the distance that is visible (see sketch below).
- Narrow mountain postal roads: follow the instructions of the public transport driver or employee, if these are given.
- This is not a rule, but common mountain courtesy, worth respecting: if you are driving more slowly than the local drivers who know the roads, pull over when you can, and let them pass. Many mountain roads have no passing zones for several kilometres. This applies to going up or going down: you can discourage other drivers from passing imprudently.
Below: be sure you can stop halfway to your visible distance point. More illustrations: Vaud highway department
What the Swiss mean when they say distracted driving
Police in some cantons are stricter than in others (I once heard a police officer from another canton ask jokingly “they have police in Valais?”). The same basic rules of the road apply in Switzerland, and these cover “distracted driving”. Some 10,000 drivers lost their licenses in Switzerland in 2010 for distracted driving, mainly for using GPS navigation systems and cell phones.
The rules says that a driver must give his or her attention to the road and avoid doing anything that makes it more difficult to drive the vehicle. Children fighting in the back seat come to mind, but the law is more specific: the driver’s attention “must not be distracted, in particular, by any sound reproduction system or any information or communication system”.
Even more specifically: the fine for using a telephone without a hands-free system is CHF100.
GenevaLunch asked Jean-Christophe Sauterel of Canton Vaud Police to clarify what the rules mean, since GPS and cell phone use is not outlawed and cars have CD players. “It’s up to the police to decide, but the determining factor is whether or not the driver is distracted. If he’s weaving, crossing the line, that’s a sign he’s distracted.”
The police do not decide if a license will be lifted, although they have the right to remove it pending a decision: the Service de Navigation, or cantonal vehicle service, makes that decision, based on the police officer’s report.
“If you’re driving with earphones or the music so loud you don’t hear emergency vehicles, that’s distracted driving,” he says. What about eating a picnic lunch while you’re driving?
“We don’t want to keep people from eating or drinking in the car if they want to,” he laughs. “Well, unless it’s alcohol, of course! But the real question is: is the driver distracted.”
Other drivers sometimes denounce to the police a driver who worries them because of erratic driving, and the police may take these observations into consideration.
If you’re eating a sandwich and reading instructions for reaching your chalet and you answer your cell phone, all while trying to follow the GPS, and your speed shifts from 120kph to 60 and back up to 90, expect trouble.
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - The cold front from the northwest that is expected to abruptly end the Lake Geneva region’s three-day warm spell starting Thursday night has taken a foothold in France, notably in Paris. Buses, regional trains and many Metro lines have virtually stopped running, airports have offered spotty service, traffic is snarled and even the Eiffel Tower, famously open year-round, has closed under a cloak of invisibility.
TGV service between Paris and Switzerland is still running, but the Paris-Basel-Zurich evening train is 1 hour 20minutes late. For CCF rail traffic updates, the French version tends to have the latest details before the English version.
Links to other sites: AFP, Le Monde offers a TV telezapping view of the crippled French capital and region around it.
Télézapping : La neige engloutit la Tour Eiffel
envoyé par lemondefr. – L'info internationale vidéo.
Few ventured out early Wednesday morning (Saint Prex, canton Vaud)
An aptly named street Wednesday morning
Update 09:30 Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - The overnight snowfall throughout the Lake Geneva region is causing major traffic disruptions Wednesday 1 December. Cointrin Airport in Geneva is closed until at least 14:00 and travellers are being advised to check with their airlines.
The TPG in Geneva decided early in the morning not to run any of its buses and trams until further notice. The Tribune de Geneve is providing regular updates on the city’s public transport situation, as is RSR, which says some trams are running in the city, at 08:00.
Geneva, with 20 cm of fresh snow overnight, and more falling, has been the hardest hit area, according to MeteoSwiss reports.
Roads are considered moderately dangerous, with icy conditions, from Geneva to Lausanne and up the hillsides to the Jura. Road conditions in Valais are good, with less fresh snow than around the lake.
Everyone's new best friend, on a topsy-turvy snowy morning (Saint Prex, canton Vaud)
Lausanne’s public transport is running, with relatively minor delays, after 10 cm of snow fell overnight.
The CFF Swiss train system is operating, but with some delays: details for delayed trains and a map are updated frequently. Passengers were stranded Tuesday evening along the Lausanne-Geneva line when the Intercity train had a technical problem from about 18:00-20:00, but the problem was not weather-related.
The Swiss highway department’s truck info road updates and TCS (Touring Club Suisse) provide details of congestion and closed roads, with traffic in the Lausanne-Geneva area slow Wednesday morning, but with fewer people than usual on the road before 08:00, reports one commuter.
Schools are open in Geneva and neighbouring France, but with limited public transport, some children will not be making it to school.
Mathematical invention part of the future shrinking of our electronic devices
EPFL infograph, Pascal Coderey, 2010
Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – EPFL is boasting its 1,000th invention 3 November, with the official arrival of Kandou, a new system based on mathematics whose daunting task is to try to reduce the world’s computer electricity consumption, currently 150 billion kWh per year, which translates into a monthly bill of several billion dollars. The university is boldly predicting that Kandou “could equip most of our electronic systems within a few years.”
Kandou is the 1,000th invention to arrive in the university’s Service of Industrial Relations. It was invented by Harm Cronie and Amin Shokrollahi of the EPFL algorithm laboratory and in a nutshell “enables processors to communicate more rapidly—while using less energy—with their peripherals”: memory, printers, monitors, an EPFL press release notes. The system has already sparked strong interest from large companies in the computer field, it adds.
Most electronic appliances today use ultra-rapid processors that communicate with other processors or other peripherals by using electronic buses, a kind of information highways.
Paleo special trains, Geneva-Lyon cuts, Migros 2 for 1
Port Elizabeth, South Africa group Ubuhle plays Tuesday night at Paleo
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch.com) – Regional trains between Geneva and Lyons are out of service from Monday 19 July to 30 July, due to French rail company SNCF repairs. Buses are replacing the train service. The buses from Geneva are behind the Cornavin station, at Place Montbrillant. Details: phone 166 (CHF.50/min) for an automatic message, and if you need to speak to an agent: 0900 300 300 (CHF 1.19/min) from Switzerland.
Paleo: 20% discounts on train tickets
The CFF is working with the Paleo music festival to cut car traffic to Nyon during the festival, which runs from 20-25 July, by offering rail tickets at a 20 percent discount. RailAway prices, if you have a half-price card: round-trip (return) in second-class, Geneva-Nyon CHF6.60, from Lausanne, CHF11.20, from Fribourg, CHF25.60.
Lake Geneva boats, calm before the storm of school children 24 June
Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch.com) – Swiss classrooms were quieter, but trains, boats and buses were far noisier than usual Thursday 24 June, the peak day for the end of year semaine verte or school outings throughout much of the country.
The CFF rail company reports 2,700 groups reserving cars on trains for the day and boats on Swiss lakes were more crowded than usual.
Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - The M1 will close for five weeks, from 12 July to 17 August, for a checkup and repairs, TL, the Lausanne public transport company has confirmed to newspaper 24 Heures. Some 800 metres of rail will be replaced and security rails repaired, with the project covering two summers and costing CHF2.2 million, reports TSR. The M1 system carried 11.2 million passengers in 2009, but its quietest period is in summer, when University of Lausanne and EPFL students use it less. Buses will be used by TL during the time the M1 is closed.
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - A red car that ran a light near Geneva’s Cornavin train station Wednesday at 20h30 injured a scooter driver and caused a major snarl in traffic in the area. The scooter driver and a motorcyclist both hit the car, but the motorcyclist was uninjured. Buses were rerouted and formed a long line along the Rue de Lyon, reports the Tribune de Geneve. Trams were able to continue along their usual routes.
Fewer Geneva roadworks, as tram goes into service
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – If you haven’t yet done so, be sure to shift your radio settings to find World Radio Switzerland in its new FM home: 101.7FM. And this is the weekend when the TPG (Geneva public transport) puts its new schedule into effect, including the new line to Meyrin and more frequent buses and trams on several lines, so doublecheck your travel plans if you’re heading across town. Monday 14 December the new CFF rail schedule goes into effect for all of Switzerland, so make no assumptions about when your train is leaving. Two additional trains should make life easier for urban commuters: an extra late afternoon train from Bern to Zurich (16:14) is designed to ease pressure on that often-packed line, as is an 18:31 regional train from Lausanne to Geneva.
Links for details: CFF, TPG (note: Sunday night the site was being updated), WRS
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Forty people lost their lives in accidents in 2008 that were linked to public transport: three of them in buses, one in a tram accident and the other 36 in accidents that involved “unauthorized” crossings or inattention at crossings of trains and trams. Switzerland has one of the world’s lowest rates of accidents linked to public transport systems, but the government, in its annual report on public transport safety, notes that more needs to be done to protect crossings.
The figures show a 33 percent increase over 2007 figures, but Bern notes that 2008 figures were lower than those for every year since 2001 except 2007.
Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The famous Swiss system of consulting widely on political issues is now bringing public transport users – local, regional and national – the chance to have their say in the new schedules for 2010/2011. The “projet d’horaire” web site, in German, French and Italian, provides the current schedules for all transport systems, changes that the transport companies are suggesting, and a form for people to fill out with their own requests.
Atheists in the UK decided to run bus messages in the US “as a corrective to the religious ones,” and in days raised 2,400 times the modest £8,000 they set as a goal. When the buses took to the streets of London 31 December they caught the public’s attention and generated a flurry of media stories. Today they go nationwide. Guardian, IHT (Ed. note: by running the ads in capital letters they appear to have skirted the sticky issue of whether to write God or god)
Geneva, Switzerland (Tribune de Geneve, Fre) – Bus and tram conductors in Geneva have the right to hand out procès-verbaux denouncing parked cars that block their route, reports the Tribune, quoting TPG officials. Parking in the way of a bus is a practice some drivers are finding expensive.
