Dream a little dream of me: Porsche 2010, Geneva Motor Show
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - The annual car extravaganza in Geneva gets underway this week, with two days of press viewings of new cars starting Tuesday 2 March, then the Geneva Motor Show opening to the public Thursday 4 March. Here are the basics for first-time visitors:
Where Palexpo, next to the airport, in Geneva
When Starting Thursday 4 March: 10:00-20:00 weekdays and 09:00-19:00 Saturday, Sunday. Closes 14 March.
How to get there By far the best option is the train if you’re from out of town, or public transport if you’re going from Geneva.
Swiss train on a winter Sunday evening: always busy
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Switzerland’s CFF rail company will raise prices by 6.4 percent overall 10 December 2010. The recently voted increase in value added tax (TVA) of 0.4 percent is included. The Public Transport Union announced the hikes Thursday 14 January. The amounts of some of the changes come as a surprise, but higher than normal increases have been predicted widely because a year ago the government insisted that increases for 2010 be put off because consumers were hurt by the weak economy.
The half-price CFF card, the most popular discount, will be increased from CHF150 a year to CHF165. It is the first increase for the card since 1993.
Title: Christmas late-night shopping, Geneva and Nyon
Location: Geneva
Link out: Click here
Description: Stores stay open until 22:00 Wednesday 23 December and 18:00 Thursday 24 in Geneva. Nyon’s shops stay open until 22:00 Monday 21 December and Wednesday 23, and the town’s public transport is free during those times. Note: Geneva has a special Christmas and New Year’s hotel + shopping offer, starting at CHF104.
Start Date: 2009-12-18
End Date: 2010-01-04
One ticket fits all at Mobilis
Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Canton Vaud’s common transportation agreement, Mobilis, which allows passengers to use multiple forms of public transport with a single ticket, is to be extended end 2010, Lausanne newspaper 24 Heures reports 1 December.
Mobilis currently joins five separate transport companies – tl, MBC, CFF, LEB, CarPostal – over almost 870km of railway lines, bus routes and metros. But most of the canton is not covered by the Mobilis agreement. This will change in December 2010 when additional agreements and technical solutions will extend network coverage by almost 80 percent throughout the canton.
Expect more roadworks around Geneva and Lausanne areas
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Geneva and the Lausanne-Morges area are likely to see an improvement in public transport to ease traffic congestion, if new federal funds for to improve traffic go through as planned. The Swiss federal government has told Parliament that it will allocate CHF1.5 billion for co-sponsored (with cantons) projects starting in 2011 to improve traffic in 26 key areas, mainly cities and urban built-up areas. The list of projects includes several in the Lake Geneva region:
Another alternative to city traffic
Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The city of Lausanne is proposing alternatives to cars in the city centre. It foresees a city centre as car-free as possible by 2016, with a public transport system of trams and the underground Metro network that opened in late 2008.
The plans are part of the massive Métamorphose urban development project, parts of which were voted on 27 September.
The tram will run from the city centre, Place St. François, to Place Chauderon, on along the route des Plaines du Loup, which is the future site of the ecoquartier, and on to the airport at Blécherette.
Olivier Français, the city official in charge of the project, says that the project is subject to many changes still, but that “we have one objective: that is to provide alternatives to the car”, reports 20Minutes.
No integrated payment system yet for Lake Geneva region public transport
You'll have to buy the new tram line ticket, if you're from Nyon
Nyon, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Nyon falls between the cracks when it comes to integrated transportation systems, apparently. Mobilis, a canton Vaud transport network with single payment agreements covering several local systems, has plans to extend its network west to Nyon, and to the Riviera, the north of the canton, and Lac du Joux, by the middle of 2010. Yet three-quarters of Nyon’s commuters use the train to get to Geneva, where they cannot use their train ticket for public transport in the city.
Paleo Music Festival, near Nyon, Switzerland, a sea of music-lovers
Montreux, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The Lake Geneva region’s musical summer is well underway, good for music-lovers, a bit less so for drivers. If you’re on the road between Geneva and Lausanne in the coming week, check the news for traffic jams around Nyon. Festival-goers are urged to use public transport, made easy for them: the CFF rail company is putting on extra trains and reducing ticket prices. The last train for Geneva leaves at 03:00 and for Lausanne-Montreux at 03:30. Shuttles and extra trains between the Nyon train station and the festival operate at 10-minute intervals.
The festival sold out, all 200,000 tickets, in two hours when sales opened in April. An additional 1,000 tickets a day go on sale online at the festival site, to discourage black market ticket sales.
GenevaLunch will be covering the festival daily, bringing you news and reviews.
Montreux closes on a happy note, offers listeners online treats
Read more…
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.
Geneva's Cointrin Airport
London, England (GenevaLunch) – Second and third place are not so bad, but the coveted first place in the annual Mercer best cities in the world selection was taken by Vienna for 2009 for two simple reasons: housing and “recreation” are better, a Mercer spokeswoman told GenevaLunch Tuesday. The company has received numerous calls from journalists asking if Zurich lost the top slot, which it had in 2008, because of the economic crisis or problems with banking secrecy. Not at all, Mercer insists.
Bern and Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The CFF rail company and the UTP (public transport union) will not raise prices as planned in December 2009 in a nod to the economic crisis, but will delay the hike until December 2010.
