NEUCHATEL, SWITZERLAND – Freight carried by road and rail increased by 2 percent in 2010, showing some recovery after a 9 percent drop due to the faltering economy in 2009.
The new figures are the most recent annual ones for the industry, published by the Swiss Statistical Office in Neuchatel.
Editor Ellen Wallace shot this view out her kitchen window Thursday night, dimpled snow lit by a farmer's tractor headlights - by morning there was an additional foot of snow and the surface was smooth and white
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Friday 14:30, 6 January: snow has been falling steadily and heavily in many parts of Switzerland for the past 36 hours, with Crans-Montana and other resorts recording 100cm of fresh snow at 3,000 metres in the past 24 hours.
Most resorts are closed due to very high winds and heavy snow.
Canton Valais police say they received 1,200 phone calls between 08:00 Thursday and midnight, with flooding and fallen trees as well as electricity out in some areas. St Niklaus in the Goms Valley was without electricity and phones for several hours.
Main roads in Valais remain open but local road-clearing services are pushed to their limits and side roads above about 1,000 metres are closed or not completely cleared in many areas.
The CFF rail company says most trains are running, but several smaller trains up to mountain areas are not running, including Montreux to Rochers-de-Naye, Aigle to Diableret, Martigny-Le Chable, the funiculaire from Sierre to Crans-Montana, several Interlaken lines (Murren, Grindelwald, Kleine Scheidegg, Jungfraujoch) and the Valais-Bern train for cars is operating irregularly, with no stops at Goppenstein since the road between there and Goppel is closed.
Kloten airport had several delays due to and snow, but mid-afternoon Friday most flights are back on schedule. Geneva airport has not been affected by the weather in the rest of the country. Zurich and central Switzerland had winds up to 120kph, reports swissinfo.
The Swiss Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research, WSL, has issued a bulletin showing the avalanche risk at 4/5 (high) in eastern Vaud, most of Valais and Graubuenden:
Rolle, Lake Geneva, 16 December 2011
GENEVA / ZURICH, SWITZERLAND – Zurich airport is suffering major disruptions due to storms Friday evening 16 December and Geneva airport saw delays during the day, as winter blew into Switzerland with a vengeance.
Valais police are reporting several roads closed due to heavy snow, and the car/train link between Goppenstein and Kandersteg was closed Friday. Trees are down in several parts of Vaud, with one tree hitting three cars in Lausanne.
Joachim is the name of the storm that blasted its way across parts of the Jura and Bern Friday morning, bringing high winds and storms that churned up Lake Neuchatel.
Zurich airport reported some cancelled or delayed flights Friday morning, notably from Nice, London and Amsterdam, all affected by storms. By Friday evening Swiss was sending people to a “bad weather in Europe” page and Zurich airport was showing several flights cancelled or delayed, including Paris and London flights.
Geneva airport, which opened its new visitor center officially 16 December was only lightly touched, with some London flights cancelled and minor delays as the Lake Geneva region was drenched by winds and torrential rains.
The Swiss Institute for snow and avalanche danger has put most of canton Valais on a red alert (level 4) for avalanche danger. Postal cars on the Gampel-Steg and Blatten (Lötschen) line are not running because of the danger of avalanches.
Weather has also closed several regional train lines, including Rochers-de-Naye.
Lake Geneva at Rolle 16 December, looking towards Evian and the French Alps where the clouds are dumping snow
Roger Federer and the Swiss passenger train locomotive named after him (photo, ©2011 Nationale Suisse, may not be reproduced without permission)
BASEL, SWITZERLAND – Roger Federer and other tennis champs might be in training in Basel for the upcoming tournament there, but the Swiss star took time out Friday afternoon 28 October to train in a different way: he baptized a Swiss locomotive.
“I have never named a locomotive before, let alone one bearing my own name,” he said at the ceremony.
The train engine has been carrying passengers on Swiss trains since the start of September. It was named after the tennis star, with whom the company has had a sponsorship agreement for several years.
Federer says he is particularly pleased that, for every kilometre travelled by the locomotive, Nationale Suisse will make a contribution to the Roger Federer Foundation in Africa.
Nationale Suisse, an insurance company heavily involved in the new Gotthard rail tunnel project, and the CFF rail company say the train is expected to stay in service for a number of years.
The Swiss Indoors Basel ATP tennis tournament kicks off Monday 31 October in the western Swiss city which is also Federer’s home town.
PARIS, FRANCE – The new Dijon-Mulhouse TGV train line in France was inaugurated Thursday 8 September by French President Nicolas Sarkozy. The line, which will open to travelers in December 2011, will cut nearly 1.5 hours from the route, which will take just two hours instead of 3.5.
Forecast is for more of the same
Update 14 July 10:00 ZURICH, SWITZERLAND – Thunderstorms and heavy rains are taking their toll in central and eastern Switzerland, with emergency services taking calls for pleasure craft in trouble on the lakes, trees down on roads, cellars flooded.
Torrential rains in parts of Valais are prompting fears of flooding in Zermatt (video, 20 Minutes) and the A2 autoroute in Ticino was cut off between Lugano and Mendrisio by a mudslide late Wednesday.
In the Bernese Oberland the Schynige Platte rail line was cut off by fallen trees and 64 passengers had to be evacuated by helicopters.
Zurich has had the most rain, according to TSR, with 40cm/m2 at the airport.
MeteoSwiss is predicting more of the same until at least mid-day Thursday in western Switzerland and Saturday in the central and eastern parts of the country.
Photos below, taken from the same spot in Valais during one hour, show the rapidly changing weather in the Alps. Click on images to view larger.
Swiss Alpine storm pummels garden 13 July
Heavy sheets of rain swept across the Alps Wednesday
Val d'Anniviers, storms come to an end
Val d'Anniviers, end of storm 13 July 2011
Not a cloud in the sky - storms have moved on to eastern Switzerland
The clouds are not quite ready to call it a day! Hikers, beware.
Some delays in Switzerland due to German strike
Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – A strike by Germain train conductors Thursday 10 March is provoking some delays in Switzerland, of up to 30 minutes for some trains arriving in Zurich. The strike has, however, affected about 40 percent of intercity rail traffic in Germany, news agencies are reporting.
Tibet roadside view (photo, Liam Bates)
The Chinese government is using the March anniversary of the Tibetan uprising in 1952 to underscore its commitment to better connecting the distant western province to the rest of the country by detailing its transport plans. A new rail line, as part of the 2011-2015 Five Year Plan, will link Golmud in northwestern Qinghai Province and Korla in Xinjiang, the vice-governor of Qinghai, Luo Yulin, said in Beijing 6 March. The new rail connection will cut 1,000 km from the current rail link between Lhasa, the capital of Tibet, and Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang, currently a 4,000km journey.
The official notes that two other major railway lines are to be built in the west, between Golmud and Dunhuang in Gansu Province, and between Golmud and Chengdu in Sichuan Province, and local authorities are also considering lines linking Xining with Chengdu, and Xining with Kunming in Yunnan Province, reports Xinhua news agency.
A new highway programme for the Tibet Autonomous Region will increase roads in the vast area from the current 58,000km to 70,000km, and by 2015 all Tibetan villages should be accessible by blacktop road, Li Shenglin, China’s transport minister says. Xinhua reports that “an expressway network, or ’4-hour economic zone’, linking five major cities, Lhasa, Xigaze, Nagqu, Shannan and Nyingchi” will put the last four cities all within four hours of Lhasa by car.
Inter-city trains to St Gallen with stops in major cities: passengers forced by fallen tree to change in Lausanne
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - A tree that was the victim of high winds due to the cold bise blowing in the Lake Geneva region took down rail traffic when it fell.
The tree fell on CFF rail wires between Geneva and Chambésy, just outside the city, shortly after 09:30, bringing a halt to all traffic on one of Switzerland’s busiest stretches of rail, between Geneva and Lausanne.
Traffic was partially back in service an hour later, but by mid-afternoon repairs had not yet been completed, and disruptions continued.
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The Swiss Federal Council is proposing to raise the cost of train tickets by 10 percent and to double the annual road tax for which drivers now pay CHF40, for an autoroute sticker.
The price increases would cover the long-term infrastructure of the road and rail systems, says the council.
Today’s budgets for the heavily used systems do not cover the cost of the rail infrastructure as well as the need to expand the system due to the continually growing population of passengers, the federal transport department argues.
The council’s proposals, which will need to be fleshed out and then opened to public consultation, are in response to a popular initiative “for public transport” and will serve on the ballot as a counter-proposal.
There is clear agreement that more money is needed to expand the public transport system, but as TSR points out the real question is who will pay.
Links to other sites: Bern’s proposal with details of road and rail traffic forecasts, reaction of ATE (transport and environment association, which is sponsoring the popular initiative)
Source: Swiss Department of Transport, Energy and Communications
Line closest to the station in Geneva, right, is reserved for Geneva-Coppet traffic, where the CFF wants to have 4, not just 2 trains an hour each way
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Mies and Chambésy could soon be home to two new crossing points for CFF regional trains, residents learned Wednesday evening.
The Tribune de Geneve reports that the Swiss rail company met with residents to explain about the works that need to be undertaken in the area to handle the rapidly growing traffic on the Geneva-Coppet rail line.
Trains currently run every 30 minutes but traffic has become so dense, particularly at each end of the work day, that trains are needed every 15 minutes.
The two trains currently meet at Creux-de-Genthod but an additional line and two extra crossing points are needed to increase the frequency.
The new line, lake side of the tracks, would later become part of the RER regional system, Suva, and the trains will continue on to Annemasse.
According to the Tribune, the CFF would like to see the works, which will take 2.5 years, completed by 2015, but negotiations that began with landowners in 2010 are not yet completed.
Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – A “person” accident, CFF rail and police euphemism for a person who has been hit by a train, often a suicide, resulted in eight trains being cancelled early Sunday afternoon between Lausanne and Geneva, reports the Tribune de Geneve.
Trains expected to run by Sunday
Last three cars of the Glacier Express that crashed 23 July
Update 24 July 16:40 Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch.com) – The Glacier Express train crash that killed one person and injured 42 others Friday 23 July in the Goms Valley could have been due to technical problems, possibly linked to warm weather, say officials of the company that owns it, MGB.
One hypothesis is that the rails may have been deformed by dramatic shifts in the weather in the hours preceding the crash. After days of very hot dry weather the temperature suddenly dropped several degrees and heavy showers fell along the Alpine ridges in the area. An investigation has been opened to determine the cause of the crash, which occurred at noon Friday 23 July. A 64-year-old Japanese man from Osaka has been identified as the one person who died, but two women, both Japanese, remain in critical condition. Among the 42 injured, most were Japanese, but the group includes five Swiss, four Spanish, two Austrian and one Indian traveller.
The trains are likely to be running again Sunday, once the derailed train is placed back on the track and removed, and the line checked, according to the company. It said Friday evening trains on the line could be operating by Saturday but work has taken longer than expected. The cars involved in the crash are being set aside for investigators.
The Glacier Express carries some 250,000 people a year. It went into operation in 1930 and this is its first accident. The train has an average speed of 30kph, earning it the nickname of the “slowest train in the world.”
It runs on a single track and between Zermatt and St Moritz it goes through 91 tunnels and crosses 291 bridges, covering some of Switzerland’s most spectacular Alpine scenery in the process, making it a hugely popular tourist attraction.
Swiss train, moving fast, wearing out the rails
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch.com) - The cost of maintaining Switzerland’s famous railroads is about to rise, but the amount in question is up for debate. The one thing that appears clear is that train travellers, and Switzerland has the highest percentage of them of any country in the world, will foot at least some of the bill.
The CFF rail company at the start of 2010 announced that it would need CHF850 million more than predicted to maintain the rail infrastructure. The federal government asked for a second estimate, which it says is CHF500m. The federal Transport Office and the CFF have agreed to create a programme together to closely monitor the state of the rail system and more precisely determine the upkeep cost.
Swiss trains
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The 2011 train schedule will cut the travel time between Paris and Geneva to three hours, a reduction of 25 minutes starting in December, the CFF rail company announced Friday 4 June.
The new schedule will significantly improve service between Geneva and La Plaine.
Lake Geneva region residents will also find new rail cars on many trains when the new schedule goes into effect.
Bex, Vaud, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - A chemical spill in Bex whose origin has not yet been provided by the police led to road and rail detours early Monday. Trains were not allowed to stop in Bex for two hours while firefighters rushed to the scene to manage the spill. Detours were set up for some local roads in the area.
CFF points to major challenges in near future
Growing customer demand adds pressure to replace older trains in Switzerland
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The present looks rosy, but the future less so, Switzerland’s CFF rail company indicated Friday oring 16 April in its annual report. Traffic rose in 2009, more passengers arrived on time, and profits were up, but the company says heavy investments are necessary to guarantee the current level of service.
Check the service before heading to France
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The French rail strike is not expected to affect trains between Switzerland and France this weekend 9 to 11 April, but if you’re traveling to France, plan ahead.
“The situation is getting better,” says a spokesperson for the SNCF, the French rail company
The Swiss rail system, the CFF, posts latest train service interruptions or slowdowns: check regularly for updates on Switzerland-France traffic.
And for all the information within France see the SNCF Transilien site.
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The French SNCF railway workers are on strike, with numerous trains between Switzerland and France not running Wednesday 7 April. Media predictions earlier were that one in four TGV trains between Geneva, Lausanne, Basel or Zurich and Paris might not be running Wednesday, but in the end TGV service is very restricted. There are considerable slowdowns on non-TGV routes, reports the CFF Swiss rail company.
The CFF posts latest train service interruptions or slowdowns: check regularly for updates on Switzerland-France traffic.
The SNCF site appears to be more optimistic about the number of trains running: check the train where you hold a reservation if you’re scheduled to travel today.
Swiss army soldiers: no getting out of line on the train home
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The Swiss Army will be sending its police into train stations and onto Swiss trains regularly, to keep a closer eye on its soldiers, most of whom are part of the citizen militia. The military police, who will not intervene with civilians unless there is an imminent danger, will work closely with existing police forces: primarily the CFF rail company security teams and cantonal police. The increased surveillance of soldiers is partly a public relations exercise, with growing complaints from the public about unacceptable behaviour of soldiers on public transport systems: soldiers travel for free when in uniform, en route to or coming home from duty.
British Rail Maritime and Transport union workers have voted to strike over changing work practices, just as British Air strike talks broke down, threatening to create travel chaos during the upcoming Easter holidays. The union says that 54 percent of its 5,500 signalers voted to strike. Meanwhile, BA says it is preparing for the three-day strike that begins at midnight tonight, 19 March.
Paris, France (GenevaLunch) – Eurostar will not be running trains in or out of Brussels, Belgium for a second day, following the train crash near Brussels Monday 15 February that killed 18 people. Passengers with tickets are asked to exchange them for a later date or they can ask for a refund. Paris trains are operating normally and Lille service is suffering some delays. Contact: Eurostar.
Machu Picchu in 2009 (photo ©2009 Claude Vedovini)
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Switzerland and the United Nations Development Programme will work with Peru to improve weather monitoring around the ancient Incan site of Machu Picchu, following a disastrous series of 40 mudslides due to heavy rains. The rains continue and the Cuzco department, where the site is located, was declared a disaster area Monday 1 February, by the regional president, Hugo Gonzales.
An estimated 25,000 people have been left homeless and another 37,000 have lost at least part of their property in the past two weeks. Some 4,000 tourists were airlifted out of the area last week, and Machu Picchu itself will be closed for at least two months while broken rail and road links are repaired.
Be sure to buy a ticket before getting on a Swiss train
Bern and Bellinzona, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Train passengers without tickets or sitting in first class when they have only second class tickets will be treated alike by Switzerland’s CFF rail company, following a decision by a Swiss court: subject to CHF80 fines plus the missing fare or the difference between classes. Travelers should be aware that the fines are collected on the spot and that tickets must be purchased before getting on a train.
The Swiss administrative high court ruled Wednesday 23 December in favour of the CFF rail company, which had appealed against a decision of the Swiss Transport Office.
Update 2, 22:45 Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Years of arguing and debate over the need for the Lake Geneva region to rapidly develop its train service were brought to a close Monday 21 December with a framework agreement signed by the federal and cantonal governments and the CFF rail company. The agreement acknowledges that the Geneva-Lausanne area is one of the fastest-growing in Switzerland and states the intent of the signing parties to develop a rail network and service that match the rapidly changing need for public transport in the area.
Third and possibly fourth rail line planned
The two cantons have agreed to put up CHF312 million in pre-financing for several projects, designed to speed up the project. The 20-year plan, to 2030, will increase the frequency of trains to one every 15 minutes between Lausanne and Geneva. The number of seats will double by 2020. Several congestion points are targeted: Mies in Vaud and Chambésy in Geneva plus the freight passing line between Nyon and Coppet. The three-phase plan calls for the main lines and RER regional system to be improved first, then the third rail line between Renens and Allaman to be built during a second phase, when the system will also be extended in the area west of Geneva. Main train stations will be modernized.
The third phase will involve building a fourth rail line and improving public transport access to Geneva’s airport.
Cornavin train station, Geneva 2009
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - The Tribune de Geneve reports 1 December that an agreement is “imminent” for a solution to the Lausanne-Geneva rail line, which will reach capacity in 2018. Discussions in the past appeared to have broken down between the cantons of Geneva and Vaud, and the federal government, whose ZEB rail development plan to 2030 has little room to consider a third rail line or other solution. The cantons, federal government and the CFF rail company are now reportedly close to an agreement that will allow them to study compromise solutions.
The newspaper reports that the CFF’s preferred solution is a better use of the train lines for France at Geneva’s Cornavin station, with an extra line built. Geneva is opposed to this, given the impact it would have on the Les Grottes neighbourhood behind the station.
Click on image to view larger
Cisalpino II, July 2009
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – A Cisalpino II train made its maiden Geneva-Venice voyage Thursday October 1, leaving Geneva’s Cointrin Airport at 07:33 and bringing back its first passengers from Venice at 16:20. The trains have been running on the Geneva-Milan stretch since July, on a test basis, and with the positive track record of the tests, the company has moved to putting the sleek passenger trains into service as part of the regular timetable.
Cisalpino will operate the trains until 13 December, when the parent Swiss and Italian companies, CFF and Trenitalia, will operate the Swiss-Italian service.
Click on image to view larger
Geneva, Switzerland train station, August 2009
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch.com) – The Swiss traveled more kilometres on trains than any other nation in 2008: 2,422 kilometres per person. And for the first time ever, the average number of train journeys rose to 50 per person – putting the Swiss in second place after the Japanese, with 71 journeys a year per person. By comparison, the French travel 1,173 km per person a year.
The figures are compiled every year by the International Union of Railways (UIC), and this year’s theme is the importance of rail in reducing CO2 emissions. The table for passenger traffic shows that going by train from the centre of Berlin to Frankfurt’s city centre is four times better than by car in terms of emissions and three times better than by plane (plane includes travel to and from the airport to the centre).
Only train journeys taken on its members trains are included in the figures. These are mainly large nationalized companies, although for Switzerland it includes the Chemin de fer du Lötschberg and the Cisalpino trains, but the many smaller regional train lines are not included.
Morges, Vaud, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Police are investigating the death Thursday evening of a man who was run over by a train in Morges, on track 2, shortly before 17:00. Canton Vaud’s Gendarmerie office told GenevaLunch Friday morning that they are still unable to confirm if it was an accident or suicide. Train traffic in the region was interrupted for three hours, including delays on the main Geneva-Lausanne line, with two of the rail lines closed.
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Four police officers in Geneva are detailed to the CFF rail service and the Tribune de Geneve, in a feature article, accompanies them on their daily round to better understand how they work with cantonal and city police as well as the CFF rail security guards. By the end of 2010 Switzerland will have 20 more police officers covering railway stations and the rail system, in ensure adequate security. There have been a number of incidents in rail stations in recent months.
