Noise reduction panels to the west of the Lausanne train station will have to wait
LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND – Panels to reduce noise from trains on the east side of Lausanne, in the direction of canton Valais, were approved in June 2011 after a five-year review, but new panels to the west of the station will have to wait, the Federal Transport Office said Thursday 4 August.
The delay is due to the new Lausanne-Renens fourth rail line, approved in December 2010. Noise panels and noise reduction windows for the area should be reviewed as part of the larger fourth rail project, the Bern office says. A revised project will be presented to the public at the end of the summer.
Lausanne at dusk, viewed from Lake Geneva: growing number of foreigners live in the city, its suburbs
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Geneva, with its international organizations and United Nations European seat is not likely to lose its reputation as Switzerland’s international city, but Lausanne has been creeping up on it as an international centre. From 2008 to 2010 the resident foreigners’ share of the total population in the capital of Vaud was higher than that in Geneva, and growing faster.
Figures published Monday 30 May by Badac, the Swiss cantons and cities database, show that Lausanne has had a larger percentage of foreigners than Geneva in recent years, although the two are close: Lausanne’s population in 2010 was 39.24 percent foreigners while Geneva’s was 38.58 percent, but while the increase in the foreign population in Geneva was .95 percent, Lausanne’s was 1.22 percent.
The figures take into account only the cities themselves, not their larger urban areas. Geneva’s population in 2010 was 185,958 and Lausanne’s was 125,885.
Smaller cities in the Lake Geneva region, such as some suburbs of Lausanne and Geneva, have even higher percentages of foreigners, including some of the highest rates in Switzerland: Montreux, 44.33 percent foreigners, Meyrin 33.99, Carouge 36.97, Renens 50.85, Nyon 36.39, Vevey 43.38, Morges 33.17, Versoix 33.20, Grand-Saconnex 28.40, Ecublens 43.03, Chêne-Bougeries 29.68.
Spreitenbach (50.74 percent), northwest of Zurich, and Renens (50.85), west of Lausanne, have a majority of foreigners; they are the only two Swiss cities over 10,000 where resident foreigners make up more than 50 percent of the population.
Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The person who died after being hit last 21 January by the Renens-Flon M1 Metro has been identified: she was a Romanian travelling person in her late 50s, part of a larger group on the move, who was staying at a Lausanne shelter for the homeless. The accident, which occurred at 18:35 on a busy tram line, caused major public transport disruptions Friday evening.
Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Police in Lausanne are calling “suspect” the death of a youth whose body was found at 09:00 Friday 17 December on the CFF rail tracks in Lausanne, under the bridge at the bottom of the rue de Tivoli, and they are asking the public to help clarify the circumstances of his death. The victim was an athletically built young man in his early 20s, 180cm, with short, dark hair. He was wearing a khaki brown anorak, dark beige trousers, a white shirt and black dress shoes.
Police believe he left a bar around Sébeillon, in the Flon area of Lausanne in the early hours of Friday, at about 01:30, to return to his home in Renens. They are trying to find anyone who may have seen him between 02:00 and 05:00 in particular, who can describe h is behaviour and shed any light on why he took this path from the centre of Lausanne to Renens. They are asked to phone police at +41 21 644 44 44 or go to the nearest police station.
Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Rail traffic on the main Geneva-Lausanne line and up to Biel-Bienne has been disrupted Friday morning 17 December by a “person accident” in Renens around 09:00. The term is used to refer to an accident involving a person on the rails, either accident or suicide.
The CFF warns travellers to expect delays, but trains should be running on a full schedule again by shortly after noon.
Tram line work gets underway, but real significance is kickoff of regional development
Metropolitan area west of Lausanne expects rapid, strong growth in next 10 years
Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Lausanne and Vaud have announced the start of work on the t1 tram line that will run between the Place d’Europe in Lausanne and the Renens train station, with local media mainly noting that it will cause traffic disruptions for months. Construction does not, however, begin until 2014 on the line whose completion is planned for 2017.
The new line’s work kickoff takes Palm, the Lausanne-Morges Metropolitan Project, essentially a planning tool, beyond the conceptual stage.
Palm is one of the first urban agglomeration projects to be financed by the Swiss federal government and it is providing a model for other regions, to some extent, largely because of rapid growth in the region, particularly to the west of Lausanne. The Lausanne area is expected to pull in 70,000 more people by 2020, only 6,000 of whom will move to the city itself.
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.
Renens, Vaud, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The first team of volunteers at the train station in Renens went to work 3 June to help travelers and keep the calm. The volunteer project is part of the CFF rail company programme to reduce vandalism and violence. Renens, canton Vaud police and the CFF rail company joined forces to train the volunteers, who will work at the station every evening.
Similar systems have been in place in Yverdon and Aigle for several months and are linked to a larger CFF programme that includes Big Brothers working on trains, particularly evenings, to reduce violence.
Renens, Vaud, Switzerland (20 Minutes, Fre) – “Oups!” as the photo caption says: a police car in Renens went nose first into a large hole in the street, apparently when the area around underground piping collapsed.
