GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Traffic jams are dying down in Geneva after three days of snarled traffic, but the Quai Général-Guisan will remain closed until at least Thursday. Work is continuing on the area around the burst pipes that gave way to the cold Sunday 5 February.
photo, Jared Bloch
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – International organization employees are being alerted that traffic could be a problem in the area around the United Nations Palais and the World Trade Organization Thursday to Saturday, when the WTO holds a Ministerial meeting at the CICG, the Geneva conference centre.
The area around the centre will be cordoned off and access to the Parking des Nations will be limited.
Staff at UN agencies are being asked to use public transport.
Officially, there are no advisories about possible disturbances, but agencies have been alerted that the police presence will be heavy and flyers are circulating and media are received messages about possible meetings 15 December by a group calling itself “Occupy OMC” at the intersection of Avenue de France and Rue de Varembé and at 20:00 at the Rue des Savoises. Another demonstration is being announced for 17 December in the same area.
MILAN, ITALY – Sunday 9 October was a car-free day in Milan, designed to get the pollution level, one of Europe’s highest, down to legally acceptable levels. Seventy firefighters and extra police officers ensured that from 08:00 to 18:00 virtually no cars were driven in the city. The city’s safety commissioner said they were also checking cars with stickers for the handicapped, which could be driven, to catch cheaters, according to Corriere della sera newspaper.
The fine is euros 155 for driving on a car-free Sunday.
The ban followed 10 days of restrictions on certain categories of vehicles that were labelled polluters. The system kicks in when the pollution level rises above 50 micrograms of particulates per m3 of air over 12 days
Source: WHO, September 2011
Detractors, including some environmental groups, say the day off does little to bring down levels. Corriere della sera cites one critic who notes that the level has dropped to within legal limits after only on six of the 15 car-free Sundays in recent years, and that the city should invest more in anti-pollution measures for its public transport system.
Milan’s citizens were encouraged to take advantage of free entry Sunday to the city’s swimming pools and discounted entries for several museums, using the additional buses and subway trains that were put on for the day.
The northern Italian city has one of the highest car ownership ratios in the world and ranks as one of Europe’s most polluted cities for both the extent to which pollution rises above the European Union PM10 (particulates) limit of 50 micrograms per m3, and the duration. An Ecopass system to reduce car traffic went into effect in 2008, at which point 98,000 cars reportedly entered the city every day. The number of cars affected by Sunday’s ban three years later was 120,000, according to city officials.
The most recent comparative figures, from the World Health Organization (WHO) in Geneva in late September, show Milan, Torino and Naples sharing the top spot, with 2008 annual PM10 figures of 44 or 45 on average. The WHO published its new clean air guidelines and database covering more than 1,000 cities in 91 countries, noting:
“PM10 particles, which are particles of 10 micrometers or less, which can penetrate into the lungs and may enter the bloodstream, can cause heart disease, lung cancer, asthma, and acute lower respiratory infections. The WHO air quality guidelines for PM10 is 20 micrograms per cubic metre (µg/m3) as an annual average, but the data released today shows that average PM10 in some cities has reached up to 300 µg/m3.”
Bern, Geneva and Zurich showed annual averages of 21 to 24, while Rome was 35 and Paris 38, according to WHO figures.
School is starting: watch out for little people crossing the road!
LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND – Cantons Geneva and Vaud are back in school today, 29 August, and police are reminding motorists to slow down near schools.
School buses at Ecolint, the popular name for the campuses of the International School of Geneva, will start the year Thursday 1 September with a difference: the school has been working with EPFL in Lausanne to come up with the most efficient, environmentally-friendly system for its fleet of school buses in the two cantons.
“Our student population is increasing rapidly,” said Michel Chinal, responsible for the project shortly before his retirement in June. He noted that the rising number of parents picking up and dropping off their children is creating traffic problems in the village of Founex, just outside Geneva. The bus service offered by the school is too slow. The Founex campus, La Chataigneraie, will be adding nearly 300 students with its new primary school opening this week.
“Parents often say that they would like to sign their children up, but the bus ride is too long,” according to Chinal. The school transports nearly 300 students in an area bounded by Morges in Vaud, neighbouring France and Geneva.
The solution was to work with mathematicians in EPFL’s Discrete Optimization Group.
EPFL chemist Rainer Beck, whose child attends the school, offered to optimize the service and he asked his mathematical colleague Friedrich Eisenbrand to tackle the problem.
Eisenbrand notes that “coming up with a simple arithmetic algorithm is not difficult. But that’s not an efficient approach; due to the enormous number of possible itineraries, the calculations are painfully slow. We needed to develop an algorithm that quickly rejected most routes, so that the computation could be completed before the end of the Universe.”
Risenbrand and PhD student Adrian Bock came up with a solution for this complex problem. Using a few clever techniques, says EPFL, the calculations only take half a day to complete.
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – The Simplon pass is closed to cars between Gondo, in Switzerland and Iselle in Italy due to heavy smoke from a fire in the train tunnel. Traffic is being re-routed via the St Bernard and Gotthard passes.
A freight train that left Italy at 06:00 Thursday morning 9 June caught fire two to three kilometres after leaving Iselle, heading towards Switzerland. The fire quickly spread to nine other freight cars and by 16:40 Thursday afternoon the fire was still not under control. Special tunnel firefighting teams, some 30 men, were dispatched from Brig, Visp, Rarogne, Gampel and Loetschenthal.
The CFF rail company has sent three special fire extinction trains to help fight the blaze.
LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND – Traffic heading in the direction of Lausanne from Geneva came to a standstill Tuesday morning 7 June when a hefty 14-ton construction drilling machine on treads fell off the truck that was carrying it, and onto the highway. Both lanes of the autoroute were closed for two hours to allow an emergency crew to lift the machine out of the way and to repair the considerable damage done to the road itself.
The accident did not cause any injuries.
Vaud police say the tractor-trailer pulling the heavy load burst a tire shortly before the Morges exit, then began to sway back and forth, with the machine pulling loose from its moorings before tipping over into the other lane.
Traffic was backed up for nearly three autoroute stops during the morning and the lake road was packed with vehicles taking it as a detour.
vines ripening above Sierre, in late summer
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – A note to GenevaLunch visitors: the four-day Ascension weekend taken by many Swiss businesses has begun. The cold rainy weather will give way to warmer temperatures and partly sunny skies starting Thursday 2 June. This is a popular holiday for travelling inside Switzerland, so traffic will be heavy frequently, not just during the peak travel times for European’s who are crossing the country as they take the long weekend.
Temperatures are expected to rise to 20-23C for the highs in western Switzerland, with lows of 8-9C.
A reminder for air travellers: Wednesday 1 June is the first day of the new Swiss rules on duty free: you can now purchase duty free goods on arrival as well as when leaving the country. You can order your goods online, in advance, and the shops are open from 06:00 to 23:00 seven days a week. Details on Genève Aéroport‘s duty free pages.
Canton Valais, Switzerland’s largest wine-producing region, is holding its open days 2-4 June. The canton is noted for its spectacular Alpine vineyards along the banks of the Rhone and the rich variety of its wine grapes. Details in French; GenevaLunch will provide suggestions and more information Thursday.
Kevin Loetscher reportedly hit by car while walking
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Police in canton Vaud say a motorcyclist was killed Friday evening on the Ollons Villars-Road, and in canton Valais, a young woman driver who was over the legal limit for alcohol, hit two pedestrians early Sunday. One of those she hit is reported by the Tribune de Geneve to be Swiss hockey player Kevin Loetscher, age 23. Loetscher, notes the Tribune, was one of the most valuable players on the Swiss team, which had just returned from the World Championship in Slovakia.
Valais police have not identified the victims of the accident that took place at 04:30 15 May near a roundabout that is next to the hospital in Sierre. A 21-year-old was slightly injured when he was caught by the edge of the car, but the 23-year-old victim was hit straight on and hospitalized in critical condition. The pair were walking along the edge of the road when they were hit by a 19-year-old woman, whose car came to a stop 20 metres later, say police.
She tested positive for drinking, with an alcohol blood level of 1.56. Switzerland’s legal limit is 0.5.
Vaud motorcyclist dies on Villars-Ollon road
A motorcyclist in his thirties lost his life Friday evening at 18:50 when he was thrown after being hit by a car near Glutières, on the road from Villars to Ollon. He was attempting to pass several cars when one of them swerved to the left. The violent impact led to his death shortly after, despite immediate efforts to save him, say police in canton Vaud.
The road was closed to traffic while police investigated the cause of the accident.
Airlines, tourist reservations in Europe also seeing strong growth
Swiss chalet spying: Brazilians, Indians, Chinese and Americans came in larger numbers in March
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Overnight stays in Swiss hotels, the standard measure of the tourism industry’s health, rose to 3.3 million, a 2.3 percent increase in March 2011 compared to March 2010. The latest figures were released by the Swiss statistical office Monday 9 May.
Foreign tourist stays increased slightly, by 1.1 percent, while Swiss tourist traffic was up 3.9 percent.
The strongest growth came from Asia, with Europe the only region not registering growth. India led the way for Asia, with 5,000 more overnight stays, followed by China with an increase of 4,900.
Brazil had the strongest overall increase, up 5,900 overnight stays, with the US having 4,300 more.
The largest drop was the UK: British tourists spent 30,000 fewer nights in Swiss hotels in March than they did a year earlier: the 16 percent fall was the largest of any one country.
Tourism in general is picking up
Geneva police chase repeat offender for an hour, into family gardens area on city outskirts
Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - A 53-year-old Italian living in Yverdon-les-Bains died Wednesday night as police were questioning him over traffic violations, with his death apparently linked to longterm health problems.
Two police officers noticed the man’s car at 21:30 Wednesday because he was driving without lights, the car had no bumpers or license plates. Despite their efforts to pull him over he continued to drive to his home, where they questioned him for 20 minutes and discovered that he did not have a valid drivers license, before he suddenly collapsed.
The two officers tried unsuccessfully for 30 minutes to resuscitate him, joined by an ambulance team and the man’s son, who later confirmed that the police had acted appropriately and had not been aggressive.
Geneva police find stolen car, spend an hour chasing suspected thief
Police in Geneva were led on a high-speed chase Wednesday afternoon by a man who first tried to escape on a motorcycle, then in a car and finally on foot before he was captured while trying to hide in an area of family gardens in
The incident began early in the afternoon when police spotted a black Peugeot with Valais license plates parked in the Montbrillant area. Police had been seeking the stolen car, which was involved in an accident 15 months ago. A man walked towards the car but as police officers approached him he got on a nearby motorcycle and sped off. Police gave up the chase to discourage him from continuing to drive in busy areas, including the Vernier tunnel where he sped between two lanes of traffic. He returned to the Peugeot and drove off in it, chased by police. Once again they lost him, but caught up with him when his car overturned in Aire-la-Ville, here he then tried to hide in the gardens.
The man has several previous traffic offenses.
Expect disruptions as the race moves through canton Vaud
Start to the Tour de Romandie (photo: Sam' place on flickr: flickr.com/photos/sam-s-place/
Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - The Tour de Romandie, a five-day bike race, was off to a sunny start Wednesday 27 April, running from Martigny in Valais to Leysin in Vaud. Brutt Pavel, Russian, led the group at the end of the first day.
Police in cantons Vaud and Geneva are warning drivers to be patient if they find themselves near the race between now and Sunday 1 May. Roadblocks will be put in place temporarily and drivers will have to cool their heels while the racers run through the area.
The itinerary provided by Vaud police
2nd stage, Romont – Romont, Thursday 28 April 2011:
Canton de Fribourg – Sédeilles (13h31) – Rossens – Canton de Fribourg – Chesalles (14h20) – Oron-le-Châtel – Oron-la-Ville – Canton de Fribourg – Brenles (14h55) – Sarzens – Curtilles – Dompierre – Villars-Bramard – Villarzel – Rossens (15h25) – Canton de Fribourg
3rd stage, Thierrens – Neuchâtel, Friday 29 April 2011:
Thierrens (11h15) – St-Cierges – Peyres-Possens – Bottens – Cugy – Froideville (11h41) – Peney-le-Jorat – Corcelles-le-Jorat – Carrouge (11h58) – Vucherens - Marnand (12h30) – Avenches – Faoug (13h00) – Canton de Fribourg
Against the clock / Aubonne – Signal de Bougy, Saturday 30 April 2011:
Aubonne, Place de l’Ancienne Gare (roads completely closed starting at noon) – Lavigny – St-Livres – Bière – Saubraz – Gimel – Pizy – Signal de Bougy (open about 18h30)
5th stage, Champagne – Geneva, Sunday 1 May 2011:
Champagne (10h00) – Fontaines/Grandson – Fiez – Grandson – Les Tuileries – Peney – Baulmes (10h32) – Ballaigues – Vallorbe – Pompaples – La Sarraz – Cossonay-Ville – La Chaux – Cuarnens – Mont-la-Ville – Col du Mollendruz (12h05) – L’Abbaye – Les Bioux – L’Orient – Le Brassus – Col du Marchairuz (12h42) – St-Georges – Gimel – Mont/Rolle – Bursins – Vinzel – Dully – Gland – Nyon (13h22) – Crans/Céligny – Coppet – Canton Geneva.
Easter weekend: sunshine, warm temperatures iln most of Switzerland
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The weather forecast for Switzerland is for sunshine and more of it, with a few drops of rain in northeastern Switzerland on Sunday 24 April. Lows of 6-7C and highs of 23 in Geneva to 26 in most other areas. The southeast corner of the country, around Samedan, is the one chilly patch, with temperatures of -2 to 14C.
Easter Friday and Monday traffic on roads: expect delays, look for alternative routes
School holidays began in a dozen cantons Thursday afternoon, and traffic began to build up quickly on roads heading south. By Friday morning at 08:00 the logjam on the north side of the St Gotthard tunnel was already 4 km long, with a one-hour wait. Friday is expected to be a heavy travel day on all main roads in Switzerland, so expect slowdowns.
Road forecasts are available in French from TCS (Touring Club Suisse), which suggests that drivers heading south from French-speaking areas use alternatives to the St Gotthard, which is a main European north-south road, taking for example the Grand St Bernard route. The Swiss Highway Office’s web site for trucks is updated every minute or so, giving real-time information on traffic situations, one of the best sites for this. TSR, Swiss public television, also has good traffic situation maps.
Schools that have been on spring break for the past two weeks, including many in Geneva and Vaud, return Tuesday, and Monday is forecast to be a very heavy traffic day on roads.
Airports and roads to them are also expected to be busier than usual, so build in extra travel time.
The CFF rail company recommends reserving ahead for international trains.
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The Tribune de Geneve raised the alarm Monday 18 April and is repeating it today: expect snarled traffic in the centre of Geneva all this week and next, with roadworks between the train station and Plainpalais causing backups that are affecting all major arteries through the city.
Zurich, Kloten Airport
Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Zurich’s Kloten Airport saw passenger traffic increase by 3.9 percent in March over the same period a year earlier. The airport had 1.88 million passengers in March. The strongest growth was in local passenger traffic, up 4.6 percent, while transit traffic grew by 1.5 percent.
Freight traffic was also up, by 3.6 percent.
Job of convincing Bern, which has the final word, could be tough, say cantonal authorities
Bridge preferred over tunnel, but both options kept
New autoroute proposal backed by canton Geneva for Lake Geneva crossing
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Geneva is ready to push for an extension of the autoroute across the lake by 2030, arguing that it would ease city traffic by 30 percent and the ring road around Geneva by 12 percent.
The canton presented its project at a press conference Monday morning 11 April, the result of a three-year lake crossing feasibility study that cost CHF3.5 million.
The new link would extend from the current autoroute stretch on the right bank at Vengeron, relatively close to the lake, across to La Pointe-à-La-Bise, a reserve that the road would not touch, near Bellerive/Collonge. It would be entirely on Swiss territory. Canton governments do not have the right to enter into discussions with other governments on roadworks, but the proposed route approved by Geneva’s cantonal council could connect with Swiss and French highway as well as autoroute systems.
Two options are provided, one for a tunnel and the other for a bridge, but in both cases a tunnel under Choulex on the left bank, to preserve the Seymaz plain, is included. The bridge is currently considered the better option, from a safety and cost perspective. It’s too early, howevr, to exclude the option of a tunnel under the lake, say authorities. Further studies are needed that take into consideration new technologies that could be used for a tunnel.
City centre traffic would be reduced by 30,000 a day from current level
New bridge or tunnel to cross Lake Geneva would go from Vengeron, near Bellevue, on the left side of this photo, across to Bellerive, near Collonge (city centre to the right; photo taken from Chambesy)
Some 150,000 vehicles currently use the main routes through the city and across the Mont Blanc bridge. Cantonal projections show this figure rising to 170,000 by 2030.
If the new plan is adopted, traffic would fall to 120,000 vehicles a day through the city centre to cross the lake.
For people living near the two new autoroute junctions or further out and therefore using them, the lake crossing would be reduced in time by 35 percent, according to the report issued Monday.
The new link would extend from the current autoroute stretch on the right bank at Vengeron, relatively close to the lake, across to La Pointe-à-La-Bise, a reserve that the road would not touch, near Bellerive/Collonge.
It would be entirely on Swiss territory. Canton governments do not have the right to enter into discussions with other governments on roadworks, but the proposed route approved by Geneva’s cantonal council could connect with Swiss and French highway as well as autoroute systems.
The cost of the project is estimated at CHF3.1 billion for a bridge and CHF3.7b for a tunnel, without including various options to make improvements to city spaces and public transport as a result.
Bern’s current plan: reduce Geneva congestion by adding lanes to ring road autoroute
The arguments for and against a Lake Geneva crossing have raged in the canton for several years, but the biggest hurdle now could be the Swiss federal government, which has owned and is responsible for all national highways since 2008. Bern currently is considering plans to enlarge the ring road around the city in several places, from two to three lanes, to allow it to handle 115,000 vehicles a day. It can currently take a maximum load of 80,000.
Feasibility study report, in French, with annexes (including environmental impact)
Geneva, Lausanne and Nyon, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – A French man in his 30s died Friday morning when he lost control of his car on a bend on the St Cergues road, Vaud police say. He was travelling from La Cure to St Cergue when he missed a left bend at Cheseaux, about 10:15. The car hit a rocky bank and rolled over, landing on its roof.
The driver was unconscious when emergency services arrived and he died shortly afterwards.
The victim was a resident of France.
The St Cergue road was closed from 10:30 to 14:00 for the police investigation.
Geneva youth’s scooter was hit by truck
A 20-year-old on a scooter died Thursday evening after he was hit by a truck near 7, Route des Jeunes in Geneva. He died at the scene of the accident. He was heading towards Jonction, after the Etoile junction, when the truck, which was using the delivery quai at number 7, hit the scooter.
A regular airport scan spotted animals in a man’s suitcases, but the sheer size and variety of the smuggled wildlife were a daunting haul by any standards. The live creatures the Indonesian was caught with at Thailand’s Suvarnabhumi International Airport as he was boarding an Air Asia flight home came from the local Bangkok market, he admitted.
“A man who went on a wildlife shopping spree in Bangkok’s Chatuchak Market was detained by authorities at the Suvarnabhumi International Airport yesterday as he tried to smuggle his haul—that included live snakes, tortoises, squirrels, spiders, lizards and even a parrot—out of the country inside three suitcases,” says the international wildlife group Traffic.
But the complete list is startling and included: 88 Indian Star Tortoises, 33 Elongated Tortoises, seven Radiated Tortoises, six Mata Mata Turtles, four Southeast Asian Narrow-headed Softshell Turtle, three Aldabra Tortoises, one Pig-nosed Turtle “and even one Ploughshare Tortoise—the worlds’ rarest tortoise”, according to Traffic’s press release on the confiscation.
“Alongside these, he packed 34 Ball Pythons, two Boa Constrictors, several Milk Snakes, Corn Snakes and King Snakes as well as a Hog-nosed Snake.”
The full list, according to Traffic, which has a photo showing the man’s “modified” suitcase:
Ploughshare tortoise 1
Ceratophrys ornate (Argentine horned frog) 6
Radiated tortoise 7
Indian Star Tortoise 88
Common squirrel 22
Mata Mata Turtle 6
Bearded Dragon 19
Aldabra Tortoise 3
Theraphosidae (baboon spider) 18
Pig-nosed Turtle 1
Elongated Tortoise 33
African Grey Parrot 1
Ball Python 34
Boa Constrictor 2
Milk Snake 1
Corn Snake 2
King Snake 2
Lampropeltis zonata (kingsnake) 1
Lampropeltis calligasta (kingsnake) 1
Hog nosed snake 1
Spiny-tailed Lizard (Uromastyx ) 4
Sudan Plated Lizard 2
Chitra 4
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Possibly the least-observed traffic rule in Geneva has the police out in the city centre, stopping drivers who cut through the rue du Rhone to place Bel-air, despite signs saying it is a no-go zone. 20 Minutes reports that police will be stopping drivers for the first 10 days of February to point out that the useful shortcut is open only to buses, taxis and delivery drivers. They will then start to hand out fines, an officer told the newspaper.
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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.
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.
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) -European airlines will continue to be the laggards in the airline industry in 2011, Giovanni Bisignani, Iata’s director general and CEO, told journalists at the International Air Transport Association’s annual press day. Profits worldwide for the industry are now expected to end 2010 up $15.1 billion, well above the $8.9 billion forecast in September, but Iata cautions that while the numbers look large, this represents just 1.1 percent of the industry’s revenue for the year.
Iata has also revised upwards its projections for 2011 to a net industry profit of $9.1b, up from the $5.3b forecast in September. Net margins remain weak at 2.7 percent for 2010 and falling to 1.5% percent in 2011, the organization, whose members are the world’s airlines, stated.
Industry remains fragile, “nowhere near covering cost of capital”
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.
Head of a tiger (Panthera tigris), India (photo: ©2010 Vivek R Sinh, WWF-Canon)
(video, nearly extinct Siberian tiger) Gland, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The WWF, based in Gland, near Geneva, says the world’s endangered tigers remain under pressure, with India, China and Nepal showing the worst poaching problems. In the past century the number of tigers worldwide has fallen from an estimated 100,000 to just 3,200.
The WWF is a member of Traffic (wildlife trade monitoring network), whose “Reduced to Skin and Bones” report released 9 November shows that “from January 2000 to April 2010, parts of between 1,069 and 1,220 tigers were seized in 11 of the 13 tiger range countries—or an average of 104 to 119 animals per year.”
The report is published ahead of a meeting at the end of November of heads of government of tiger range countries to sign the Global Tiger Recovery Programme, a plan that aims to double the number of tigers in the wild by 2022.
The programme aims to push harder to reduce poaching and illegal trade, but also to reduce the demand for tiger parts.
Tigers are coveted for their use in traditional medicines, decoration, and as good luck charms.
Expect delays says Swisscom
Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Swisscom mobile customers who use the Internet may experience “impaired service” in the next few hours, says the company. Its mobile data network was interrupted for several hours Monday, starting at 07:30 when a fault occurred on Swisscom’s GPRS network while maintenance work was being done.
About half of the customers had service again by 14:00, with the rest functioning by 17:30. The company noted that the mobile Internet service had to be restarted during the morning, causing interruptions in mobile data traffic.
On a normal day, Swisscom notes, several hundred thousand customers make use of mobile Internet services. The resumption of traffic meant that “an increase in data traffic is expected over the next few hours,” it said Monday evening, “which could lead to impaired service.
“The disturbance affected all mobile services requiring an Internet connection, from surfing the Internet to sending and receiving MMS messages and e-mails. Telephone services via the mobile network, the sending and receiving of SMS messages and connections to the fixed network (telephony, Internet, Swisscom TV) were not affected.
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Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The lake road between Lausanne and La Tour-de-Peilz will be closed to traffic (residents excepted) Sunday from 07:30 to approximately 17:00. More than 10,000 runners are registered for the Lausanne Marathon and the road will re-open depending on when the runners finish.
The marathon itself is just one of several events that include a half-marathon and walking races.
Lausanne is the departure point but the lakefront down to La Tour-de-Peilz will be given over to the runners and police warn anyone driving in the area to use caution.
Traffic then security are also issues, with security a growing concern
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Housing is the main worry for expatriates and diplomats in Geneva, a poll run jointly by Geneva police and the Swiss Mission to the United Nations.
More than half of the 1,098 persons questioned said housing was their biggest concern, while traffic problems were listed by 16.3 percent and lack of security by 13.6 percent.
The poll included 318 members of the diplomatic corps, 581 international organization employees and 235 members of staff at multinational companies, with 66 percent of them having lived in Geneva for at least two years. Three-quarters were from Europe
A negative point in the survey was the perception on the part of the foreigners that security is getting worse in the city, with 80 percent of those questioned saying it is.
The report on the poll was presented at an annual meeting on human rights hosted by Geneva for NGOs (non-governmental organizations). This year’s theme was security: how to provide it while respecting human rights.
The report also showed that Geneva nevertheless is viewed well by foreigners living there, with 92 percent saying they would recommend it to their friends and 77.3 percent saying the quality of life is good.
The police are generally viewed positively (60 percent), but around the Cornavin train station in Geneva and the Paquis district 61 percent believe the police are too passive.
Geneva, the authors note, is given a relatively good score when compared to the countries where they previously resided, with seven of them doing better than Geneva on a scale of 10:
- Singapore, 9.1 /10, given the top rating
- Geneva, 7.6
- USA, 6.5
- Great Britain, 5.9
- Brazil, 5.7
- South Africa, 2.6.
Ikea’s grand opening, Geneva-Vernier store 15 September, follows years of wrangling
Ikea Vernier Wednesday morning, before the crowds hit the grand opening
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The grand opening breakfast Wednesday morning 15 September at Ikea in Vernier was just the right kind: copious, with a wide selection of choices. Copious because it accompanied, Swiss-style, numerous speakers who all started by naming and thanking individually each dignitary present.
A wide selection because this is, after all, Ikea. And if the blue and yellow everywhere, including of course Ambassador Per Thoeresson’s tie, wasn’t a clue that Ikea is Swedish at heart, the glass of Schnapps at 07:00, at the end of breakfast, was a giveaway.
Sweden's ambassador to Switzerland, Per Thoeresson
“For me, like any Swede, Ikea represents Swedish values, Swedish culture,” Thoeresson told several hundred early morning breakfast guests, who thanked Sweden’s “other ambassador”, the home furnishings giant which has become an institution for foreigners in Switzerland. “It’s no accident that Switzerland was chosen as the first location in Europe outside Sweden. Switzerland is in the middle of Europe, Sweden and Switzerland share many values—including a sense of design, of functionality.” He added that the two countries “have become a little closer” thanks to Ikea.
It wasn’t always clear this would be the case.
This is the eighth Ikea store in Switzerland, but the 10-year battle to open it prompted one Geneva politician to say over breakfast that “Ikea in Geneva at one point meant ‘obstruction’ but today it’s a good example of working together.” The commune of Vernier repeatedly refused to approve the project, saying it needed guarantees the store wasn’t giving: a major concern was the potential for traffic problems. Protestors complained about future pollution and the canton of Geneva and Vernier commune battled over the number of exits from the store.
Burying the hatchet: what Ikea will bring Vernier, Geneva
The commune finally accepted the project in October 2008, after Ikea agreed to numerous conditions, which increased the bill considerably, and construction moved ahead. Final cost: CHF109.4 million, when the attic area is included.
Opening day shows a store that had 7,000 applications for 300 jobs. Eighty percent of those hired are from canton Geneva and 40 percent from Vernier, making Ikea a key employer in the canton with Switzerland’s highest unemployment rate.
The 31,000m2 (attic included) store has a parking lot with 850 places, but it has made a serious effort to discourage shoppers’ use of private cars: it’s easy to reach using bicycle lanes and public transport: buses 6, 19, 23, 28, 57, Y and trams 14 and 16, train Regio R from Cornavin. If you’re buying furniture you can’t put on the bus, you have two relatively green options: home delivery and Mobilité natural gas rental vehicles.
Ikea is expected to bring the commune tax revenues of up to CHF800,000.
Ikea is Ikea is Ikea, but this is Geneva, where living space is at a premium
Inside the store, everything is familiar to anyone who has visited Ikea elsewhere. It is slightly smaller than the store in Aubonne and the line of merchandise is essentially the same, but the Vernier store caters to a slightly different population. “People in Geneva have a bit more money, but smaller living spaces,” one employee told visitors. The kitchen selection is larger and there are numerous clearly marked sections for people with apartments of 25, 35 or 50 square metres: small spaces.
The rare opportunity to see an Ikea store without customers charmed breakfast guests, but at 09:00 as the grand opening drew near the most impressive sight was scores of employees racing to finish shelves-stocking before the doors opened. And only one protestor showed up.
Ikea Vernier web site, with hours
TSR timeline of Ikea political battle, Vernier-Geneva
Ed. note: GenevaLunch will publish a photo gallery of the new store before it opened, late Wednesday. Watch for the update here!
Map of the changes to Cornavin station, to improve pedestrian traffic flow
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - A six-year-old girl was hit by a tram in front of Geneva’s main station late Saturday and, according to the Tribune de Geneve, she remains in serious condition at the hospital. Details of the accident, under investigation, are sketchy, but the Geneva newspaper raises the question of safety in front of the station, where in 2008 the city created a 20-kph-zone with pedestrians given priority.
The area is crisscrossed steadily with tram, bus, taxi, bicycle and pedestrian traffic, raising public complaints about too many distractions for people crossing the area.
Major renovations at the station, part of which are designed to improve the flow of pedestrian traffic inside but also around the station, are an additional distraction.
The growing number of bicycle riders in the city, who often ignore traffic rules, has been cited by the TPG on a number of occasions as a problem for tram drivers. The Tribune reports that since the start of 2010 Geneva has had seven tram-bicycle collision, one of them fatal to the bike rider, and 11 tram-pedestrian accidents.
You guessed it: the high-profile presentation in Moscow of a new book, Moscow: Traffic Problems of a Megalopolis, was delayed 90 minutes by traffic, or rather by the late arrival of a special guest. The guest was former Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama and the book was written by his son Kichiro Hatoyama, a visiting lecturer at Moscow State University’s Graduate School of Business Administration, who suggests that Muscovites take lessons from Japan in how to better manage their clogged road system. The father was caught in heavy traffic, but the mayor of Moscow sent a police escort to his rescue, making him only 90 minutes late. Police escorts, complain Moscow motorists, are part of the problem, according to the Moscow Times, which reported the story.
