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.
View from Neuchatel-Chaux de Fonds train Tuesday late afternoon: icy roads, plenty of snow
Neuchatel, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – A 67-year-old man and the conductor plus 97 passengers of a TGV traveling between Bern and Paris were happily unhurt when the man’s car, stranded on a TGV line near Bayards, canton Neuchatel, was hit by the train. The accident occurred Tuesday evening 9 February at 20:35, say police. Train service on the line was re-established only at 17:30 Wednesday evening. Travelers scheduled to take the TGV via Neuchatel were shunted to Basel and Lausanne for other trains.
The man had lost control of his car, which skidded onto the rails and was stuck there.
Duebendorf, canton Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – A snowplow and regional train collided about 08:45 Wednesday morning near the train station in Duebendorf, briefly slowing train traffic in the area. Officials told ats news agency that damage was limited and there appear to have been no injuries. Police and rail officials have not yet provided an explanation for how the snowplow came to be on the tracks.
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.
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.
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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.
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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.
A boy in India’s eastern Bihar state, age 12 or 13, was thrown from a train because he did not have enough money to bribe a guard, CNN reports. “Mohammed Salahuddin’s leg was removed below the knee after it was badly damaged after the fall” the US news service says, because the vendor did not have 10 rupees. The guard denies the corruption charges but admits to throwing the boy from the train. Salon
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.
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…
new Cisalpino II train, inaugural trip July 2009, Lausanne-Sion, Switzerland
Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The inaugural run of the new, ultra-sleek Cisalpino II trains that link Geneva to Milan, Italy via Lausanne, saw the high-speed train journey from Lausanne to Sion. The ride itself was easy compared to the latest problems faced by the company. Cisalpino was under threat of losing its contract with the Swiss rail company CFF early in 2009 because of breakdowns and delays.
Mise en Scene for the Montreux Jazz Festival - photo by Jared Bloch
Watching the lake vista unfold in front of us, I think, the festival setting truly is spectacular.
After getting stranded in Montreux early Tuesday morning – beware of the early morning public transport gap between 01:08 and 05:14 – I decided to try driving. The verdict?
Update 13 July Nyon, Vaud, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – A 17-year-old Swiss youth from Nyon is in critical condition following an accident at the Nyon train station shortly after midnight, early Thursday 9 July. [Ed. note, 13 July: GL has just learned that he was a 2009 graduate of La Chataigneraie, part of the International School of Geneva] He was sending friends off on the train after an evening out in Nyon when he pulled himself up to the window of one of the rail cars and held on, briefly, then slipped and fell under the train as it began to move. Both legs were severed by the train’s bogies, the right one below the hip and the left at the tibia, below the knee.
iPhone tickets for Swiss rail travel available 6 July 2009
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Swiss rail company CFF has started to sell train tickets via iPhones. The company’s mobile phone sales service was opened in February 2009, but until 6 July has worked only for phones equipped with Java. There is no supplement for tickets bought via iPhone, although users will be billed by their phone companies for downloading the ticket and other information such as train schedules. The tickets are paid for by credit card.
Lake Geneva region, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Train traffic between Geneva and Lausanne has been stopped since around 09:00 Friday morning due to problems with the power lines. 20 Minutes reports that the lines should be repaired by mid-morning but the CFF site says delays are indefinite.
Geneva-Coppet and Lausanne-Allaman trains in service
Trains are running between Geneva and Coppet as well as between Allaman and Lausanne. The rail company suggests that travelers allow an extra 120 minutes travel time for inter-city trains. CFF updates in English and map of the area affected
China is starting to build a train line Lop Nur, an area known as “the sea of death” in northwestern Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, reports Xinhua, noting that the region is rich in potassium salt, a very rare resource in China, used in fertilizers. A road to the remote area opened in 2006. China currently imports 4 million tons a year of potassium fertilizer but plans to produce 3m tons a year once the rail line is open. The area has reserves of 500m tons, worth more than 500 billion yuan.The region once held NW China’s largest lake, which “dried up in 1972 as a result of desertification and environmental degradation”.
Up to 200 Naxalites, or Maoists, have boarded a train that was going from going from Barkakana in Jharkhand to Mugalsarai in India Wednesday 22 April, taking hostage some 700-800 passengers, according to the Times of India. First Western media reports are putting the number lower, at 200-300. The hostage-taking is part of a continuing series of violent acts in the leadup to elections to the area. The Indian government says no one has been harmed.
Swis Jura, winter 2009, with heavy snow (photo: Shirley Curran)
Jura, Switzerland (24 heures, Fre)- Extreme weather over the course of winter caused 600-1,000 trees to fall along the base of the Jura mountains. Local loggers and forest services are closing off the dangerous areas and evacuating fallen trees to ensure that train lines are not at risk.
The Vaud forest service compares the damage to that of Lothar, the 1999 storm that swept across central Europe.
Flying somewhere other than France on 29 January, view from terminal 10 at Geneva airport
Switzerland (Le Temps, Fre) – France’s general strike Thursday 29 January is widespread, to the point where it appears that even Prime Minister Nicolas Sarkozy has nothing scheduled, reports Le Temps. The Swiss newspaper provides a useful list of flights and trains cancelled today due to the French strike.
Bern, Switzerland (20 Minutes, Fre) – Travel on a train in Valais or Ticino and you should not be asked by a customs officer to show your goods – a situation that will soon change. Switzerland became part of the Schengen Area 12 December, which allows travelers to enter and leave Switzerland without routine passport checks. Customs officers continue to check goods, however, and part of this work involves running checks on international trains that pass through Switzerland, a job border guards have done since 2002 inside cantons with international borders.
Bern, Switzerland (RSR, Fre) – Politicians from the Lake Geneva region failed to succeed once again in getting Parliament to back construction of a third rail line between Lausanne and Geneva.
This is the first of a series of mini-travel photo stories on Switzerland that will run for several weeks. A very special 16-year-old named Tara takes the train on Saturdays to explore the country where she has grown up. Her mother, GL editor Ellen Wallace, goes along for the ride.
Tara turned 16 in June and, like so many girls this age, she suddenly showed signs of independence, one of which was impatience with everything that had entertained her in the past. And, like many children of international families in Switzerland, she had traveled abroad more than at home, which is a shame because Switzerland is a country well worth exploring.
But Tara is quite unlike most 16-year-olds: she has several disabilities and she needs adult supervision at all times. She certainly can’t travel alone. One of her greatest joys in life is car travel but this year, the family decided, she should see Switzerland by train.
Our first outing was a short one, a 30 minute ride from Sierre in Valais, which will usually be our weekend starting point, to Brig, at the end of the Valais before it climbs to the Simplon Pass or the Goms (also known as Conches) valley. Then we would walk for an hour around town and take the train back.
Tara was thrilled by the train. Two teenagers sitting near us at first looked bothered by her presence. She doesn’t talk but she makes a lot of noise at times. She drools, which doesn’t go down at all well with other kids. But Tara was so clearly excited and happy by the train moving, then the scenery zooming by outside that pretty soon they began to laugh when she did, not unkindly.
Brig turned out to be a far more interesting town than I expected. I’ve known it as a jumping-off point for skiers going to Zermatt or Saas Fee, or for visits to the nearby Aletsch Glacier. But it was also at one end of the first modern road built over the Alps, by Napolean. It is at the foot of the Simplon pass, which gives it a colourful history linked to smuggling as well as legal trade over the centuries.
It has several architectural gems. The 17th century Stockalper chateau was home to a trader made rich by salt, silk and other wares carried over the Simplon mule route. The old town has dozens of patrician homes that speak of the wealth on this ancient trade route.
Tara and I found a quiet bakery where a young woman decided to try her English on us. We bought an apricot tart because it was the only thing she could say clearly and I thought we should encourage her. I had a very good cup of coffee, but before I could drink half of it Tara decided to leave. She is a girl of little patience and when it is time to go, we go.
It took us 30 minutes to walk up the hill to the top of this small town. I thought the return would be faster, but Tara was miserable when we headed downhill, and she refused to walk. The sight of a nearly grown girl sitting in the middle of the road is uncommon. This is a friendly town – several people stopped to ask if they could help. I thought this was a complaint from Tara that we had walked too far, but when we arrived home I learned the real reason. She walks on her toes much of the time, which wears holes in the tips of her shoes (she goes through a pair every six weeks or so) and sometimes her socks. We hadn’t noticed the socks were going but by the time we’d walked around Brig the holes had grown large enough for toes to poke through and hurt.
It’s times like this that I wish very much Tara could talk and say, “My socks have holes!” The good thing about Tara’s unhappiness is that it flies away as quickly as it comes. A train ride back to Sierre solved the problem in seconds.
And then I had my first lesson on train travel with Tara in Switzerland. She loved it, to the point where she refused to get off the train. Swiss trains don’t stop for long between stations. You have to be at the door, ready to leap off.
Fortunately, for travelers like Tara, Swiss trains have very helpful conductors.
Tip for disabled travelers in Switzerland - avoid peak travel times because the crush can make it hard to make connections.
Coming next: to Bern in late November
The CFF has several tickets for events plus train. The page functions in French and German, and you can search by city: just change the name of the city at the top, but remember it doesn’t recognize English!
Title: Ride a steam engine train
Location: Lausanne, Vaud
Link out: Click here
Description: Conmemorate 150 years of history by going to Lausanne or Geneva in a steam-engine train.
Date: 16 Nov 2008
Renens, Vaud, Switzerland (TSR, Fre) – Several hundred train travellers were affected Tuesday morning by a wire that came off the line in Renens, a key turntable in the rail system that links Geneva, Morges and Lausanne. Some people were delayed for as much as an hour and buses replaced trains between Morges and Lausanne.
