GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – A 14-year-old is in serious condition, but his life is not in danger, following an accident at the train station in Gland, canton Vaud, Thursday evening 22 December. Vaud police say that a goods train, going 100 kph, pulled the youth was pulled onto the tracks from the platform about 19:00. He and a group of friends, who were meeting up at the station, were standing on the platform and talking, according to local media.
Vaud police have not confirmed the details but say that the youth and one other friend, also 14, were both injured. The second boy sustained only light injuries and was treated and released from the Nyon hospital.
MORGES, SWITZERLAND – A 66-year-old local woman slipped and fell between the quai at the Morges train station and the train tracks at 09:30 Wednesday, say Vaud police.
She is in critical condition.
The woman was trying to board a train as it pulled out of the station and she lost her balance. The police and CFF have opened an investigation into the incident.
LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND – A Swiss Intercity train traveling at 140kph from Yverdon-Les-Bains to Lausanne struck a car whose front wheels were hanging in the space over the railroad tracks in the village of Bavois. The driver, a 74-year-old local man, was killed when his car was thrown 30 metres by the train. The train was not derailed and there were no other injuries.
The accident occurred at 20:00 Monday night 10 October. The man had driven to the Bavois parking lot but, for reasons that are not clear, his car didn’t stop there and continued on towards the quai, with the front of the car slipping over the edge just as the Intercity came rushing through the station.
The train line, a major Swiss rail artery, was closed for part of the evening for the investigation.
SION, SWITZERLAND – A man who threatened a bank employee in Anzère, a resort in canton Valais, with a knife as the worker left the bank, then robbed the bank of several thousand francs at noon Monday 10 October, has been captured, say Valais police.
The man released the employee once he had the loot and the banker promptly contacted police, who put in place a large manhunt, coordinating it with local transport authorities.
The man was arrested not long after on a train from Sion in the direction of Martigny, cash in hand. Police say the stolen money appears to be all there.
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – A 92-year-old driver is in critical condition Thursday evening after his car was hit by a French SNCF train at chemin de la Montagne, à Chêne-Bougeries in Geneva. The car, with Geneva plates, was dragged by the Annemasse-gare des Eaux-Vives train several metres. The cause of the accident is not yet clear.
Photo, ©2011, Mr Kio on flickr
Lausanne train station
LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND – A 32-year-old ticket checker on a CFF train suffered a broken nose and facial lacerations when he was attacked by a man without a valid ticket last Friday, 15 July. His aggressor fled and police, who have a witness, turned the case over to judicial authorities, who have opened a criminal investigation.
The man’s ticket had earlier been checked, shortly before Vevey on the Brig-Geneva airport train, and it was valid as far as Vevey. When the conductor spotted the man in the last car of the train from Vevey to Lausanne, at 13:30, he asked to see the ticket again, remembering that it was not valid.
He was starting to write out a fine when the man suddenly grabbed his ticket back and became “violent and uncontrollable” according to Vaud Police. He grabbed the CFF employee by the collar and began punching him in the face and kicking him.
The two fell to the ground and the conductor, whose colleague was elsewhere in the train, tried unsuccessfully to hold onto the man at the Lausanne train station.
The Lausanne train station gendarmerie is in charge of the investigation.
Engineers from Switzerland's famed watchmaking area in the Jura have created this eco prototype, Consomini Evo, that has done more than 2,000km on a litre of petrol
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - All roads in Switzerland lead to Geneva starting today, for one of the biggest events on the Swiss calendar, the Geneva Motor Show.
Happily, compared to a few years ago, a growing number of car enthusiasts are willing to take advantage of good offers from the CFF rail company, and the roads are less congested than in the past.
The CFF is putting an extra 15 trains on for the show.
Some 70,000 people are expected to visit the car show, widely considered the most independent of the major auto shows because it takes place in a country with no major car manufacturers.
Iran has an electric car world premiere, the IEFCV Aryana 800, at the Geneva show
Expect Green: environmentally-minded drivers, once considered a fringe group, are now the target group for scores of new models.
The Green Pavilion this year features 17 world premieres, including some of the most unusual cars you can expect to see at the show.
Migros, which has been backing a number of electric motor projects recently, has a strong presence at the show. It announced Thursday morning 3 March that it is opening 45 new electric recharging stations in Switzerland, as part of its push to encourage electric motors.
Rinspeed's BamBoo
Swiss concept car company Rinspeed, noted for many years for James Bond-style flash cars, is showing green vehicles for the second year running, confirming the growing industry move away from guzzlers to planet-friendly vehicles. Its super-sophisticated waterproof electric urban beach buggy includes a foldup bicycle, but under the icing on the package are some sweet futuristic technical design features.
What to expect, how to find your way around the Geneva Motor Show
Where Palexpo, next to the airport, in Geneva
When Starting Thursday 3 March: 10:00-20:00 weekdays and 09:00-19:00 Saturday, Sunday. Closes 13 March.
Swiss retailer Migros proves that the Geneva Motor Show is about more than cars: electric bike El Moto goes up to 45kph and the Vectrix-VX1 is the world's first electric Maxi-Roller
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.
If you take the train, go to the top of the steps as you leave the CFF/SBB station and take bus number 5 or 28 to Palexpo (2 stops). The CFF Swiss train company offers special deals to encourage people to use public transport and bus passes are included: 10 percent reduction on the train ticket and discount on the car show. You can buy the combined tickets in most railway machines or order online.
If you’re taking the train only one way the special offers won’t do you any good, and you’ll need to buy a bus pass: note that you have to have the right change for the bus. Consider a CHF7 (after 09:00) or regular CHF10 day pass for public transport if you’re planning to see something of Geneva.
The Motor Show site provides a good “how to get here” page with tips for drivers and those taking public transport.
Entry fee: CHF16 for adults and CHF9 for children; group discounts; tickets can be ordered online.
Number of people who attend each year About 70,000 during the 10 day-event.
What you can expect to see More than 700 car models shown by 260 exhibitors, more than in 2010, from 31 countries. An added plus for many visitors: some of the longest legs in the world, on the young women who show the cars.
Highlights of the 2011 car show
Pagani Huayra, for those who like air
The show is huge and, for first-timers, confusing because there are simply so many cars. Some of the odd and special highlights to look out for this year:
Hyundai: a green routing for navigation as well as the traditional shortest and fastest route options
Ferrari is giving us a station wagon, the FF (four wheels, four seats) which bends the rules of what station wagons are all about
Carlsson is making just 25 of its ultra-sumptuous burgundy C25s, at about half a million euros each
Saab has a new hyrid PhoeniX that showcases technology we can expect from the Swedish company in the future, for the more down to Earth driver.
VW offers a retro car, with a new version of the much loved VW van once so popular with hippies.
Fiat‘s hugely popular 500 model arrives this year with an award-winning engine and a double-bubble top from designer Zagato,who always puts these on his special cars, including Ferraris and Aston Martins.
Rolls Royce, not to be outdone in the Green game, has a one-off 102EX Phantom Experimental Vehicle that carries 640kg of lithium batteries so the electric car can make it 120 km without recharging.
St Sulpice man, Canadian, dies under train in southern Italy, twin girls missing
International police alert for witnesses, information: +41 21 644 82 31 or the nearest police station
Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Two six-year-old twin girls are missing and police in Switzerland have issued a missing persons bulletin for them after their father was found dead in the far south of Italy.
The body of Matthias, the father, a St Sulpice man in his forties, was discovered in Bari, Italy at 23:00 Thursday 3 February, after a train passed over him. Police there are trying to determine if his death was an accident or suicide. The man, who was Canadian, left Switzerland Sunday with his six-year-old twin daughters, at the end of a weekend with them. The girls’ parents were in the process of divorcing. The father had taken them over the Christmas holidays, without incidence.
Swiss police issued a Schengen system SIS international alert 30 January after the trio failed to return to St Sulpice. Police investigations showed the father passed by Annecy, France, near Geneva, then Marseilles 1 February. French and Italian police have been actively working with Swiss authorities, but there has been no news of the girls.
Description of the girls
Alessia: 115 cm, long blond hair, medically corrected glasses with bordeaux-coloured titanium frames, last seen wearing a red, white and pink striped tee-shirt, blue jeans, white jacket with beige lining and black boots.
Livia: 115 cm, long blond hair, last seen wearing a green tee-shirt, a purple ski jacket, bluejeans, Adidas white and pink sports shoes, medically corrected glasses with orange titanium frames.
Description of the father
Average weight, 180 cm tall, blond hair thinning at the front, wearing glasses. Was last seen wearing a smart sports outfit and driving an Audi A6 with Swiss license plates.
Glacier Express crash, 24 July 2010
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The Glacier Express crash in July 2010 that killed one person and injured more than 40 others in the Goms Valley, canton Valais, was due to speed alone.
The bend was such that at even a slightly elevated speed the normally slow train would risk turning on its side.
A federal investigation into the accident has ruled out all other possibilities, saying the terrain, weather, rolling matieral and other possible factors were not implicated in the crash.
The driver has said he blacked out at the time, and he has been unable to explain the train’s speed. He was cleared of taking drugs or alcohol.
The federal investigation concludes with a recommendation that the train be equipped with a system to closely monitor its speed at all times.
Your guide to a holiday-season weekend in Zurich, an easy train ride from Lake Geneva
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Zurich, December, view over the Limmat, universities above the Niederdorf
Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The charm of Zurich is at its brightest in the lead-up to Christmas. Daytime offers plenty of activities for children and adults alike, but the real fun starts in the evening. The entire city appears to spill out of offices and shops to socialize in the snowy streets, tucking into cozy cafes and restaurants when the weather turns too brisk. It’s an easy two hours and 50 minute by train from Geneva, 30 minutes less from Lausanne, making it the perfect mini-vacation for people in the Lake Geneva area who want to leave home without the cost and fatigue of going abroad.
Swarovski crystals cover Zurich main station giant tree
The week before Christmas sees Zurich shoppers filling the stores and boutiques, as they do in any big city. Shops are open Sunday 19 December throughout the city and they are open later than usual in the evenings up to Christmas. The Bahnhof, or main train station, has what is arguably the best Christmas market in Switzerland, with a great selection of gifts, but there are also scores of small Christmas stands sprinkled around the city and small markets that are good fun.
Be sure to go back to the Bahnhof in the evening, when the locals invade it, sipping hot gluwein, the spicy scent of which fills the air. The giant Swarovski Christmas tree is an astonishing site, with over 5,000 crystal decorations. Given that these start at CHF130 in the Swarovski shop on the Bahnhofstrasse, the cost of the tree as well as its beauty are enough to make you pause. The tree itself is a 35-year-old Zurich pine from the forest above the city.
Your best starting point is at the main train station’s tourism office, where you can get excellent maps, brochures and the Zurich City Card (see below). The Bahnhof station can be confusing at the best of times, and renovations don’t make it easier to get your bearings. Do what the locals do and look up: the huge, colourful Guardian Angel (Schutzengel) by artist Niki de St Phalle serves as a good meeting point and reference.
Zurich Bahnhof, travellers' nana, "Guardian Angel"
The popular Nana figure weighs 1.2 tons and is 11 metres high. It was offered to the station in 1997 by Securitas to celebrate the 150th birthday of Swiss railways. The tourism office’s “i” is a few metres away.
Three very special treats during the holidays: extraordinary Picasso retrospective, ice skating, the Singing Tree
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.
Last three cars of the Glacier Express that crashed 23 July 2010
Sion, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - The 23 July 2010 accident on one of Switzerland’s most popular tourist attractions, the Glacier Express, was due entirely to the driver having an inexplicable blackout, the federal public transport specialist who has overseen the investigation told Sonntags Blick magazine.
There was no pressure on him to accelerate too soon to make up lost time, nor were there technical problems with the train or the rail line. The 34-year-old driver told his employer, the Matterhorn Gotthard Bahn line, that he had a blackout at the moment he accelerated from 35 to 56 kph, against company regulations.
A Japanese tourist died when the train derailed in the Goms valley, and 42 people were injured.
Background story, GenevaLunch, 24 July 2010
Thousands of anti-nuclear protesters have tried to stop a train transporting 123 tons of nuclear waste to its destination in Dannenberg. The protests turned violent Sunday 7 November as police fought running battles with protesters who invaded the railroad tracks at Harlingen to stop the train. Police had cleared the tracks of 3,000 protesters by early Monday morning and the train was reaching its destination.
The nuclear waste from France is to be loaded onto trucks at Dannenberg and transported 20 km to a storage facility in Gorleben which has been blockaded by protesters who say the waste is too dangerous.
Links to other sites: AFP, CNN, Der Spiegel (Ger)
Source: Al-Jazeera
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.
The Glacier Express is one of Switzerland's most popular tourist attractions
[Video] Geneva and Sion, Switzerland (GenevaLunch.com) – One person is dead and 42 are injured, in a train crash in the Goms Valley Friday 23 July around noon.
Six of the injured are in critical condition and another six in serious condition, treated in Geneva and Lausanne as well as in regional hospitals. Most of victims are Japanese. Details are still coming in from cantonal police, but Kyodo News in Japan reports that the tourists were part of three different tour groups and most if not all were over age 50 and on one-week tours to Switzerland.
The Glacier Express, which links Zermatt to Andermatten, went off the rails between Lax and Fiesch, heading towards Oberwald.
According to a police spokesperson for canton Valais, the last two cars of the train, which were turned over on their side, were first class cars and could hold up to 30 passengers each. The train may have carried up to 210 people. (photos, TSR, by Keystone)
No cause has been given yet for the crash. The train is owned by 
the Matterhorn Gotthard Bahn (MGB).
Heavy rains, thunderstorms and fog rolled through the area late Thursday and early Friday, but by early afternoon, with rescue work continuing in the area, skies were starting to clear.
The accident occurred not far from the place where a tourist bus crashed 13 June 2010, killing two Canadians and injuring 28.
Serious rail accidents with mortalities are extremely rare in Switzerland and the Friday accident “interrupts a long record” without deaths reports TSR; the most serious one was 112 years ago.
Video of the train crash – Swiss Television SF Video
Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - The M1 will close for five weeks, from 12 July to 17 August, for a checkup and repairs, TL, the Lausanne public transport company has confirmed to newspaper 24 Heures. Some 800 metres of rail will be replaced and security rails repaired, with the project covering two summers and costing CHF2.2 million, reports TSR. The M1 system carried 11.2 million passengers in 2009, but its quietest period is in summer, when University of Lausanne and EPFL students use it less. Buses will be used by TL during the time the M1 is closed.
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.
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?
