Happily using her newly acquired Carte Junior

Geneva, Switzerland – One of the first things we did when we arrived in Geneva was to buy a Carte Junior which gave our 8 year-old free rides on all public transport systems in Switzerland for one year! That is a bargain a parent cannot pass up.

Children using a carte junior are allowed to ride free of charge on any train, tram, bus and boat where the half-card is accepted. The card is good for any child aged between 6 and 16 years and costs only 20 francs a year. Buy it at any train station in the country. When you buy it for the first time you will need an ID that shows the kid’s age.

Warning: the card gives children the right to ride free as long as they are accompanied by a parent; otherwise, the children must pay a fare, like everyone else. In addition, if the child forgets the card, he or she must pay the normal fare or risk getting a ticket!

GenevaLunch editor Ellen Wallace has this to say about traveling in the region:

Travel in the region

Teenagers loathe being chauffeured around to get to sports, meetings with friends and all the rest of it. A great deal for anyone under age 25 is the Track 7 (Voie 7) rail card in Switzerland, which gives you free travel after 19:00 and before 05:00, on all CFF rail lines and several private transport companies, such as the TPN in Nyon, throughout Switzerland.

It’s CHF99 for a one-year pass if you already have a half-fare card, or CHF249 for the half-fare+track 7 combined deal.

Experience shows that if you have a teenager in canton Vaud who wants to go out with friends in Lausanne or Geneva one night a week, it’s worth the money. It also discourages hitchhiking when cash runs out (it happens, at the end of a night out).

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