Big Changes To Geneva’s Public Transport

Geneva is surrounded by mountains, sits on a lake and two rivers run through it with only a handful of bridges. We heard a rumor that to encourage people not to drive in the city, the lights over the bridges and at key intersections are very short and timed awkwardly (they are, but who knows the reason).

Note the rivers, the bridges, the lake, the old city…  You can see why we love not having to drive every day.

You can see some of the choke points on the night view above.  Note the black areas that are rivers and lakes.   One of the first things we did when we arrived in Geneva was purchase public transport (TPG) passes. We have used them every day since. TPG transport has been safe, clean, on time and convenient. Excluding free things and perhaps the occasional great deal on wine, I think it is the best value in Geneva.

Bad iPhone pic of a sticker (I’d never seen a sticker on one before) I saw on todays train saying it was so much better before (in French).  Today, many lovers of TPG were not feeling the love. Today was the first big day of TPG’s new, drastically different schedule and routes.     Common complaints included:

• Busses and trams were not on time (something that never happens in Switzerland) so riders had to wait for long periods.  A friend missed her doctor’s appointment because her bus was so late and had to wait a half an hour in the freezing rain for the next bus.

Delays caused by too many vehicles arriving at the same time

• Trams and busses came one right after the other, not at regular intervals.  The first would be packed to the brim and the second would be empty.
• The number of busses and trams that cross the river that divides the city is a quarter or less of what it used to be.  This necessitates transfers, increasing travel times.  A trip that used to take 20 minutes took me 40 today.
• Many transfers (more transfers are required to get around under this new schedule), require walks between stops which is not ideal on cold, rainy days like today.
• I waited over 20 minutes in the main train station to get a new transit map.  I had to take a number because they were only available behind the counter!  I really needed a map because the new transit map is not posted at the stops.

There were critical articles in today’s papers and I fully expect to read more of them tomorrow.  One Genevan said, “[p]ersonally, I feel they broke a perfectly good system.”

I love TPG (which has a great iPhone app).  Hopefully, these new routes help TPG serve a wider geographic area and more people so there is an upside to these changes.