GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – The CFF rail company is putting on an extra 68 trains to handle extra passengers during the holidays, the company said 17 December.
59,000 extra seats on Swiss holiday time trains
The trains will run to cantons Valais and Graubuenden, home to most of the country’s ski resorts. They’ll provide an additional 59,000 seats between 20 December and 5 January.
The Bern-Visp/Brig run will have 30 of the trains, 18 will operate between Zurich and Chur and another 20 will link Lausanne and Brig or Domodossola.
The additional trains will leave shortly before the regular, scheduled trains and are designed to link up with regional train lines, the Rhettish Rail (RhB) and the Matterhorn-Gotthard-Bahn (MGB) as well as with scheduled Postal Cars.
Timetable, in French
Federal Highway Office issues heavy traffic timetable
The Swiss Federal Highway Office issues a timetable each year for peak traffic during the school holidays, from 23 December to 6 January. The list is in French here; for German.
Also note that you can expect long lines between 10:00 and 15:00 at the start of the holidays for the trains that carry cars: the Furka at Realp, the Lötschberg line in Kandersteg and the Vereina line at Klosters-Selfranga.
Coming back, expect lines on Saturday from 11:00 to 16:00 and Sunday from 15:00 to 18:00 in Oberwald (Furka line), Goppenstein (Lötschberg) and Lavin-Sagliains (Vereina line).
The Highway Office strongly recommends winter tires for anyone crossing Switzerland: they are not obligatory, but as police in canton Vaud told GenevaLunch, if someone takes the risk of driving with normal tires on a snowy or icy road and he or she loses control of the vehicle, the driver is liable to be charged under article 29 of the highway code. Losing control might mean being directly involved in an accident or causing one because the car gets stuck. Article 29: “Vehicles are allowed to circulate only if they are in road-perfect condition and meet standards. They must be built and maintained* in such a way that rules of the road can be observed, that the driver, passengers and others on the road are not endangered and that the road is not damaged.”
“* = equipped with snow tires”
Legal obligations when driving in Switzerland in winter
Heading south
- A1 St. Margrethen – Genève : entre l’échangeur de Wiggertal et Härkingen (travaux), entre Oensingen e Kriegstetten, entre Nyon et Coppet tout comme au passage de la douane de Bardonnex
- A2 Bâle – Gothard : à la douane de Bâle-Weil am Rhein, entre l’échangeur de Wiese et Pratteln, entre Sissach et l’échangeur de Härkingen (brèves fermetures du tunnel du Belchen possibles), entre Erstfeld et le portail nord du tunnel du Gothard, à la douane de Chiasso/Brogeda, au péage de Côme/Grandate
- A3 Bâle – Sargans : entre la douane de Bâle St-Louis et l’échangeur de Wiese, entre Murg et l’échangeur du Sarganserland
- A4/Axenstrasse : aux abords du tunnel de Mosi
- A6/A8 Berne – Interlaken : entre Thoune et Interlaken
- A9 Lausanne – Sion/Simplon : entre Chexbres et l’échangeur de La Veyre, entre Montreux et Martigny, ainsi que sur la route du col du Simplon
- A12 Fribourg – Vevey : entre Châtel-Saint-Denis et l’échangeur de La Veyre
- A13 St. Margrethen – Bellinzone : entre Trübbach et Landquart, entre Coire-Sud et Reichenau, au portail nord du tunnel du San Bernardino
- A14 Zoug – Lucerne : entre Gisikon-Root et l’échangeur de Rotsee
- Sur les contournements de Berne (A1/A6), de Bâle (A2/A3, bretelles autoroutières est et nord/autoroutes urbaines), de Genève (A1), de Lausanne (A1/A9) et de Zurich (A1/A3)
Heading north
- A1 Genève – St. Margrethen : entre l’échangeur de Härkingen et Wiggertal (travaux), entre Kriegstetten et Oensingen
- A2 Gothard – Bâle : entre Quinto et le portail sud du tunnel du Gothard, entre Reiden et l’échangeur de Wiggertal, entre Pratteln et l’échangeur de Wiese, à la douane de Bâle-Weil am Rhein
- A3 Sargans – Bâle : entre Walenstadt et l’échangeur de Reichenburg à la douane de Bâle St-Louis
- A4/Axenstrasse : aux abords du tunnel de Mosi
- A8/A6 Interlaken – Thoune : entre Interlaken et Spiez
- A8 Sarnen – Hergiswil : entre Alpnachstad et l’échangeur du Lopper
- A9 Martigny – Lausanne : entre Bex et le tunnel de Glion, ainsi que sur la route du col du Simplon
- A13 Bellinzone – Sargans : au portail sud du tunnel du San Bernardino, entre Rothenbrunnen et Reichenau, entre Zizers et l’échangeur du Sarganserland
- A14 Lucerne – Zoug : entre l’échangeur de Rotsee et Gisikon-Root
- Sur les contournements de Berne (A1/A6), de Bâle (A2/A3, bretelles autoroutières est et nord/autoroutes urbaines), de Genève (A1), de Lausanne (A1/A9) et de Zurich (A1/A3)
Main roads, customs posts
Les tronçons ci-après pourront être temporairement surchargés :
- Spiez – KanderstegGampel – Goppenstein (retours)
- Brunnen – Flüelen (Axenstrasse)
- Rarogne – Brigue
- Bellinzone – Locarno
- Il en va de même de diverses routes principales de l’Oberland bernois, des Grisons et des vallées latérales valaisannes. Des temps d’attente seront également possibles aux douanes d’Au, de Koblenz, de St. Margrethen et de Thayngen.
Zurich to Geneva in an electric car, “seamless travel”
Electric cars now have a new Tesla Motors Supercharger station on the A1 at the Restoroute Rose de la Broye in Lully, canton Fribourg. The charging station makes it possible to travel from Zurich to Geneva. It takes about 30 minutes to half-charge a car at the station. The company says in a press release this week that “by the end of 2014, 100% of the population of the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, and Denmark will live within 320 kilometers of a Supercharger location. Next year, 90% of the population of England, Wales, and Sweden will live within 320 kilometers of a Supercharger.”