GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – France and Switzerland this week signed a letter of intent in Paris for the new cross-border regional rail services planned for December 2017. The new system will be a 230-kilometre French and Swiss network that covers 45 stations, including Geneva, Coppet and Nyon in Switzerland, with Evian, Bellegarde, Annecy and St Gervais in France.
Working map of the future RER line with Geneva-Annemasse at the centre of the networkThe network will include the new 16-kilometre Ceva line which is currently under construction between Geneva and Annemasse. It will be at the heart of the system, with six trains an hour, seven days a week.
During rush hour the rest of the network will have a minimum of two connections an hour.
The formal signing brings the Ceva and RER France-Vaud-Geneva (RER FVG) projects a key step closer to being realized. Wednesday’s agreement lays out the next steps to be taken and creates a cross-border joint venture that will oversee the rail system. The CFF Swiss rail company will be a majority shareholder and the offices of the new company will be in Geneva, to be created at the end of 2014.
50,000 people to use new French-Swiss rail network
The new cross-border network will welcome 50,000 clients a day.
The sleek new RER FVG network will bring together Nyon-Geneva-Annemasse-Evian-Belgarde and more in December 2017Andreas Meyer, chief executive of the Swiss CFF/SBB rail company, said “”We’ve concentrated until now – all of the partners – on financial and infrastructure issues, in particular related to the new Ceva (Cornavin-Eaux-Vives-Annemasse) line. Now it’s time to re-focus the RER FVG project on our customers and the service we’ll be offering them.”
In concrete terms, France’s SNCF and the CFF have already delivered their first report on the rolling stock that should be ordered, in order to ensure that the 2017 deadline is met. Specialists from the two companies will meet in Geneva in early 2014 to hammer out a list of services that need to be coordinated on both sides of the border, from timetables and rolling stock to prices, how the system will be fit into the national bus and rail systems as well as international train lines.Also in 2014, the new company will oversee bidding for the Geneva-Bellegarde line, which is one of the branches of the new RER FVG. It will be modernized and served by new regional trains starting in September 2014. The Geneva-based company will then focus on managing the rest of the network, from conception to production.