GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – The extension of the Cornavin main train station in Geneva will go underground and will be completed by 2025, according to the terms of a convention signed Friday.
A long-awaited experts report on options for adding tracks to the station is being presented Friday morning 5 July. The group reviewed 16 options for an underground extension that would save the Les Grottes neighbourhood, at a cost some estimated to be double the above-ground extension plan.
Adding tracks above-ground would involve demolishing and rebuilding and a group called the Collectif 500 has pushed for options that would avoid this.
The option recommended by the report Friday will cost CHF1.2 million, less than some estimates, with the federal government covering 75 percent of the cost as part of its approved long-term national rail plan.
Whether Geneva taxpayers will pay the difference remains open to discussion, it now appears.
The four parties signing the convention to cover the extension are canton Geneva, the city of Geneva, the Federal Transport Office and the CFF/SBB rail company.
The extension is needed because Cornavin is expected to have 100,000 passengers a day within 17 years, twice the number moving through the city’s train station today.
Project part of larger national rail development programme, to go to Swiss voters
More tracks, quais and services will be needed. Bern has already agreed to the extension in principle, with the federal government capping its contribution at CHF780 million. The money is part of the larger Swiss rail and territory development project of the federal government, which goes to Swiss voters in early 2014.
North side of the station, under Montbrillant, tracks used by French trains
The extension will be built under the tracks currently used by trains from France and the place Montbrillant. In a first phase one platform and two tracks will be added that will let the Geneva-La Plaine line operate trains every 15 minutes. International traffic can be increased and the quarter-hour Lake Geneva region solution can be started: a key part of the plans to increase traffic involve running more trains every 15 minutes between Geneva and Lausanne. Ultimately, the CFF/SBB rail company, working with regional RER operators, will ensure 12 trains operating on the quarter-hour: four InterCity, four InterRegio and four RegioExpress trains.