Updated 18:45 with figures from joint statement GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – The makeover has already begun at Geneva’s Cornavin train station, as any occasional traveler trying to make sense of the frequent changes in the past two years has noted.
Wednesday afternoon 19 December the city, canton, federal officials and the CFF rail company put it all into perspective: an agreement is being signed to complete a vastly expanded Cornavin station by 2025. Where there are 20 trains an hour now, there will be 28, and to accommodate the doubling of passenger traffic, longer trains will be used, up to 400 metres.
Parliament has agreed to sharply increase the amount paid to the CFF to strengthen its infrastructure by 2025, from CHF3.5 billion to CHF6.4b, and part of the rationale was the clear need to enlarge and improve Cornavin to meet the growing traffic needs.
Bern is setting aside CHF800 million to rebuild the Les Grottes area next to the station, which will involve demolishing at least 150 buildings; the details of the project are hotly debated for the moment.
Highlights from the joint statement by the canton of Geneva, the city, the federal transport office and the CFF rail company:
- The four signed a convention Wednesday that calls for an independent expert’s report into whether the extension of Gare Cornavin in Geneva should be underground or surface; the report will be delivered for the summer of 2013 and the convention serves as recognition by all parties that the station must be expanded and developed by 2025
- by 2030 the Lake Geneva region will have 100,000 daily train passengers, double today’s number
- by the end of 2015 the RER (regional) trains between Coppet – Lancy-Pont-Rouge will operate every 15 minutes, same rhythm by the end of 2017 for the Vaud-Geneva-France RER trains, at which point Cornavin will be at its maximum capacity and must be extended.
Background, Largeur.com (Fre)