LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND – Lavaux and its vineyards are getting a tourism boost in the form of a new day pass (carte journalière) that allows visitors to use several different trains, buses and funicular cars freely throughout the day and to reach all the area’s tourism sites via train.
The Mobilis Lavaux Riviera Pass can be combined with a Rail Away 20 percent off ticket for people from outside canton Vaud. The Mobilis Lavaux Pass for anyone catching the train in Vaud starts at CHF12.50 (with half-price card), but a number of options are available if you want to include tourist attractions.
Details, but most importantly the brochure with details about buying the right ticket, are available on the CFF site. Note that the information is currently not available in English but the CFF tells me an English version will be available at the end of July. The brochure is worth downloading.
The purpose, say the partners, is to increase the number of tourists coming to the region, and to encourage them to use public transport. Parking is very limited in many parts of Lavaux and access by car is often difficult.
Buying a ticket if you’re catching the train from outside Vaud
Visitors from Switzerland who are outside canton Vaud can use the CFF’s Rail Away offers to combine a 20 percent off ticket with the new passes.
Both passes are available online, using the CFF app, or at train station windows and at CFF ticket machines.
The tickets and brochure with a wealth of suggestions for day outings are a combined offer from the SBB/CFF rail company with partners Montreux-Vevey Tourism and Lavaux Patrimoine mondial.
The Lavaux area has been a Unesco World Heritage site since 2007 but it’s also been at the centre of efforts to curtail development in order to preserve the region’s terraced vineyards – which has added up to a headache for people trying to develop wine tourism. Voters in canton Vaud in May strongly rejected an initiative that would have stopped virtually all development, opting instead for a cantonal plan that carefully limits growth and construction.
The CFF says in its statement about the new service that three lines are included: the S1 (Lausanne–Villeneuve), which serves all the lakefront communities; the S1, which climbs uphill from Puidoux to Chexbres and the S3, which cuts through the centre of the vines, between Vevey and Puidoux-Chexbres.
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