LETTER FROM GENEVA

"With a little irony, I should be happy about this. Ticket prices keep going up, but we're rewarded in kind, as we're spending more and more time on the train for the same journey!" This sarcastic comment from a commuter on the Lausanne-Geneva line pulled no punches in showing the annoyance felt by the 70,000 daily commuters on this stretch of line. Since the last annual change to the national timetable on December 15, 2024 – the biggest in 20 years – Swiss Federal Railways (SBB) have further slowed the pace of trains on the Lake Geneva arc, one of the busiest routes in the country.

In 2001, the fastest trains covered the 60.3 kilometers separating the two major cities of western Switzerland in 31 minutes, at an average speed of 117 km/h. Twenty-three years later, the same journey takes a minimum of 39 minutes and is completed at 93 km/h, a time increase of 26%. Trains haven't run so slowly in French-speaking Switzerland for decades. According to French-speaking public broadcaster RTS, which regularly grapples with this vexatious subject, and has done the calculations, "every week, a commuter therefore loses one hour and 20 minutes more on the train on this line than in 2001."

You have 80.2% of this article left to read. The rest is for subscribers only.