The Republic and Canton of Geneva is the French-speaking westernmost canton or state of Switzerland, surrounded on almost all sides by France.
As is the case in several other Swiss cantons (canton of Ticino, canton of Neuchâtel, and canton of Jura), this canton is referred to as a republic within the Swiss Confederation.
The next three logos will be familiar to most of our readers.
Swiss Railways, French Railways and Transdev which runs some buses through to Switzerland from France.
Next, and most obvious in Geneva ...
... Transports Publics Genevois is the operator of buses, trolleybuses and trams throughout the Canton; Geneva Corporation Transport if you like.
TAC is the bus operator for the French community ...
... of Annemasse, to the East of Geneva.
"Agglo" = agglomération, i.e. a "coming together" of the town and local communities. TAC is the "brand"; services are operated by RATP, Paris City Transport. Several bus services run through to Switzerland.
Here is a 61 at Gare Cournavin, Geneva's main railway station.
Finally, for land based transport at least, is TPN ...
... the bus operator in the Swiss town of Nyon on the lakeside, north of Geneva.
This operator runs routes numbered in the 800 series which creep south into the Geneva transport area. (click on the map below to enlarge it)
The 810 to La Rippe is typical.
Which just leaves ...
... boats. We tend to call it Lake Geneva, but no-one else does. Because the city bestrides an arm of Lac Léman, there are ferries linking the two sections of the community.
M1 and M2 run every ten minutes, whereas M3 and M4 are half hourly ...
... M2 passing close to the famous Jet D'Eau.
"Mouette", incidentally, is the French for "seagull" and, yes, fbb had to look it up!
But visitors need to have no fear of this apparent complexity because everything in the Canton of Geneva is all brought together as one integrated service; with our final logo:-
A concatenation of UNI (united) and RÉSEAU (network), it does just what it says on the tin. A standard ticketing system based on a series of Zones gives you access to all modes - with Geneva "City" being one single Zone.
Tram, bus, train and ferry ...
... offering truly the journey with multiple faces (aspects).
It is so like the new Buses for Sheffield branding (NOT) ...
... which has just celebrated its avowed policy ...
... by withdrawing ticket interavailability on two busy cross-city joint services.
Really, you couldn't make it up!
On A Happier Note?
Yesterday First bus announced that all its vehicles will now accept payment by "contactless" bank card. Manchester went "new technology" to complete the set, making First the first company to so do for the whole of its fleet.
Of course, says fbb, assuming his Old Testament prophet of doom role, once we are all used to contactless and/or pay by phone, think how easily it will be for the companies to slip in a fares increase WHICH WE MAY NEVER NOTICE!
Truly a VERY cunning plan indeed.
Tomorrow we return to Geneva to experience a trip from the airport into the city centre.
The next three logos will be familiar to most of our readers.
Next, and most obvious in Geneva ...
TAC is the bus operator for the French community ...
Finally, for land based transport at least, is TPN ...
Which just leaves ...
But visitors need to have no fear of this apparent complexity because everything in the Canton of Geneva is all brought together as one integrated service; with our final logo:-
It is so like the new Buses for Sheffield branding (NOT) ...
On A Happier Note?
Yesterday First bus announced that all its vehicles will now accept payment by "contactless" bank card. Manchester went "new technology" to complete the set, making First the first company to so do for the whole of its fleet.
Truly a VERY cunning plan indeed.
Tomorrow we return to Geneva to experience a trip from the airport into the city centre.
Next Geneva blog : Wednesday 19th September
It seems to me that we are then likely to see a move to cashless buses as the next step, including pay off bus in advance. It will no doubt sound wonderful and look good in the plan to reduce operating costs.
ReplyDeleteThere will no doubt be a view that cash is no longer needed as most people have and use credit cards (including con tactless).
A few months ago Maidstone Park & Ride introduced this and moved to pay to park using cards etc - no cash. The numbers travelling have in my view 'plummeted' with journeys that were well loaded now only carrying small numbers (They pass my house).
According to "an informed source", embedded deep within a large bus company, the costs of "contactless" and the costs of handling cash are "pretty much the same".
ReplyDeleteThe argument about speeding up loadings may be valid but is more likely to be a perception rather than a fact.
Back in the late 60s when Sheffield Transport started one manning, loading on the busy Parson Cross routes with fares in penny (1d) steps and electrically driven but hand-set Setrights was faster that London Transport said was possible with flat fares!
But STD did make a fare book available to all.
"The argument about speeding up loadings may be valid but is more likely to be a perception rather than a fact." not according to First Bristol where they reduced the size of their fleet.
ReplyDeleteMy feeling here in Cardiff is that the machines used (same as First) are slower than London's Oyster system. There are several reasons for this. 1. People still have to interact with the driver, who may have to select the right fare on his screen - in London s/he can just drive off. 2. The actual machine is slower in processing info. than the Oyster readers. 3. People being unsure which payment method to use: cash (no change farebox, but short hop, return and day tickets available, also iff card top-up), cashless, iff card, phone app, OAP concession or return ticket. In my experience contactless can take longer than cash; a return ticket preprinted with a QR code and a phone app are the fastest.
ReplyDeleteI agree with the above posts. For me contactless is a great convenience and I will always use it when offered. But it is just that - a convenience, which in itself is a good thing. My experience with Ticketer is that it's slower than cash - it seems to take ages to actually read the bank card. On the other hand, the Stagecoach machines in my experiences are very quick. None of this though will significantly speed up journeys because the interaction still required with the driver. Only a ticketless system based on a flat fare or touch-in, touch-out will achieve that.
ReplyDeleteOf course, you could have people on buses whose function is only to take money, issue tickets and help passengers - I wonder what we might call them? To my knowledge. they only exist on London heritage bus 15 and Dundee service 73.
ReplyDeleteI do remember two misguided attempts at fare collection in the 70s. One was the awful coin-in-the-slot and turnstile system on the London DMS buses (the Red Arrows, being flat-fare, worked better). Then there were amazing machines we had in Southampton which actually printed an image of the coins on the ticket strip. As students we used to use as many small coins as we could so we'd end up with an impressively long ticket ... the machine did a lot of grunging before it actually spewed said ticket out!
Andrew: the Videmat machine.
ReplyDeletehttp://publictransportexperience.blogspot.com/2010/09/thats-just-ticket.html