Well, I guess I'm confused by the train vs. metro network overall.
To my understanding, the TRAIN gets me across cantons and major cities in Switzerland. The METRO gets me around within the city itself.
I am gonna be living in Lausanne, and I would probably need a monthly transit pass that gets me around on bus and trains throughout Lausanne. Now, does this sort of a transit pass even exist? Or does Switzerland just have one transit pass system through SBB and you can use this card to take the Metro, the train, the bus... etc?
I am confused since reading through the SBB half fare card and using the SBB transit planner to plan my trip from the Geneve-Aeroport to my final destination at Chemin des Berges 12.
All your insight and guidance would be appreciated. Thank you so much.
Halbtax / Half Fare tax gives you up to 50% off certain rides. Perhaps useful for those making the occasional ride beyond the area of one ́s monthly pass. It can be ordered from abroad via online, and has an option for credit / debit card facility for eligible applicants.
In Zurich, we have several monthly passes. To complement that, a HalbTax card is useful when travelling from the borders of the monthly pass coverage to another place within CH or even abroad.
it looks like Lausanne is a zone system - so if you were to buy one of the abonnements, it would cover you within the zone around Lausanne, whatever you ride (train, tram, bus).
The half fare card ( http://www.sbb.ch/en/travelcards-and...ravelcard.html ) gets you half off most other travel in Switzerland. Because the Lausanne abonnements probably has some discount built in, there is no further discount.
It's possible (depending on your age) that a GA for students or young adults would make more sense for you - it would cover almost all travel within Switzerland, including around Lausanne. http://www.sbb.ch/en/travelcards-and...dividuals.html
The whole of Vaud is in a zone system (not just Lausanne). So you can purchase one ticket which will cover your journey on trains, buses, and the metro throughout Vaud.
You can find out more about the zones in Vaud here .
In addition to the Lausanne abonnements and the general abonnement that jrspet mentions, you can also get an abonnement for travel within Vaud - either the whole canton, or a certain number of zones. You can find information here .
If you decide to get a half-fare card and pay for your transport on a daily basis, you might want to get a Galaxy Card . You buy a 10chf, 20 chf or 50chf card, and the card is then 'charged' with that amount of money. You can then use that card to buy tickets in automatic ticket dispensers at bus stops or at metro stations in Lausanne. I used to have one (before I switched to a general abonnement), and I found it really handy as I didn't have to worry about having spare change in my purse.
If you're not sure what is best for you, I suggest that you don't tie yourself down to anything straight away. For example, first buy a pass for one month and keep a note of all your journeys to see if it was good value. Or even just pay for each trip individually for a few weeks and keep note, and then see how much you're using public transport.
Finally, if you're struggling to figure out the bus and metro system in Lausanne, I suggest that you use http://map.search.ch/ . If you enter in the address you are trying to get to, and check 'Traffic' on the left-hand side, it will show you the nearest bus stop, metro station etc. If you hover over a public transport location, you will get a pop-up box that allows you to search for a route from that location to another bus stop / metro stop / train station via the SBB website.
Sapristi! Thank you so much for the valuable advices, everyone. You've all been of so much help!!
May I ask for clarification on something? How come all this fare information is on www.mobilis-vaud.ch? In any Canadian city, the municipality has a monopoly on the transit service and all their information is centralized in one website. And I thought that website was http://www.t-l.ch/
The fare information is on the mobilis Vaud site because all public transport in the canton of Vaud (which is the canton Lausanne is in) is part of the mobilis Vaud fare network.
So although there are different transport networks run by different towns or groups of towns (for example Lausanne, Morges-Bière-Cossannay, Nyon etc...), the fare system for all of those networks is the mobilis Vaud system.
This is useful if you want to travel across several networks using different methods of transport (e.g. bus in Lausanne to train station, train to Montreux, bus to the Château du Chillon). Instead of having to buy two or three tickets for that trip, you can just buy one, even though you are travelling in two different transport networks.
I don't know what Canadian public transport is like. But Swiss public transport is very, very well organised and user-friendly.
The Canadian transit system is okay. Not a lot of metro systems in place and the ones that do are not very extensive.
I'm living in Ottawa and we've got one metro line that goes diagonally across the city, avoiding downtown core. Not a lot of people use it and I can't think of a good use to go diagonally across a city like that. Most people rely on the buses provided by the "OC Transpo" and it's not very user-friendly... you'll continuously have connections where you'll miss the next bus by 1 minute and you'll be waiting for at least half an hour.
I lived in Vancouver before and it was a lot more user-friendly. But I'm sure it's nothing compared to what the Swiss have in place. I'm excited. Thanks!
Like if I buy my first one versus a second pass? Do they mean if I bought a pass for somebody else and I bought 2, the 2nd one would be at a "prix d'amitie?"
Nabithan, have you experienced the difference? What do they offer in the first class vs a 2nd class? Strange how I find it so difficult to find the difference in service between the two on the mobilis website.
There are class differences for rides on boats ( cruises ) and trains but none on the bus or trams.
Pretty much the same except you will likely have a seat in 1st Class especially during rush hour, holidays and perhaps useful during winter to have the comfort and luxury of a seat.
wow that's fascinating. In Canada you get seats if they're available. So first class people get to sit versus the 2nd class people who have to stand? That's actually a brilliant idea of making money...
(information not useful for torino if he is at UNI EPFL): 1st class/2nd class is valid for train only. There's a local scam (official!!) for the "local train" called LEB: there's no 1st or 2nd class and yet you can buy a 1st class ticket.
Otherwise the 1/2price card won't be half price for the local buses and metros: Price will be reduce, but not by 50%.
Example: A 3CHF full price ticket will cost you 2.20CHF if you have the 1/2price card.
So basically your fare "geneva airport ---> lausanne renens would be approximately 25CHF. It's train.