Transportation

Moving around in Geneva is simple. In other countries public transport might not be the means of choice to go from A to B, but in Geneva it definitely is. Busses and Trams are clean, safe, on time and frequent. There’s no reason to take a Taxi and pay a lot to get a ride with a grumbling driver who’s either cursing you because the ride is too short, too long, crosses the border or because you interrupted him from having a phone call with his girlfriend, wife, insurance broker or whatever. In 10 years I’ve been in Geneva I did not have a single positive experience in a Taxi (and I dress in suits when I travel, tip well, say hello and goodbye and don’t leave trash in taxis). The worst was when the driver started rough and unfriendly and switched to “nice” when he understood that I knew my way around and “belonged” to Geneva.  I did have several positive moments in public transport, though

Two Operators

Practically speaking, there’s two operators for public transport in Geneva – the swiss railways operate the trains between the Airport and the central station (Gare Cornavin). The other operator (Transports publics Genevois).

If you stay in the city/canton of Geneva, the tickets you buy from the TPG allow you as well to use the train line between Cornavin and the Airport.

Two train stations

As said above there’s the airport railway station and the central station (Gare Cornavin). If you need to get downtown, go to Cornavin. If you need to reach the outskirts of Geneva, the Airport’s train station might be better for you.

Get a free ride if you come by plane

In the baggage claims hall you have two ticket machines from TPG. They hand out free rides! Keep your flight’s ticket with you, pull out the ticket from the machine and you have 80 minutes to get to your hotel (or wherever you want).

3 Francs get you everywhere

If you had your meeting and need to get back to the airport, keep the change from lunch and for three Francs you ride for one hour on all buses, trams and navettes (that’s the ships on the lake doing “bus” service).

Sleep and ride

All Hotels in Geneva give out a Geneva Transport Card for free. During your stay, you can use all public transportation at no cost. The larger hotels often propose a shuttle services as well from and to the airport (I see the busses from the NH, the IBIS, the Nash, but there are probably more which I don’t know – just ask).

Finding your way

While the website of the Transports public Genevois is in French only, the Swiss Railways have theirs completely available in english. And they cover “everything”.

Finally – why use transport at all?

The Palexpo Area, where plenty of big events like the Salon d’Auto take place, is five minutes by foot from the Airport. A breeze of fresh air, and you are there.

As you can see there’s plenty of good opportunities to avoid paying a premium (you’ll rarely get out of a taxi below 25 CHF) for a service which does not match the price.