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FERRY

Lake Geneva commuters to get new 500-seat ferry

A new ferry is to plough the waters between Lausanne and the French city of Evian from 2020 on, making life easier for cross-border workers coming in from France.

Published: 31 May 2018 17:11 CEST
Lake Geneva commuters to get new 500-seat ferry
The Geneva General Navigation Company's Savoie ferry. Photo: CGN

The arrival of the 15 million-franc boat will see the frequency of services between the two ports doubled.

During peak hours, there will be a service every 45 minutes, Swiss news agency SDA reported.

The news comes after five years of negotiations between Swiss and French authorities over how routes across Lake Geneva would be financed.

A new draft agreement sees Switzerland and France commit to splitting costs on the Lausanne–Evian and Lausanne–Thonon routes, and on the route between Switzerland's Nyon and French Yvoire.

The new ferry will be purchased by Swiss ferry-operator Geneva General Navigation Company with a loan from the Swiss federal government.

It is the first vessel of its type to be bought by the company since 1990.

The number of cross-border workers living in another country but coming to Switzerland to work rose 26.6 percent from 2011 to 2016 with numbers rising from 251,700 to 318,500, according to official figures.

OPINION AND ANALYSIS

OPINION: ID-checks between Sweden and Denmark should not be brought back

Sweden's government on Tuesday announced plans to bring back ID checks on Sweden's borders. Niels Paarup-Petersen, a Malmö MP, has launched a campaign to stop them.

Published: 17 March 2022 12:17 CET
OPINION: ID-checks between Sweden and Denmark should not be brought back

Bringing in ID-checks is illegal, ineffective, and devastating for the labour market in the Öresund region. That the government, despite all this, is pushing ahead with them anyway is almost impossible to understand. 

Once again, the government’s first response to a crisis is to bring back the ID-checks that tear our region in two.

Once again, they’re doing this without giving either the regional government or those operating the transport services a chance to give their input.

Once again, the idea is that Skåne and the Öresund Region should pay the price for solving Sweden’s challenges.

Once again, commuters will have to wait for half an hour at Kastrup. Once again the transport system in Skåne will be wrecked. 

READ ALSO: Sweden to bring back border controls to control Ukraine arrivals

It’s bloody awful, to be frank.

The European Court of Justice has ruled that it is illegal to put the responsibility on transport operators across a Schengen border. The Office of the Chancellor of Justice has come to the same conclusions.

Ukrainians have the right to enter the country, which means that they will not be stopped by the ID controls. If you want to have a better understanding of who is crossing the border, there are still ‘temporary’ border controls in place after six years.

Making the transport operator responsible for ID controls work when applied to ferries and flights, where there is only one place where you can get on or off. When you have continuous traffic, such as with trains or cars, it has a devastating effect on the traffic and on all of the people using them.  

ID checks are completely illegal, unnecessary, and irrational.

Region Skåne, the municipalities in Skåne, and all of my colleagues from Skåne in the national parliament must now all put their feet down. 

ID checks on the Öresund Bridge should not be brought back! 

Niels Paarup-Petersen is an MP representing Malmö for the Centre Party. He was born and grew up in Denmark and has worked for the Öresund Bridge Consortium.

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