Genève-Cornavin railway station

Geneva railway station (French: Gare de Genève), formerly known as Geneva Cornavin railway station, is Geneva's main train station, located in the centre of the city. The immediate area surrounding it is known as Cornavin; both names can be used interchangeably.

"Geneva station" redirects here. For the station in Illinois, see Geneva station (Illinois).

Geneva Genève
The main (south) entrance to the station building in 2019
Location	Geneva Switzerland
Coordinates	46°12′36.781″N 6°8′32.809″E
Elevation	392 m (1,286 ft)
Owned by	Swiss Federal Railways
Line(s)	CEVA rail Lausanne–Geneva line Lyon–Geneva line
Distance	60.3 km (37.5 mi) from Lausanne[1]
Platforms	4
Tracks	8
Train operators	SNCF Swiss Federal Railways
Connections	Tram lines 14, 15, and 18 tpg buses and trolleybuses[2]
Construction
Architect	Julien Flegenheimer (1931)
Other information
Fare zone	10 (unireso)[3]
History
Opened	1858 (1858)
Rebuilt	1931 (1931) 2010-2014 (2010-2014) (reconstruction)
Previous names	Geneva Cornavain
Traffic
Passengers (2018)	70,700 per working day[4][lower-alpha 1]
Services
Preceding station EuroCity Following station Terminus Geneva to Milan Lausanne towards Milano Centrale Preceding station Swiss Federal Railways Following station Geneva Airport Terminus InterCity IC 1 Lausanne towards St. Gallen InterCity IC 5 Morges towards Zürich Hauptbahnhof InterRegio IR 15 Nyon towards Lucerne InterRegio IR 90 Nyon towards Brig Lancy-Pont-Rouge towards Annemasse RegioExpress Coppet towards St-Maurice Preceding station TGV Lyria Following station Bellegarde towards Paris-Lyon Paris to Lausanne Lausanne Terminus Bellegarde towards Marseille-Saint-Charles Marseille to Geneva Terminus Preceding station TER Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Following station Bellegarde towards Valence-Ville TER Terminus Bellegarde towards Lyon-Part-Dieu Bellegarde towards Chambéry-Challes-les-Eaux Preceding station Léman Express Following station Lancy-Pont-Rouge towards Évian-les-Bains L1 Genève-Sécheron towards Coppet Lancy-Pont-Rouge towards Annecy L2 Lancy-Pont-Rouge towards Saint-Gervais-les-Bains-Le Fayet L3 Lancy-Pont-Rouge towards Annemasse L4 Vernier towards La Plaine L5 Terminus Vernier towards Bellegarde L6
Location
Geneva Location within Switzerland Show map of Switzerland Geneva Geneva (Canton of Geneva) Show map of Canton of Geneva

The station has over 400 train departures every day from its eight through-platforms. Platforms 7 and 8 have French and Swiss border controls. Long distance and regional express trains leave for France without making any stops in Switzerland. Another reason to separate the tracks is the different electrical standards of the relevant railway system on either side. The French system uses 25 kV at 50 Hz AC, but the Swiss system uses 15 kV AC at 16.7 Hz.

The station connects to one Swiss mainline, the Lausanne–Geneva line, which links the city with the rest of Switzerland, to the east. Many long-distance trains from this line continue to and terminate at the airport, 6 minutes away. There is also significant traffic to France westwards along the Lyon-Geneva line, which, for the first few kilometres, runs as a single track line alongside the double-track line to the airport. Traffic to France includes long-distance TGVs to Paris and southern France and regional trains to Lyon via Bellegarde. Cornavin is also the hub of the Léman Express network, with six routes in service. Many of these routes travel over the newly-opened CEVA, which leads to Annemasse.[1]

Facilities

The facilities at the station include a police station, cash machines, cafés, bars, food stands, a bakery, a supermarket (Aperto), newsagents, a media shop (CityDisc), a cybercafe, kiosks, underground car park, an underground shopping arcade, toilets and showers, and luggage lockers.

Nearby area features

Located directly outside the station are bus and tram stops for Transports Publics Genevois services to all over Geneva city, its canton and nearby French locales, a taxi rank, banks, cash machines, post offices, hotels, cinemas, jewellers, book shops, money exchange services, restaurants, bars, and fast food restaurants.

In popular culture

The station entrance and a platform is seen in The Adventures of Tintin comic The Calculus Affair (1956).

Planned extension of the railway station

The Swiss Federal Railways announced they would extend the railway station by constructing two new railway tracks. The station needs extending due to the planned increase in traffic over the coming years. The initial project cost 800 million Swiss francs and involved the demolition of 350 dwellings next to the station. A second project supported by residents of the neighborhood plan to build the two new tracks under the station with a total cost around 1.7 billion Swiss francs.[5]

The Swiss Federal Rail plans for the new extension to be completed by 2025.[6]

In April 2013, an initiative was launched to claim the extension under the station by the "Collectif 500" a neighborhood association.[7]

Services

The following services stop at Geneva:[8]

• TGV Lyria:
  • service every two hours to Paris-Lyon.
  • three trains per day to Lausanne.
  • one daily round-trip to Marseille-Saint-Charles in the summer.
• EuroCity: four trains per day to Milano Centrale, with one train continuing from Milano Centrale to Venezia Santa Lucia.
• InterCity#Switzerland: half-hourly service between Geneva Airport and Zürich Hauptbahnhof, with every other train continuing to St. Gallen.
• InterRegio: half-hourly service to Geneva Airport and Brig and hourly service to Lucerne.
• TER: service to Valence-Ville, Lyon-Part-Dieu, Bellegarde, and Chambéry-Challes-les-Eaux.
• RegioExpress: half-hourly service between Annemasse and Vevey, with every other train continuing from Vevey to St-Maurice.
• Léman Express:
  • L1/L2/L3/L4: service every fifteen minutes between Coppet and Annemasse; from Annemasse every hour to Annecy, and every two hours to Évian-les-Bains and Saint-Gervais-les-Bains-Le Fayet.
  • L5: service to La Plaine.
  • L6: service to Bellegarde.

Gallery

• 
  Tracks 6 and 7

See also

• History of rail transport in Switzerland
• Rail transport in Switzerland

Notes

1. Without SNCF figures

References

1. Eisenbahnatlas Schweiz. Cologne: Schweers + Wall. 2012. p. 68. ISBN 978-3-89494-130-7.
2. "Plan tpg multimodal" (PDF) (in French). Geneva Public Transport. 15 December 2019. Retrieved 4 July 2020.
3. "Plan tarifaire" (in French). unireso. 2019. Retrieved 24 July 2020.
4. "Passagierfrequenz (2018)". Berne, Switzerland: SBB CFF FFS. 7 October 2019. Retrieved 2019-11-06 – via data.sbb.ch – SBB DATA PORTAL.
5. http://www.tdg.ch/geneve/actu-genevoise/extension-cornavin-geneve-veut-chiffres/story/29517730?track
6. http://www.tdg.ch/geneve/actu-genevoise/expertise-trancher-deux-variantes-extension-cornavin/story/26655924?track
7. http://www.tdg.ch/geneve/actu-genevoise/initiative-lancee-agrandir-cornavin-souterrain/story/21814118?track
8. "Départ: Gare de Genéve" (PDF). Swiss Federal Railways (in French). 15 December 2019. Retrieved 4 July 2020.

External links

• Media related to Genève Cornavin railway station at Wikimedia Commons
• Genève-Cornavin railway station – SBB
• Les principaux éléments historiques en relation avec CEVA (in French)