World longest Railways tunnel finished and almost

cumulus1978 · 15 Apr 2011 at 13:32

In switzerland the relationship between railways and people is really of love. We have a lot of trains from Italy ( Milan ) that sometimes are with 20 or more minutes delay. The SBB often decide to make a extra train ( punctual ) that depart from the border to the destination, so passengers are now very happy.

cumulus1978 · 15 Apr 2011 at 13:34

jak731 said:
What's the problem? Switzerland already gets 40% of it's electricity from nuclear and is doing new build.

Internal debate about this is very animated.

yer_averagejoe · 15 Apr 2011 at 13:37

Richdog said:
...fares are VERY cheap. covers you for an whole month accross the entire city of Zurich, and covers you for a full year on any mode of public transport accross the entire country.

I'm not sure if its just me but any time you state a value in swiss francs, it seems to be stripped from your post? an you clarify the costs without wierd symbols (if you're using any) :confused:

Richdog · 15 Apr 2011 at 13:41

yer_averagejoe said:
I'm not sure if its just me but any time you state a value in swiss francs, it seems to be stripped from your post? an you clarify the costs without wierd symbols (if you're using any)

Hmm weird... never seen that before. ANyway ive amended it now.

cumulus1978 · 15 Apr 2011 at 13:43

yer_averagejoe said:
I'm not sure if its just me but any time you state a value in swiss francs, it seems to be stripped from your post? an you clarify the costs without wierd symbols (if you're using any)

If you take a single ticket is expensive, but for example with the half price card ( 80 pounds ) you go by train and other public transports for half price one year. For tourists ( and not all know this ), if you ask at the hotel or municipality ( in a city ) they can give you card ( about 15 pound ) ad use it a single day for any destination. Then there are family card ( children gratis ). It depends of what you want, anyway there a lot of offers.

yer_averagejoe · 15 Apr 2011 at 13:51

Richdog said:
Hmm weird... never seen that before. ANyway ive amended it now.

Cheers

. That is cheap! I've been to switzerland a few times and I've always been amazed by the efficiency and comfort of their public transport. Not just trains, busses too. And the trams in Zurich! (I love Zurich). 2260 quid for a year is startlingly good value, especially when you consider the vast difference in salary between the UK and Switzerland. If I lived there, I'd definetly get one of those and travel around the country a LOT. There is so much beautiful scenery to see.

fullmetaltony · 15 Apr 2011 at 13:58

cumulus1978 said:
Not true, a lot of vegetarian restaurant. We have a association of biological and local produts.

http://www.conprobio.ch/

You may have a lot of Veggie restaurants, but not a general acceptance that there should be at least one veggie option on a menu, I was in Geneva for a week with work, staying in the hotel close to the airport, and we couldn't find a single veggie option on a menu walking from the hotel into the city. In the UK it is extremely rare for a menu not to have a veggie option.
You don't notice the option isn't there till you have to turn a restaurant down because of it, and walk further.
Unless there's an option for a veggie on the menu, they aren't welcome, simple as that.

silvercut · 15 Apr 2011 at 14:04

I drove once through this long tunnel from switzerland to italy it was maybe 20+ KM, very impressed with switzlnd, apart from the fact that I had to pay road tax for 30 euro when I was just in transit.

Sunbed · 15 Apr 2011 at 14:07

Yay- the company I work for supplied drainage products for that tunnel

cumulus1978 · 15 Apr 2011 at 15:55

silvercut said:
I drove once through this long tunnel from switzerland to italy it was maybe 20+ KM, very impressed with switzlnd, apart from the fact that I had to pay road tax for 30 euro when I was just in transit.

Yes but 30 euro is for ONE YEAR. In italy how many times you stopped for paying?

.Lethal · 15 Apr 2011 at 16:58

cumulus1978 said:
Yes but 30 euro is for ONE YEAR. In italy how many times you stopped for paying?

You do a good job trying to promote Switzerland, which marketing company did you say you worked for

cumulus1978 · 15 Apr 2011 at 17:13

here is not to promote, I try to give correct information, if you go to Italy the motorway has another system. From time to time you have to stop and pay or you take a ticket and then you pay when you go outside the motorway. Here you pay 40 swiss franc ( about 30 euro ) but it's for one year.

PMKeates · 15 Apr 2011 at 18:15

The SBB rocks. I have the SBB iPhone app for when I'm in Switzerland. There are no ticket barriers on the train network with everything relying on trust and some inspectors. If you buy a ticket using the SBB iPhone app, you get a cool QR code that the inspectors can scan

cumulus1978 · 15 Apr 2011 at 18:28

PMKeates said:
The SBB rocks. I have the SBB iPhone app for when I'm in Switzerland. There are no ticket barriers on the train network with everything relying on trust and some inspectors. If you buy a ticket using the SBB iPhone app, you get a cool QR code that the inspectors can scan

Ah yes, I heard about this.

VaderDSL · 15 Apr 2011 at 18:28

jak731 said:
From the wiki page:

Impressive stuff.

It would be interesting excavate a perpendicular tunnel halfway along this one and put a huge nuclear power plant there, 2km of rock would reduce the danger from any accidents somewhat

The Geology of the Alps is the last place you'd build a Nuclear reactor

The TBM got stuck for several months iirc after it hit an unstable area within the mountain

Fuzz · 15 Apr 2011 at 19:43

simulatorman said:
It gets run over.

I was going to say "It becomes a dead bear"

Lydzor · 15 Apr 2011 at 19:50

I'd be interested to hear about some of the negative points of living in Switzerland.

cumulus1978 · 15 Apr 2011 at 19:54

Lydzor said:
I'd be interested to hear about some of the negative points of living in Switzerland.

Generally high cost of living, only 4 weeks holiday per year ( Italy, france for example 6 or 7 weeks ) and 40 hours working per week since 1980 and never changed.

and for southern switzerland ( from where I'm writing ) nearby with Italy...( I'm joking )

Lydzor · 15 Apr 2011 at 19:59

cumulus1978 said:
Generally high cost of living, only 4 weeks holiday per year ( Italy, france for example 6 or 7 weeks ) and 40 hours working per week since 1980 and never changed.

and for southern switzerland ( from where I'm writing ) nearby with Italy...( I'm joking )

I suppose it has its advantages, the tunnel wouldn't even be halfway finished if it was England

.

cumulus1978 · 16 Apr 2011 at 12:30

Lydzor said:
I suppose it has its advantages, the tunnel wouldn't even be halfway finished if it was England .