Geneva - Post Report Question and Answers
Are local buses, trams, trains or taxis safe and affordable?
VERY safe. My teenagers have been riding them for a couple years. Probably safest in the world. Affordable is relative, but for teenagers and kids, it's a good deal around town. The farther you go, it starts to quickly become a better deal for families to drive. We've purchased the half price fare card each year, but not sure we really saved much money since anything over an hour away is always cheaper to drive. - Dec 2024
Public transport is great, but I don’t find it that cheap. Our children ride free with us on any transportation with the 30chf/year card, and I have the half priced card. However there is a tipping point that a car is cheaper if the trip has 2 or more people. For example, it was 1200 for our family of 6 to train from Geneva to Rome so we just drove. Many times flying is way cheaper then the train when you buy your tickets way in advance. - Jun 2022
In Geneva I didn't need a car from 1993 to 2013. I saved enough money to buy a small flat cash. - Jul 2018
Public transport is very safe, easy to use, and can get you most places you need to be within Switzerland. If you live in neighboring France, the connections aren't as great. Trains sometimes have a family car with a playground in the train. Public transport can be expensive though there are ways to lower the cost (half price card, etc) if you use it frequently enough. - Mar 2014
Safe. Taxi are crazily expensive. - Mar 2014
Yes. Trains and buses have subscriptions. Taxis are expensive. - Mar 2013
Expensive, but safe. And if you live in the country, they don't come very often. You really need a car. It would be extremely inefficient to take public transport, and not much cost savings. We feel we need two cars because we both work and we have two teenagers. - Feb 2012
As mentioned, the trains/busses/trams are very reliable. The clientele is what you would find at a bus/train stop in the US with perhaps a few more homeless. You can get a demi-tarif card for 150CHF that is valid for one year and provides half off your tickets. A bus ticket is usually 4.50 CHF, so with this card it is 2.20CHF. - Jul 2009
