Vignette for Swiss motorways?

JasonLVC

knightstyle wrote: »

5 years ago we spent a few days in Switzerland and went on motorways several times without a vignette never stopped and the first we knew about needing one was when we were leaving the country.
We entered by a small road and there wasn't even a passport check at night.

Its all about risk. With a 200CHF fine for the sake of a 40CHF sticker, it's up to the OP to decide if they want to risk it or not.

Its a bit like saying you can drive your car in the UK without insurance, which is probably true, but you only need to be unlucky and get picked up on an ANPR or moving patrol vehicle and then you're busted.


Picking someone up from central Geneva will not be fun, the roads can get terribly clogged so the best idea is to enter Geneva via the motorway and then exit it same way to avoid the city centre roads.

Richard53

JasonLVC wrote: »

Picking someone up from central Geneva will not be fun, the roads can get terribly clogged so the best idea is to enter Geneva via the motorway and then exit it same way to avoid the city centre roads.

Thanks for the tip, I will bear that in mind. The meeting point is the railway station at Cornavin, and I am anticipating a bit of traffic on the way in and out.

andygb

GolfBravo wrote: »

They used to be for 14 months only (40CHF), now there are two alternatives: 2 months for 40CHF, or 14 months (1st Dec to Jan 31st) for 100CHF. The fine for lack of vignette is now 200CHF.

I think that you have pointed out a very important fact here.
Many people think that these things are valid for 12 months (from when you buy them), but in fact they are valid for a calendar year.
There are also a few motoring forums giving advice on this, where people get out of buying them, by entering Switzerland by the secondary roads and never use motorways.
We went to Switzerland last year thinking that our taz was still valid (as we had only bought it seven months previously). When we were told it wasn't and we would have to cough up more money (just for a day trip), we simply changed our plans and spent a lovely time in the Black Forest instead.:)

JasonLVC

Richard53 wrote: »

Thanks for the tip, I will bear that in mind. The meeting point is the railway station at Cornavin, and I am anticipating a bit of traffic on the way in and out.

Cornavin.... Actually, its not too bad around there, just have to watch out for the myriad of trams that go up and down the road.

There's a big multi-story (about 900 places) next door, the prices vary depending upon whether you want short/long stay but if you're just picking up and the person is more or less waiting for you, should be able to just pull up out front.

You don't need a vignette for central Geneva, just for using the motorways. If you have SatNav you can ask it to plot a route avoiding motorways but may add time to your journey so depends what is more important to you - time or money (appreciating that both are equally important to most people).


Where you planning on going once you pick up daughter?

Iceweasel

andygb wrote: »

I think that you have pointed out a very important fact here.
Many people think that these things are valid for 12 months (from when you buy them), but in fact they are valid for a calendar year.
There are also a few motoring forums giving advice on this, where people get out of buying them, by entering Switzerland by the secondary roads and never use motorways.
We went to Switzerland last year thinking that our taz was still valid (as we had only bought it seven months previously). When we were told it wasn't and we would have to cough up more money (just for a day trip), we simply changed our plans and spent a lovely time in the Black Forest instead.:)

My point entirely. 40CHF for a day trip is a pretty stiff disincentive.

(Although I must say the year being printed in big font on the vignette is a bit of a hint as to the validity)

The Swiss are very happy to have as many tourists as possible. They are expert at milking the maximum from them. But they want them in hotels for a while - the banned caravans at one time - perhaps understandably.

On one front I admire them for that.

But it's a double edged sword.

If your on a holiday in Annecy (in nearby France) for example and fancy a day trip to beautiful Geneva - you can easily avoid all toll roads. But this increases congestion for the Swiss themselves on lesser roads.

I can only conclude having spoken to relatives who live in Austria that the Swiss are chiefly interested in discouraging transit traffic.

It's the France to Austria or Germany to Italy kind of journey that they don't want people doing - holiday-makers passing through on their way to somewhere else - despite the fact that they must make millions out of having the most expensive service area menus I have ever seen in over 40 years of European travel.

But as someone said - we don't have to go there.

Austria is far nicer anyway. LOL

JasonLVC

Iceweasel wrote: »

My point entirely. 40CHF for a day trip is a pretty stiff disincentive.

(Although I must say the year being printed in big font on the vignette is a bit of a hint as to the validity)

The Swiss are very happy to have as many tourists as possible. They are expert at milking the maximum from them. But they want them in hotels for a while - the banned caravans at one time - perhaps understandably.

On one front I admire them for that.

But it's a double edged sword.

If your on a holiday in Annecy (in nearby France) for example and fancy a day trip to beautiful Geneva - you can easily avoid all toll roads. But this increases congestion for the Swiss themselves on lesser roads.

I can only conclude having spoken to relatives who live in Austria that the Swiss are chiefly interested in discouraging transit traffic.

It's the France to Austria or Germany to Italy kind of journey that they don't want people doing - holiday-makers passing through on their way to somewhere else - despite the fact that they must make millions out of having the most expensive service area menus I have ever seen in over 40 years of European travel.

But as someone said - we don't have to go there.

Austria is far nicer anyway. LOL

You could apply that logic to anywhere in the world with a transit system. Visit London for a day as a tourist and you could choose to walk around for free or pay £4.70 (single peak Zone1).

Grab yourself an Oyster card and suddenly that journey is £2.20, subsidised by the tourists who come visit and clog up the tubes every day when you're trying to get to work. Why can't tourists get the £2.20 rate or are they just easy money?


Point being, someone is always subsidising someone else. Heck, a new subscriber to Sky TV can get 12 months free movies whereas a 10 year loyal customers gets naff all. Who's subsidising who there?

Austria is lovely though, lovely people too.

Richard53

JasonLVC wrote: »

Cornavin.... Actually, its not too bad around there, just have to watch out for the myriad of trams that go up and down the road.

Trams! Last time I drove around trams I was in Sheffield. Happy days.

JasonLVC wrote: »

There's a big multi-story (about 900 places) next door, the prices vary depending upon whether you want short/long stay but if you're just picking up and the person is more or less waiting for you, should be able to just pull up out front.

Hopefully she will be ready and waiting (always optimistic). She says there is somewhere we can park up for a while and have something to eat, although I think the prices might kill that one.

JasonLVC wrote: »

You don't need a vignette for central Geneva, just for using the motorways. If you have SatNav you can ask it to plot a route avoiding motorways but may add time to your journey so depends what is more important to you - time or money (appreciating that both are equally important to most people).

As I said above, I need the fastest and most direct route, so motorways are going to be the only realistic way of doing it.

JasonLVC wrote: »

Where you planning on going once you pick up daughter?

I will have one daughter in the car, and meeting the other in Geneva. We have the loan of an apartment in a small village about 130 miles from Geneva. As far as I can see, it's on the lower slopes of the Matterhorn. Child 1 will want to do some serious walking, child 2 will want to laze around, and I will try to combine the two, with a preference for lazing.

Iceweasel

Richard - You've changed the whole concept now that you say you're going to the Matterhorn region after picking up your daughter at the airport.

In my first response I said that it very much depended on where you were going!

So yes, yes, of course you need a vignette.

The trip from Genève to the Matterhorn/Zermatt will only take about three and a half hours - if you make maximum use of the motorways, rather than the four and a half if you use the alternative roads.

I reckon you would be on the motorway for about 100 miles of the journey.

You could always take the train from the airport and be there in just over two hours.

Enjoy your trip and please report back as to how you get on.

Richard53

Thanks, Iceweasel.

Well, it didn't happen A couple of days before we were due to set off, the girls' grandfather (my ex-FiL) had a massive stroke and the girls rushed up North to be with him - D2 from the South and D1 from Germany. It was pretty obvious that things weren't going to be resolved quickly, so we cancelled the trip. Sadly, he died a couple of days later. So even if we had gone, we would have been rushing home early.

Hotels in France were cancelled (thank you B&B hotels) and the guy at Eurotunnel was very helpful in postponing the crossing. So no cost to the cancellation, except for the wallet full of CHF that I don't know what to do with. We have agreed to do it again in August, so nothing wasted. Following advice here, I didn't buy a vignette ahead of time, so no cost there either.

Thanks to everyone for the helpful advice.

Iceweasel

Hi Richard,

I'm very sorry to hear of you and your families loss - my condolences.

I hope that everything will go smoothly in August.

Personally I prefer the Eiger to the Matterhorn - check out the railway inside the mountain and cross reference it to the film with Clint Eastwood.

I'm just off today on a cross-european trip - 9 countries in 4 days to Bosna i Hercegovina.

So I'll be getting vignettes for Austria and Slovenia this time - although I normally dodge the Slovenian autoput - but they have extended the network recently.

As usual all these vignettes are easily purchased at the border or even service stations miles before the actual border.

Caio,

Iceweasel.