Geneva-Annecy toll road cuts trip for commuters

A new toll highway between Geneva and Annecy, France opens this month promising to cut the time for thousands of commuters who travel between the two cities each day. But the A41 autoroute, to be officially opened Friday, is judged to be too expensive by some frontaliers, while the 871-million-euro project has renewed debate about the lack of practical public transport options between Switzerland and the bordering French region.  

The journey between Geneva and the French city of Annecy is about to get shorter for motorists with the official opening on Friday of the A41 autoroute. A ribbon-cutting ceremony is set to unveil the 18.8-kilometre toll highway after 29 months of construction, although drivers won’t be able to hit the tarmac until 15 days later – provided they are prepared to pay the toll of five euros and 50 centimes.
 
The hefty fare has provoked concern from some frontaliers, people who live in the French border region but work in Geneva. The highway, dubbed the Liane autoroute, brings Annecy within a 30-minute drive of Geneva, cutting the travel time in half compared to the meandering national route it is replacing. But many commuters are not happy with the 11-euro cost for the return trip.
“I will not be using this autoroute, because it is too expensive,” said Fabrice Breithaupt, a journalist at the Tribune de Genève who commutes daily from his home in Annecy. “I’ve talked to many other frontaliers and I don’t know anyone else who is going to take it,” Breithaupt told Swisster. Even with reductions possible for frequent users, Breithaupt figures it would cost him 160 euros (245 francs) a month to drive the new highway. That’s an amount he cannot afford, he said, so he will continue to take the national route.
 
But French authorities defend the A41, saying it fills a missing link in the regional highway system and they expect 23,000 vehicles will use the new highway daily in each direction. Bernard Accoyer, a member of the governing right-wing UMP party from Annecy who is president of France’s national assembly, is a strong supporter of the 871.5-million euro project. The new route will eliminate the “hundreds of hours lost in traffic jams” while improving road safety, he said.
Businesses and residents in French communities between Geneva and Anmnecy, such as Cruseilles, are hoping the A41 will divert a lot of cars away from their main thoroughfares, which are choked with tailbacks during rush hours. But some Genevans are worried that the new highway will only encourage more motorists to drive into a canton where authorities are trying to encourage transit use and alternative ways of travelling to reduce air pollution and greenhouse gases.
 
David Haeberli, city editor for the Tribune de Genève, is critical of the lack of transit alternatives in the neighbouring French border area. In a front-page editorial today, Haeberli writes of the “heroic” efforts needed to take the train between the two cities. “The rail facilities in Rhônes-Alpes are in an abominable state,” he says.
There is no public bus service (a private company operates a milk run service that takes 90 minutes) and commuters are forced to drive their cars, Haeberli says. Genevan and French authorities are studying the possibility of building a park-and-ride facility at the Bardonnex border crossing to accommodate 2,000 vehicles, leaving plans for public transit put off for the longer term.  
Rivalry between Geneva and Annecy has intensified recently, with the French city announcing this week its official candidacy to host the 2018 Winter Olympic Games. An exploratory committee has promoted a competing bid by Geneva, although reports this week indicated that the Swiss city would withdraw to support its French neighbour. No official response has emerged from the committee, which is continuing to conduct studies for a bid that has failed to win the support of Swiss Olympic, the national sports body.