Geneva-Meyrin tram line to open

A ceremony on Tuesday is set to celebrate the completion of Geneva’s tram line linking the Cornavin train station to the centre of Meyrin, a municipality to the north of downtown.

The eight-kilometre link is the latest expansion of the canton’s tram network, with an extension to the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) on the Geneva-France border slated to be finished next year. The total cost of the project is 420 million francs.

The double-tracked tram line will double the public transport capacity to Meyrin, a community to the west of the Geneva International Airport, linked to downtown up until now by two bus routes.

The completion of construction extends a section of the line to the Balexert shopping centre and Avanchets neighbourhood, which opened in December 2007.

The extended line is scheduled to begin service on December 12.

Plans call for further extension of the tram line to link with the French border community of Saint Genis, subject to financing approval by French authorities.

Meanwhile, construction begun a year ago to build a 300-million-franc tram line to Bernex, serving suburbs to the west of downtown Geneva, is scheduled to be finished in two years.

Geneva began rebuilding its tram network in the 1990s after the system, which once incorporated routes totalling 125 kilometres, shrank to one nine-kilometre line. The network now covers 30 kilometres of double-tracked routes.