Since December travellers between the French and Swiss sides of Lake Geneva have been treated to a new fast public transport service, with the launch of the NaviExpress ship. Along with being much faster than regular ferries, the new ships can cross the lake using solely electric power.
On Monday, the first passengers boarded the brand-new NaviExpress ship. The new service will replace the existing ferry which runs the popular commuter and tourist route between Lausanne and the French town of Evian-les-Bains on the opposite side of the lake.
Called the Evian-les-Bains, the ship is 61,3 metres long and has the capacity to hold around 700 passengers. Designed in Lucerne, the ship is the fastest in the Compagnie générale de navigation sur le Léman (CGN) fleet, boasting a top speed of 36 kilometres per hour. This promises to make the 35-minute commute across the lake much faster.
What’s more, the ship itself is able to run at 25 km / h on solely electric power. "The first scheduled crossings went well and the passengers are already won over by this new boat with 700 seats (including 600 seats), [it's] spacious, comfortable and quiet," CGN wrote in a statement.
“The NaviExpress expresses the ambition of a strengthened, more flexible, more efficient and more comfortable cross-border service between Switzerland and France, as well as a substantial reduction in the environmental impact of transport,” they add on their website. Each ship in its class costs 30 million francs, of which half is paid by the Swiss government and Canton Vaud, and the other by towns in France.
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However, the creation of the brand-new fast ships has not been smooth sailing. They were originally meant to take to the water in 2023, but a technical defect forced their delay to December 2024.
With their first new ship now up and running, CGN will double the number of cross-border ferry services during the morning rush hour. Once the Evian-les-Bains’ sister ship Thonon-les-Bains gets its champagne send-off in 2025, CGN will extend this service to the evenings too.
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