Leman pass

[zero]

Is there somewhere which lists all the available products and the corresponding prices, like other transport associations in Switzerland do?

I probably want one return journey from Annemasse to Évian-les-Bains, and I may wish to break my journey along the way, plus unlimited travel within Geneva zone 10 and Annemasse zone 210, however I only have about 5 or 6 hours in total so it may be that a combination of single tickets is cheaper. But I can't find the information in a single place which would let me work out the best option.

I would prefer to just buy from a machine on the day, but can use an app if that confers a reasonable benefit.

The TER Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes website offers the following with no further explanation of the details:

Carte Léman Pass 1 jour​

Conditions
Tarif Carte Léman Pass 1 jour. Voyages illimités France <> Suisse sur un trajet, avec Léman Express, TER ou RegioExpress et dans les zones urbaines choisies avec les réseaux de transports partenaires. Valable 1 jour à partir de la date choisie et jusqu'au lendemain, 5h00. Billet non-échangeable et non-remboursable.

• Z300+PARCOURS+Z10: 28,20 €
• EVIAN-Z10: 29,20 €
• Z300-GENEVE/VERNIER/LA PLAINE: 29,90 €
• EVIAN-GENEVE/VERNIER/LA PLAINE: 30,90 €

 

[dutchflyer]

All these passes/fares are clearly only aimed at INTerntional transportation to the Swiss/Geneve-now that this new sinuous tunnel-railway has opened.
LOcal In FRance fares are-as always, done by the regional TER. (Rhones Alpes or so).
What will work out cheaper will also depend on your undisclosed age (there may be ju/senior discount). There may also be a marked difference in price between CHF and € fares-but that will only help out if yo can choose where you buy it.
Google for website unireso/TPG _geneva-as can be expected from such a international city, it has several languages. Most HTLs In GNV will also dole out free local transport ticket (zone GNV only)

 

[Oscar]

You can buy a single from the machine for 8.70 EUR.

 

[zero]

Having done this travel I still found it rather confusing - not like the rest of Switzerland where in many cases almost every possible fare is clearly laid out on the transport association's website.

The Leman pass website just states "Un nouveau calculateur est en cours d’élaboration et sera bientôt disponible sur notre site". I expect that text has been there a long time.

The words "Leman pass" appear to be superfluous, simply referring to any sort of ticket that is valid in both countries.


At Annemasse, there are two SNCF and TER machines and one CFF machine. A single ticket to Geneva costs €4.30 from the TER machine, which has a slow wheel-based interface. It accepts euro coins and card only. The ticket is valid in zones 10 and 210 for 90 minutes.

The CFF machine sells a ticket with the same validity for CHF 4.90. It accepts CHF coins and notes and EUR notes at an exchange rate of €5 to CHF 4.90 (real exchange rate is roughly the reciprocal: CHF 5 to €4.90).

I wanted to use both machines to investigate the options. But people kept queuing up so I had to let them go first. I ended up observing for 20 minutes. Not a single person was able to get the TER machine to work when paying by card, not even when an SNCF employee tried to help; some of these people then proceeded to the CFF machine despite the price discrepancy (although they may not have realised / cared).

Most people simply went straight to the CFF machine probably because of prior experience. It just works and has a much simpler and responsive interface. Nobody attempted to pay by euro coins at the TER machine, but many people used CHF coins and notes (a foreign currency here) at the CFF machine. Despite the simpler interface, many people still got confused and even tried to ask me for help, even though pretty much everyone just wanted a single to somewhere in Geneva; many people thought they needed to specify the exact destination station despite all stations being the same price.

3 minutes walk away, there are TAC machines by a bus stop which also sell the ticket at the €4.30 price. These machines accept card as well as EUR coins/notes. The same machines are by those tram stops of Geneva tram route 17 which are on French territory.


I didn't write down the prices for other tickets but a day ticket for zones 10 and 210 was somewhere between 2-3x the price of the 90 minute one, about CHF 13. Longer journeys were not priced zonally. Evian and Thonon are both in Zone 300, but it was cheaper to go from Thonon to Geneva than from Evian. Furthermore, it was cheaper to go from Thonon to Eaux-Vives than Thonon to Cornavin, which was in turn cheaper than Thonon to Geneva Airport. Day ticket prices for each pair were a similar multiple of the price for the short-term ticket for that pair.


One question I still have is regarding tickets emitted from the TER machines. They say they are valid for one week and have "à composter" printed on, but I have no idea what you're supposed to do; they don't fit the yellow machines that you would put big tickets into.

 

[AY1975]

One question I still have is regarding tickets emitted from the TER machines. They say they are valid for one week and have "à composter" printed on, but I have no idea what you're supposed to do; they don't fit the yellow machines that you would put big tickets into.
View attachment 116489

In 2014 I was staying near Auxerre, and Auxerre St Gervais station had some TER machines that issued tickets of that size but with some difficulty I managed to validate one of those tickets in a normal SNCF yellow validator so it's worth a try. Failing that your best bet would be to go to the ticket office if you have time, or approach the guard on your train before boarding or as soon as you board and say "Le composteur ne fonctionne pas avec ce billet" (the validator doesn't work with this ticket).

I have also found that some SNCF validators work whether you insert your ticket at the left or right-hand end, face up or face down, and some only work at the left-hand end, face down.

 

[zero]

In 2014 I was staying near Auxerre, and Auxerre St Gervais station had some TER machines that issued tickets of that size but with some difficulty I managed to validate one of those tickets in a normal SNCF yellow validator so it's worth a try. Failing that your best bet would be to go to the ticket office if you have time, or approach the guard on your train before boarding or as soon as you board and say "Le composteur ne fonctionne pas avec ce billet" (the validator doesn't work with this ticket).

I have also found that some SNCF validators work whether you insert your ticket at the left or right-hand end, face up or face down, and some only work at the left-hand end, face down.

Interesting. Do you remember what orientation you inserted the ticket in?
On the lines where I've purchased such tickets, the trains appeared to be all DOO and the stations were office-less.

 

[AY1975]

Interesting. Do you remember what orientation you inserted the ticket in?

I'm afraid not although I'm fairly sure it was face up rather than face down. I might still have that ticket somewhere; I will let you know if I find it.

On the lines where I've purchased such tickets, the trains appeared to be all DOO and the stations were office-less.

In which case if you can't get the validator to work, I'd say all you can do is board the train with your unvalidated ticket and if a ticket inspector gets on, approach them immediately to explain the situation and don't wait for them to approach you.

I once got a free ride on an SNCF TER train because I boarded at an unstaffed station with no ticket machine, and there was a machine and validator on board but it didn't appear to be working. I looked for the guard but couldn't find one, so maybe the DMU or bi-mode unit that I was travelling on was also DOO.