My husband and I are moving from Australia to Geneva, where I've just scored a job, in early January. It's a permanent job, but we want to try and see how we go without having a car, at least for the first few months.

Reading through some threads, it seems like living in Nyon might be a good idea, with a relatively short commute to Geneva. But I'm wondering, is it possible or even advisable to get by without a car? I have the links for the public transport system, but just wondered if anyone was able to share a similar experience and how it went? Thanks!

Hmm, on second thoughts, I'm wondering if I've worded this properly for it to be here; mods, please feel free to move to Transport, etc. Sorry! Thanks!

Nyon to Geneva is 14 min. train ride, thus very easy, but this is train station to train station. You need to factor in the commute to/from the train station, which could be easy or not so easy depending on your office location and housing location. Most of Geneva is very good with public transport unless your office is way on the outerlying areas of Geneve. Thus the to/from geneve train station should be ok, but please check out www.tpg.ch for your office location public transport options. In Nyon, assuming you live in Nyon proper, the Nyon local transport is good as well, this is at www.bustpn.ch. Thus, in my view you can easily do without a car if your route is on public transport as noted above, and save on hassle and cost of parking places as well. The only thing that would change this perhaps is that it is increasingly difficult to find a place in Nyon these days, so if you find a place outside of Nyon, or outside the TPN bus range, in the neighboring villages you may need a car.

I lived in Nyon for 1.5 years without a car. As the previous poster said, it is 14-15 Minutes by train to Geneva.

If you could find an apartment relatively close to the train station, that
would be all the better. You could then bike or walk to the train station.

Hello!

I don't have a car (the other half does) and can vouch that the transport system here is excellent! There are times, ie: Sunday afternoons & evenings, when the buses/trains are fewer (or none at all) than during the week but it's all down to looking up timetables online when planning journeys.
If you get tired of using public transport, there are some good car rental places in Nyon. And if you turn into a regular customer, the staff might even give you a discount (BTW I didn't ask for a discount, it was offered- I don't know the etiquette here regarding things like that!).

(I live in one of the villages between Nyon and Rolle).

I hope you enjoy it here!

Yes, let's live green.

For over a year I used to travel from Lausanne to Geneva by train, no problem at all.

as the others have said yes the public transport links in and between the two cities are excellent but as for myself , living midway between the two, I can't imagine life without a car*



* but then I'm American ( kinda )

The connections in the cities between is not as good, but the area is nice.

I am from the United States of Texas but have adapted to great
public transport.

it is... but have you noticed... a lot of people speak french out there...

very odd.

Happy Thanksgiving by the way.

Thanks guys. Work is easy enough - I've figured out that work is a 10 min walk up Rue de Lausanne from Gare de Cornavin, so no worries there. I suppose the challenge now is to find an apartment in central Nyon - bon chance to me!

I guess we can hire a car easy enough if we want to go for drives out among the countryside. Or, I wonder, does anyone lease those cars you can get through Renault or Peugeot? My parents did that and drove it around Europe for 6 months - would it be worth considering something like that?

With Renault the car is not insured in Switzerland, only in the EU countries (that's on the six month lease around Europe).

Google- Peugeot Open Europe Program

Interesting. It makes a lot of stipulations about being in an EU country - including 'you are not engaged in any remunerated activity in an EU country' - but then, Switzerland's not an EU country, is it!?

I got a quote of AU$5000 for 6 months, with a brand new Peugeot. That's worth it, surely!

http://www.peugeot-openeurope.com/beneficiaries/

I would recommend mobility car share for your needs, www.mobility.ch. Also check out the numerous discussion threads on the EF concerning mobility car share.