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Bern Transportation

Bern to Paris - Bern
Bern to Paris
by Pakistaniguy
Tips for getting around Bern posted by real travelers and Bern locals.
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Bern rollt
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  • Nemorino
  • Updated By Nemorino on March 18, 2009
  • Bern Page by Nemorino
  • 1. Free bikes at Casinoplatz - Bern
    1. Free bikes at Casinoplatz
    by Nemorino, 3 more photos
    Bern is one of nine cities in Switzerland where you can borrow a bicycle absolutely free for up to four hours just by leaving them your passport or ID-card and a deposit of twenty Swiss francs, both of which you get back when you return the bike.

    Besides Bern, this service is also available in the Swiss cities of Geneva, Lausanne, Neuenburg, Renens, Sion, Thun, Vevey, and Zürich. The service is funded in part by the cities involved as a means of providing jobs for people who would otherwise be unemployed. Thirty new jobs have been created this way in Bern and Thun alone.

    When you borrow a bicycle the first four hours are free, and after that you pay one Swiss Franc per hour. I kept mine for nine hours and paid only five Swiss Francs. (That's a mere three Euros in real money.)

    Sound too good to be true? Well, it's a great service, but there are two slight catches:

    First, you have to return the bike by 9.30 pm, so you can't use it to ride home from the opera or theater -- which, as I'm sure you are aware if you have read some of my other tips, is one of the most beautiful things you can do in a European city.

    Second, the service is paid for in part by sponsors whose advertising signs are mounted on the bikes. Some of the smaller sponsors are quite harmless, like local pharmacies and newspapers, but the main sponsor is a notorious global fast-food corporation which is one of the main culprits in the world-wide obesity epidemic*, not to mention deforestation to raise cattle for their ground beef. So while I was having a great time riding around the city and doing my bit to preserve the environment, I was also unwittingly serving as an advertising agent for an infamous menace to public health. Can't say I was too happy about it.

    *In case you are not aware of how serious the world-wide obesity epidemic has become, look up the September 2007 issue of Scientific American magazine. That was a special issue on Diet, Health and the Food Supply entitled "Feast and Famine -- The Global Paradox of Obesity and Malnutrition."

    Second photo: A look inside the van at Casinoplatz, where the bicycles are stored overnight. By the way this lending station at Casinoplatz, at the north end of the Kirchenfeld Bridge, is only for the summer of 2008. Starting in May 2009 this station will be back in Zeughausgasse, where it used to be.

    Third photo: I borrowed my bike here in the bicycle station "Milchgässli", right behind the main railroad station. This is also a place where people can park their own bikes, for a small fee, while they go away on the train someplace.

    Fourth photo: Entrance and exit ramp in the bicycle station "Milchgässli". This is the one place in Bern where you can get a free bike all year round, not only from May to October.

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  • Theme: Bicycle
  • Website: http://www.bernrollt.ch/
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    Bicycle routes in Switzerland
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  • Nemorino
  • Updated By Nemorino on July 26, 2008
  • Bern Page by Nemorino
  • 1. Bicycle route sign in Bern (click to enlarge) - Bern
    1. Bicycle route sign in Bern
    (click to enlarge)
    by Nemorino, 1 more photos
    Within just a few years in the 1990s, the Switzerland Mobility Foundation (formerly Cycling in Switzerland Foundation) succeeded in establishing a network of nine national cycling routes with a total length of over 3000 kilometers and standard signposting throughout Switzerland in all cantons.

    These national routes have one-digit numbers, such as route # 8 in the photo.

    Route 8 is called the Aare Route because it begins at the source of the Aare River (at a mountain village called Gletsch which is 1,757 meters above sea level) and follows this river downstream via Oberwald, Meiringen, Interlaken, Spiez, Thun, Bern, Biel, Solothurn and Aarau. It ends after 305 kilometers at a place called Koblenz, near Bad Zursach, where the three rivers Limmat, Reuss and Aare join together.

    In addition to the nine national routes, there are also fifty-five regional routes with two-digit numbers, such as # 94 and # 34 in the photo.

    Route 34 is called the Alter Bernerweg (Old Bernese Way) and goes through "the former peasant lands of the Bernese Lords" for 176 kilometers from Estavayer-le-Lac to Baden. They say this is an easy route which can be done comfortably in four days.

    Route 94 makes what they call a "sweeping arc through a variety of landscapes in seven cantons" for 258 kilometers from L’Areuse to Zürich.

    According to the website Cycling in Switzerland, these cycle routes are "generally accessible paths or roads with as far as possible little or no motorized traffic, ideally surfaced with tarmac or concrete." When they have to go along busy roads they are along cycle paths or "in lanes with safe crossings or turning-off points."

    Second photo: Route #8 signs by the Aare River in Bern.

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    Marzili-Bahn
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  • Nemorino
  • By Nemorino on July 26, 2008
  • Bern Page by Nemorino
  • 1. Marzili-Bahn - Bern
    1. Marzili-Bahn
    by Nemorino, 3 more photos
    This short funicular connects the center of Bern (Bundesterasse, near the Federal Parliament Building) with the Marzili district 32 meters lower, by the banks of the Aare River. In the summer, lots of local people use this funicular to get to and from the Marzili outdoor swimming pool down by the river.

    The length of the track is 105 meters, and the trip takes about one minute.

    From 1885 to 1973 this funicular was run by a "water counterbalanced" system, which was replaced in 1974 by an automatic electric system which is still in use today.

    Second and third photos: As in most funiculars, there are two cars which take turns going from top to bottom and bottom to top, and pass each other in the middle.

    Fourth photo: Looking down at the Marzili district with the Aare River and the outdoor swimming pool.

    Bundesterasse 7, CH-3011 Bern
    46°56'45.44" North; 7°26'31.74" East

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  • Theme: Train
  • Phone: 031 311 00 44
  • Website: http://www.funimag.com/suisse/marzili01.htm
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    Trains to Bern
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  • Nemorino
  • Updated By Nemorino on April 29, 2009
  • Bern Page by Nemorino
  • 1. Bern main station with departure board - Bern
    1. Bern main station with
    departure board
    by Nemorino, 2 more photos
    I came to Bern this time on a German InterCityExpress (ICE) train by way of Mannheim, Karlsruhe, Freiburg and Basel. This was a direct connection (no change of train) and the journey from Frankfurt to Bern took four hours and six minutes.

    There are four direct ICE trains from Frankfurt to Bern on an average day, and twelve more connections if you don't mind changing trains in Basel.

    The main railroad station in Bern was extensively renovated and rebuilt in the year 2003. It has thirteen through tracks on the main level, and four tracks that end here on a lower level, for regional trains.

    Train service from Bern to all parts of Switzerland is excellent and frequent, for instance there are 36 trains per day to Basel, 36 to Geneva, 27 to Locarno, 67 to Spiez and 40 to Zürich.

    Second photo: Passengers in the main station.

    Third photo: Boarding a train in Bern main station. Note the bicycle symbol on one of the doors.

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  • Theme: Train
  • Website: http://www.sbb.ch/en/index.htm
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    Outdoor bicycle parking
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  • Nemorino
  • Updated By Nemorino on July 27, 2008
  • Bern Page by Nemorino
  • Bicycle parking at Kornhausplatz in Bern - Bern
    Bicycle parking at
    Kornhausplatz in Bern
    by Nemorino
    In all the surrounding countries (Germany, France, Italy, Austria) cyclists are careful to lock their bikes TO something when they leave them unattended, in fact the standard procedure is to lock both the frame and the front wheel to some unmovable object such as a bicycle stand that has been set up especially for this purpose.

    Not so in Switzerland. Here the city councils simply paint big boxes on the streets and paint bicycle symbols in them. People park their bikes in these boxes and simply block the rear wheel with a tin lock. Evidently there is enough social control in Swiss cities that this is adequate protection against theft, even though it would be theoretically possible for someone to pick up one of these bikes and walk off with it.

    For someone who mainly cycles in other countries, this takes a bit of getting used to.

    The parking area in the photo is on Kornhausplatz by the Bern City Theater, at the south end of the Kornhaus Bridge.

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  • Theme: Bicycle
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    Cycling in Bern
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  • Nemorino
  • By Nemorino on July 26, 2008
  • Bern Page by Nemorino
  • 1. Cyclist at Kornhausplatz - Bern
    1. Cyclist at Kornhausplatz
    by Nemorino, 4 more photos
    Pro Velo Bern is the lobby of local bicycle users, which since 1978 has been campaigning for more space on the streets, uninterrupted bicycle routes, enough bicycle parking spaces, a safe traffic climate and better connections to public transport.

    They want to see to it that "the bicycle will be perceived as a fully-fledged means of transportation."

    As an out-of-towner just riding around Bern for a day on a rented bike, my impression was that they have been very successful in all of this -- but on their website they show dozens of trouble spots that have not (yet) been resolved to the satisfaction of local cyclists.

    Additional photos: More cyclists in Bern.

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  • Theme: Bicycle
  • Website: http://www.igvelobern.ch/
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    Bicycle trips from (and to) Bern
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  • Nemorino
  • Updated By Nemorino on October 3, 2009
  • Bern Page by Nemorino
  • 1. Cyclist in Bern - Bern
    1. Cyclist in Bern
    by Nemorino, 4 more photos
    These photos are all from the year 2008, but when I was a student in Bern in 1961/62 it was already a fine bicycle town.

    I did a lot of cycling within the city, and also used Bern as a starting and ending point for some bicycle tours such as Bern to Freibourg and back, Bern-Thun-Spiez-Interlaken and back, and also a long trip to the Allgäu region of southern Germany.

    The longest of these bicycle trips began in late March 1962, when I started out in a northerly direction from Bern, stopping among other places in Basel, Breisach, Kehl, Speyer, Oppenheim, Wiesbaden, Limburg, Siegen, Hagen, Lünen, Amersfoort, Amsterdam, den Haag, Chaam, Antwerpen, Brussels, Namur, Luxembourg, Strasbourg, Basel again and then back to Bern after about seven weeks.

    Additional photos: More cyclists in Bern, 2008.

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  • Theme: Bicycle
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    Public transport
  • Tip Rating:
  • Nemorino
  • Updated By Nemorino on July 27, 2008
  • Bern Page by Nemorino
  • 1. Tram crossing the Aare River - Bern
    1. Tram crossing the Aare
    River
    by Nemorino, 3 more photos
    Bern has a fine system of public transport, including three tram lines and several bus lines of various sorts. So if your bicycle has a flat tire or something you should have no trouble getting around town.

    Second photo: Trams at the Kornhaus Bridge, as seen from above.

    Third photo: Tram # 9.

    Fourth photo: I was glad to see that Bern still has trolleybuses, which impressed me when I lived there in the 1960s. These are electric vehicles which can maneuver like busses, to a certain extent, but they get their electricity from double strands of overhead wires. The bus is the photo is the number 12 going through the Gerechtigkeitsgasse, where I used to live, on its way to the Zentrum Paul Klee.

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  • Theme: Train
  • Website: http://www.bernmobil.ch/
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    Velo-Taxi
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  • Nemorino
  • By Nemorino on July 26, 2008
  • Bern Page by Nemorino
  • Velo-Taxi - Bern
    Velo-Taxi
    by Nemorino
    Like most self-respecting cities, Bern also offers the possibility to travel around town by Velo-Taxi.

    So far I've never tried this, since I prefer to do the pedaling myself, but in principle I'm all in favor of it.

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  • Theme: Bicycle
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    Hauptbahnhof Bern (Bern railway station)
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  • Fam_Stoica
  • By Fam_Stoica on August 10, 2004
  • Bern Page by Fam_Stoica
  • Railway station, Bern - Bern
    Railway station, Bern
    by Fam_Stoica
    The station has recently been renovated and partially redesigned. It now contains Rail City, a shopping center open longer that the other shops in town, and over the weekend. This is possible as shop opening laws of the city of Bern do not apply on the grounds of the SBB.

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  • Theme: Train
  • Website: www.sbb.ch
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