SWISS AND ITALIAN PADDLE STEAMERS FEATURES 2005

LAKE   GENEVA Regular winter 'paddling' in the Upper Lake       MPV Vevey MPV Italie leaving Montreux for St.Gingolph on Sunday 14th November 2004 sailing 38 arriving Montreux from Lausanne on Sunday 20th March 2005 sailing 38 Every Sunday 7th, 14th, 21st and 28th, November 2004 5th, 12th, 19th and 26th December 2004 2nd, 9th, 16th, 23rd and 30th January 2005 6th, 13th, 20th and 27th February 2005 6th, 13th and 20th March 2005 from Lausanne depart 1230 The CGN Management are congratulated for being the only company to offer regular timetabled sailings by a paddle vessel  throughout the Winter on any of the Swiss or Italian lakes Passengers made the most of the sailings "all the way" to St-Gingolph before they were cut back to Château-de-Chillon from Sunday 12th December

LAKE  NEUCHÂTEL - TRIVAPOR PS Neuchâtel The Maffei paddle steamer engine no 576 originally installed in PS Ludwig Fessler The first stage of an ambitious plan to restore PS Neuchâtel to operational status Parts of the engine are loaded into two containers at Rotterdam at the start of its journey to Yverdon (Switzerland) January 2005 photo: Olivier Bachmann Click here for photo feature

EASTER   on   the   LAKES Thursday 24th March to Tuesday 29th March 2005 Below are listed all of the limited sailings advertised to be operated by paddle steamers on the lakes over the Easter holiday period these were augmented by two days of non-advertised sailings on Lake Como No paddle steamer sailings were advertised on Lakes Brienz, Garda, Konstanz, Maggiore, Thun or Zurich P R O V I S I O N A L Maundy Thursday 24th March 2005   NO paddle steamer sailings operated on any lake this year    Easter Thursday was very early in 2005 ! Good Friday 25th March 2005   Lake Geneva MPV Italie sailings 28-29-51-56 0820 Lausanne to Montreux 0930 Montreux to Lausanne 1110 Lausanne to Geneva 1430 Geneva to Lausanne PS Rhône sailings 32-33 1230 Lausanne to St Gingolph 1525 St Gingolph to Lausanne MPV Vevey sailing 116 1220 Lunch Cruise from Geneva   Lake Luzern PS Unterwalden sailings 13-26 1125 Luzern to Flüelen 1503 Flüelen to Luzern Easter Saturday 26th March 2005   Lake Geneva MPV Italie sailings 28-29-51-56 0820 Lausanne to Montreux 0930 Montreux to Lausanne 1110 Lausanne to Geneva 1430 Geneva to Lausanne PS Rhône sailings 32-33 1230 Lausanne to St Gingolph 1525 St Gingolph to Lausanne MPV Vevey sailing 116 1220 Lunch Cruise from Geneva Easter Sunday 27th March 2005   Lake Como PS Concordia sailings 12-66-31 1000 Como to Menaggio 1313 Menaggio to Bellano 1333 Bellano to Como   Lake Geneva MPV Italie sailings 28-29-51-56 0820 Lausanne to Montreux 0930 Montreux to Lausanne 1110 Lausanne to Geneva 1430 Geneva to Lausanne PS Rhône sailings 32-33 1230 Lausanne to St Gingolph 1525 St Gingolph to Lausanne MPV Vevey sailing 116-special 1220 Lunch Cruise from Geneva extended with a 'one-hour' cruise   Lake Luzern PS Stadt Luzern sailings 13-26 1125 Luzern to Flüelen 1503 Flüelen to Luzern Easter Monday 28th March 2005   Lake Como PS Concordia sailings 12-66-31-reliefs 1000 Como to Menaggio 1313 Menaggio to Bellano 1333 Bellano to Como relief Como to Torno relief Torno to Como   Lake Geneva MPV Italie sailings 28-29-51-56 0820 Lausanne to Montreux 0930 Montreux to Lausanne 1110 Lausanne to Geneva 1430 Geneva to Lausanne PS Rhône sailings 32-33 1230 Lausanne to St Gingolph 1525 St Gingolph to Lausanne MPV Vevey sailing 116 1220 Lunch Cruise from Geneva   Lake Luzern PS Stadt Luzern sailings 13-26 1125 Luzern to Flüelen 1503 Flüelen to Luzern Easter Tuesday 29th March 2004   Lake Geneva MPV Italie sailings 51-56 1110 Lausanne to Geneva 1430 Geneva to Lausanne MPV Vevey sailing 116 1220 Lunch Cruise from Geneva

LAKE   ZURICH       photo: Robert Knöpfel      PS Stadt Zürich and PS Stadt Rapperswil loading passengers at Zurich Sunday 24th April - Swiss Navigation Day Let the race begin ! Both paddle steamers leave Zurich simultaneously at 1330

LAKE   KONSTANZ The season - just two days of public sailings - opened with two International cruises from Rorschach on Sunday 1st May 2005 PS Hohentwiel             photos:  Nadia Jöhr

WHIT   SUNDAY   on   LAKE   ZURICH   Both paddle steamers were in service on Whit Sunday 15th May 2005 PS Stadt Zürich operated advertised sailings 101-102-115-116 PS Stadt Rapperswil operated sailings 105-106-135-136 (vice the booked motor vessel)   See photo feature below for a busy 15 minutes at Wädenswil where the two paddle steamers were split by the 1326 Schmerikon to Zurich motor vessel on sailing 104 Wädenswil - 1534, 1538, 1543, 1548 and 1549

SUMMER   2005   FLOODING Switzerland experienced some of the worst Summer rain for many years resulting in rapidly rising lake levels This caused disruption to both road and rail with many examples of both completely blocked by rivers and lakes overflowing This also had a 'knock-on' effect on various lake services where some piers were unaccessable for several days The first disruption to sailings on Lake Luzern happened on Monday 22nd August when heavy rain caused the replaced of PS Gallia on the 1000 sailing to Flüelen by mv Brunnen In the afternoon PS Unterwalden was unable to sail under the Acheregg road and railway bridge at Stansstad on her afternoon sailing to Alpnachstad due to the rapidly rising lake level - she remained at Stansstad pier until her booked return time The following day just a few passengers were able to cross the almost flooded pier two at Luzern without getting their feet wet to join 'acting paddle steamer' mv Pliatus on a slightly delayed 'revised' sailing 65 to just Stansstad vice the usual PS Unterwalden  (which ended up operating sailing to Flüelen instead) After the 1325 departure to Flüelen by PS Schiller all timetabled paddle stemer sailings were suspended - the evening "Sunset Cruise" being operated by mv Waldstätter Over in the Bernese Oberland all sailings on both Lakes Thun and Brienz were completely suspended after Tuesday 22nd August Thereafter all seven paddle steamers remained firmly tied up at their respective docks with the exception of PS Uri which berthed throughout at Pier no 6 at Luzern She ventured out on a short evening charter sailing on Friday 26th August whilst mv Waldstätter operated the final Friday Evening Music Cruise omitting all the advertised intermediate calls On Sunday 28th August she also operated a modified non-landing version of the sailing 153 Brunch Cruise operating around the Bürgenstock towards Rotschuo rather than along the usual Küssnacht arm of the lake This was the only public cruise by a paddle steamer during the exceptionally high water level period BLS sailings on Lake Thun (only) resumed on Wednesday 31st August 2005 (including sailings by PS Blumlisalp ) PS Blümlisalp back in service on Thursday 1st September Sailings on Lake Brienz only resumed on Saturday 3rd September 2005 but all timetabled sailings were operated by motor vessels for the remainder of the 2005 season PS Uri resumes paddle steamer sailings whilst mv Pilatus waits to form the first 'special' sailing to Stansstad for a week SGV sailings resumed to Flüelen only as per their peak-Summer Timetable on Wednesday 31st August 2005 (including the advertised paddle steamer sailings) However the lake had not lowered sufficiently to allow PS Unterwalden to sail under the Acheregg bridge at Stansstad for the final 2005 advertised mid-week paddle steamer sailings to Alpnachstad - these recommenced the following Sunday Unusually she covered the 1125 Wilhelm Tell Express sailings on Thursday and Friday 1st and 2nd September vice her larger sister PS Unterwalden departs Luzern on Thursday 1st September If you have any further information about what actually happened please e-mail me with the details which will be posted on this website as soon as made available to me

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3rd July 2005   e-mail:john@rhos.screaming.net   (c)2005 John B Bird