Multi-block stations were the bane of my existence in Switzerland and the one thing no website or YouTube video about Swiss public transit warned me about. I am here to save you from the frustration I and all my European friends experienced.

Because there are so many busses in Switzerland they all can’t stop in the same place when picking up passengers. For big stations such as Rive, Bel-Air, and Gare Cornavin (Geneva’s main train station), they need to spread out because they have over 30 busses coming to that stop. The problem is, on the SBB app and ESPECIALLY on google maps they show all of them as one place it is extremely frustrating because google maps says you’re in the right place when you’re actually 2 blocks away.

This is a picture of a bus stop at Gare Cornavin which is Geneva’s main train station and has a TON of busses that drop you off here. This particular stop is right beside one of the many main entrances to the station. You will see at the top it says that the station name is “Gare Cornavin” Then underneath you have the two bus lines that drop you off there- bus 14 going in the direction of Meyrin-Graviere and bus 18 going in the direction of Cern. What you want to pay attention to is the top right corner where it says “Quai H”. This means it is Gare Cornavin, stop H.

On the other side of this standing post, there is a breakdown of the multi-block map. As you look at this I want you to notice all of the different letters. Notice that C is very far away from L and the letters are not really in “order” like F, D, & E. The big grey thing in the middle with the train picture that says “GENEVE” is the train station itself. It has multiple entrances. Find the letter H on the map picture- this is where the bus stop for buses 14 and 18 will arrive at. It is the “side” entrance.

Looking at that picture you will notice the big brown outline, this is the cathedral that is across the street. It can be very hard to figure out which streets are which on this map because it is not configured in a very easy way (you’ll see what I mean in person).

On the side of this map, you will see all of the different bus stops and what sections they are in. For example; if you are on bus 3 going in the direction of “Crets-de-Champel” (the direction is the last stop on that bus line) then you would look at this map and find bus 3 and see that it is in section “M”. Then I would look at the map with all the letters and see that bus M is a full block 1/2 away from the train station. This can get EXTRA confusing because bus 3 actually has a bus stop that drops you very close to the station in section F but does not take you back in the opposite direction in that same spot.

Just to drive the point home (pun intended) bus 9 is another great example. If you are taking it to the station from the north it will drop you one block away but if you are trying to get back home on that same bus going south, you will need to walk down the street about 2 blocks in the opposite direction from your drop-off stop to be on the correct bus, but google maps will just show you the stop closest to the station. It can be really frustrating, I know, but once you get it… it really isn’t terrible.

My advice is to ALWAYS run earlier than you think. Take the earlier busses and give yourself a nice fat buffer. I really can’t emphasize this enough, it is SO easy to miss your bus in Switzerland because they run right on time and if you are doing a transfer at Gare Cornivar and you’re trying to get from bus 1, which will drop you right in front of the station and you need to transfer to bus 14, which is over a block away and you only have 2 minutes… unless you are a VERY fast runner you WILL miss it. It’s that simple. Another tip is to pay attention to the stop right before the station because you might have to walk there, from the station, to get back home on that bus. If you’re going to be spending a decent amount of time in Geneva I would recommend taking some time in your first couple of days and go to Gare Cornivar, Bel-Air, Rive, and or any multi-block stops near you and walk around. Figure out where the buses are and get an idea of how far each stop is from each other so you can navigate Geneva like a pro for the length of your stay!

Let me break this down… Most of the time when you want to go in the opposite direction from the bus you arrived on, you go to the same stop and just walk across the street and the opposite stop is parallel to the one you took. This is NOT the case at these multi-block stops. For bus 3, if you are going in the direction of “Grand-Saconnex Gardiol” towards the station then it will drop you off in “Qua F” very close to the front entrance. If you want to go back to where you came from (which would now be the direction of Crets-de-Champel) you will not find a bus taking you in that direction in “Qua F”. Instead, there are two options for you, one is in section M which is a block 1/2 away, and that is on the Gare Cornavin map shown above, or the other would actually be the stop before “Gare Cornavin (Qua F)” called “Geneve Coutance” which is also a block 1/2 away.

Put in simple terms- Don’t get confused when you go to the same spot you were dropped off and there isn’t a bus going in the return direction. Find out the direction you need to go, look at the map, find the letter (Qua) it is in, and don’t be surprised when it’s over a block away.