Train travel

Not sure how you're trying to check this, but I see a 9:38am train leaving Part-Dieu
arriving in Cham at 2:13pm for $57.98 on trainline. No issues seeing trains from
Cham to Bern on the 2nd either.

Maybe try SNCF Connect or trainline instead of sbb.ch.

love the Cham abbreviation

Be careful though, using the local train company.

Cham is a small station just around Lake Zug from Zug, just south of Zurich. If you ever get a chance to go there, I like the free arboretum on the lake next to the station. Lovely trees, great view. Walking / cycle path around the top of the lake too.

Why are you trying to book this on Swiss Rail? This is a trip entirely in France.
Why are you trying to book this now? May is ages away.

And this is mass transit. There is no need to book this in advance. Trains do not sell out on that route. You are probably observing that the system cannot sell you tickets yet. The SBB site is well know for not dealing gracefully with errors it receives from other booking systems.

Just go to the ticket off in Lyon, Ask for a ticket to Chamonix, pay and go. For your Swiss part just buy a Saver Day Pass for June 2nd on www.sbb.ch now, and buy a ticket Chamonix - Vallorcine at the station in Chamonix

Trains do not sell out months in advance. They would be useless if they did.

Sorry if it gets a bit abrupt here.

I looked up your Lyon to Chamonix on 29 May and got results. You can to at the SNCF website. https://www.sncf-connect.com/en-en/home/search/od

Now it gets a bit tricky. I picked a train with one connection, but most had two connections then I walked thorugh the process to see if you could reserve a seat. Well, then something became apparent, the connection was to a bus. By the way there is a direct bus too and its the cheapest and fastest option. But if you want to stick with a train its going to take 5 hours and you will have to change twice and there are no seat reservations. There is also no discount for buying in advance so, yes, you can buy the day of or today, same price.

You can book the Chamonix to Bern on the same site. Again, be careful because a few of the routes involve busses. The best I saw, bus or train or both was 3 connections over 4 hours.

Train travel just isnt as easy to plan and purchase as flying. But with some experience it gets easier.

Mr E: Train travel is trivially easy. You just go to the ticket office in Lyon, and say: one ticket to Chamonix please. And off you go. If only air travel was that easy :-)

It is when you are expecting train travel to be like air travel, and forget that it is just mass transit, that you indeed complicate things. If you were trying to book a trip on the Budapest subway 5 months in advance you probably would get very confused too...

But the point is that, you can book both journeys now on SNCF Connect- even the portion in Switzerland which SBB can't apparently book.
The fare varies, by train, between €63.60 and €105.80.

But, if you feel the need to have tickets in hand now then you can book Chamonix to Vallorcine now on SNCF Connect for €4.40 and the Swiss Saver Day Pass for 2 June for €52 (full price, the fare travelcard price is €44 ) on the SBB website, or €88 in 1st class.
The Swiss Day Pass is €97 dearer next Tuesday, or tomorrow is sold out at full price and is €119 on Sunday, so it pays to buy that day pass early.

Likewise you can book Lyon to Chamonix now on SNCF Connect, if that is what you prefer to do. Yes the price is fixed (same today as in 2 months time) and they can't sell out, so can buy on the day.

But if your preference is to buy ahead so be it

@ Nigel - thanks for that tip, I will be very careful if I ever book train tickets to Chamonix
again!

WengenK, but the Budapest metro system is free for Rick Steves tourists and forum members. /s