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One more question-Switzerland to Strasbourg

We will be using Swiss tickets to travel around Switzerland. On our last day we want to go from Bern to Strasbourg.

Can anyone recommend the best way to get train tickets from that city in Switzerland to that city in France?

Thanks

Pat

Posted by
4684 posts

Deutsche Bahn will not sell tickets for that journey as they only cover ones starting and/or ending in Germany.

Posted by
19276 posts

Deutsche Bahn will not sell tickets for that journey as they only cover ones starting and/or ending in Germany.

Not entirely true. Deutsche Bahn can sell tickets which include one or more legs entirely within Switzerland if it is in conjunction with a route starting or ending, or even just going through, Germany. But I think the part in Switzerland has to be a train of the SBB (eg. an IC).

Example: If you specify a stopover on the Bern to Strasbourg trip at Basel Badischer Bahnhof (a German Rail Bahnhof in Basel), they can sell you a ticket online. The trip will go by Swiss IC (w/ or w/o a change at Basel SBB) to Basel Badischer Bahnhof, then by German (ICE) to Offenburg, then by local train to Strasbourg.

It's also possible to buy an online ticket from the Bahn for a trip from Munich to Mürren (in the Berner Oberland), even using an IC bus from Munich to Zürich.

It doesn't seem as possible to make similar trips in other countries, just Switzerland. It's probably a special agreement between DB and SBB.

Posted by
8889 posts

Going from Bern to Strasbourg, you will change trains in Basel SBB station. Swiss tickets and Swiss passes are valid to Basel. From Basel it is an SNCF (French Railways) train, and you will need to buy a separate ticket.
You can do this from SNCF, https://www.thetrainline.com/ or https://loco2.com/

One catch, currently, due to building work at Basel station, to get from the main (SBB) part of the station where your train from Bern will stop, to the SNCF part for your train to Strasbourg (platforms 30-35), you will need to go outside along the street for about 200 metres. It is signposted.

Posted by
4 posts

Thank you so much everyone for all of your information. That helped a lot.

Pat

Posted by
16895 posts

I would also expect that any Swiss train station could sell you that unreserved, regional train ticket between Basel and Strasbourg.