Train Germany to Switzerland

Can you book the last leg separately on the Swiss SBB website? Might be too early for a booking in September, though.

Seat reservations are unnecessary as a solo traveler on non-touristic routes such as Basel to Geneva. It is too early to buy them anyway (only two months ahead I think, or maybe just one).

I just got to the payment page for a seat reservation for the IC 1 Bern to Geneva at 13:34 on Sept 11. Cost is 5 CHF.
https://www.sbb.ch/ticketshop/b2c/adw.do?sprache=en&artikelnummer=1993

Don't be surprised if it is difficult to find your reservation on the Swiss train, or if somebody is in your seat.

Swiss travellers and residents don't expect reservations on their Swiss trains. The trains between Basel and Geneva are double decker, often 12 coaches long with around 1,000 seats, and there is another in 30 or 60 minutes. Most services from Basel to Geneva will have you changing trains in either Olten or Bern. Your train from "the Rhine" might be French or German - depending on where on the Rhine you mean. The Rhine flows through Basel too. If French, you may arrive in the annex (former SNCF station, now reduced to a handful of platforms) or into the German train station Basel Bad Bahnhof, or go all the way to Basel SBB. If a train to Zurich you can just change at Olten and not worry about changing in Basel. (and yes, I know the title of this question is Germany to Switzerland).

Perhaps a bit more detail of just the trains you hope to catch and where you expect to change would be helpful, please, Betty.

I tried to get a better idea from your other posts but it looks like your plans have changed?

It will be unusual if you can't find a couple of good seats. Downstairs if you don't want to haul luggage up the stairs, upstairs for the view.

If the train has FA in the notes it will have a kiddie playground upstairs in the last carriage. You can tell from the outside because it will have a kiddie graphic all across the carriage, usually a colourful dinosaur. If you have kids, that's the place to head for. Even has a slide. If you don't have kids you might want to be a carriage or two away - sometimes the kiddoes can get quite excited and a little loud!

You could have a look at a representative train on the official SBB website at https://www.sbb.ch/en/station-services/on-the-train/our-trains/ld-double-decker/more-information.html If you click on the video on that page you can see first class, 2nd class, the diner, and the slide in the kiddie carriage. Even if you don't understand the words as it is in German, the pictures tell a thousand words each, and a 5 minute video has a lot of pictures. Enjoy!

My son in law is Swiss and lives in Geneva. He says nobody ever reserves a seat on a Swiss train and even if they did other people would still sit there and laugh at you if you told them the seat was reserved.

Nigel and Balso - We are a couple traveling from Koblenz to Geneva (EC7) with a change in Olten.(IC524) I can book this on bahn.de at one rate and it offers a seat selection for both trains. However, the train that departs from Olten, does not show a car/seat graphic at this time. I assume that will change since I am looking at departing in September? I don't see why they would offer a seat selection, if that was not an option. This leg is over 2 hours long and I prefer not to drag our bag from car to car in search of a seat. I do wish to purchase my tickets before the rate increases. I appreciate the help from you, Sam and many others. Tim - we are Seniors in fairly good physical shape. Should we happen to face ridicule, we will cross that bridge when we come to it.

However, the train that departs from Olten, does not show a car/seat graphic at this time. I assume that will change since I am looking at departing in September?

No it will not change.
You should be able to buy Koblenz to Geneva as one purchase.
This will offer seat reservations on the German trains (as far as Olten), but as Nigel and the others say You do not need reserved seats on Swiss trains.
That is why they are not offering it, because it isn't an option.
Click here for a photo of a Swiss Intercity train. Double decker, 960 seats every 30 minutes. There will be seats. Depending on the time of day, they run about ½ to ¾ full. The one I was on earlier today, I had a block of 4 seats to myself. The 4 seats opposite had 2 chattering teenagers in it, their "stuff" spread over the other 2 seats; normal.
You will not have to "drag our bag from car to car in search of a seat". As the train is coming to a stop, you can see through the window how full each coach is.

Looking near term, I could not get SBB to give me seat reservations IC 524 for Tuesday, July 2. Looking on the main SBB site, it predicts very light loading for that train. IC 524 does not travel on the main Zurich-Olten-Bern-Fribourg-Lausanne-Geneva corridor. It goes Zurich-Olten-Solothurn-Biel-Neuchatel-Morges-Geneva, bypassing the big Swiss cities, thus it is generally lightly loaded.

Looking at September on the DB site, you can pick your seat on the EC 7 as DB has access to the seat map for that train. Since IC 524 is a Swiss train, DB apparently does not have access to the seat map for that train.

When traveling nowadays, we come to expect perfect information. DB can tell you exactly what seats you will have from Koblenz to Olten 3 months from now, but not from Olten to Geneva. However, something could happen on your day of travel. Once we had seat reservations from Mannheim to Munich, but when the train showed up at Mannheim, half the train was apparently missing, our assigned carriage not there, let alone our seats. I showed our tickets to the conductor on the platform, he just shrugged and indicated, "Get on the train and find a seat." 2nd class was full so we plunked down in 1st class. No body ever came by to check our tickets.

EC 7 starts its day at Hamburg Altona, a long way from Koblenz, passing through the most densely populated region of Germany, or Europe for that matter. Delays happen, especially for German long distance trains. If you get behind schedule only 15 minutes, you will miss your timely Swiss IC 524 at 14:40. No worries. You're in Switzerland. There is a connection through Bern at 14:59 and one through Lausanne at 15:03, or just wait for the next hourly train at 15:40. You will get to Geneva, but that seat reservation will be long gone. Maybe you can get a new one at the station office at no charge if you have time.

Moral of the story, be flexible. What we worry about never happens. What we don't worry about is what happens.

Okay - I guess I have been schooled! I will purchase my tickets and not be concerned about finding seats for the last leg. I can now look forward to the fun part in planning what we would like to see and do. (So you may not have heard the last from me.) Thanks again :)