Before the Avalanche that shut down the Paris to Milan train line, we had planned our itinerary and purchased Taylor Swift tickets. Now what we thought would be a 6ish hour train ride is looking more like 9 or 10 hours.
To book train travel from Como to Lyon, it looks like we will have to go Como to Milan to Geneva to Lyon. Would we book these tickets separately on an Italian website and then a French website? And how much time should we leave in between trains for transfer?
If you can swallow the very high prices and withstand flying above the Alps on 19-seater aircraft, Twin Jet flies from Milan to Lyon on some days.
Otherwise, yep, you have to go the way you mention.
Italian website (Trenitalia) for Como to Geneva, French website (SNCF connect) for Geneva to Lyon.
The French train is a regional train, tickets valid all day, so the timing is not critical. 15-20 min is fine (the France tracks at Geneva require a short walk).
You could also go Como to Locarno to Domodossola to Brig to Geneva to Lyon. That ticket can be bought all on SBB. But that is 10 hours. The fastest way on SBB is Como to Zurich to Dijon to Lyon in 8 hours.
When is the concert? It might be faster once the Gotthard Base Tunnel is fully opened.
Where on “Como” are you starting? And what day? Looks like the Lyon concert is June 2 and 3d, is that correct? What day do you want to travel? There are some differences between travel on May 31 (Friday) and June 1 (Saturday) due to construction planned on June 1.
You can see the routes and buy the tickets for the whole journey as one ticket on SBB.ch
For 31 May, If you are starting in the town of Como, then SBB is showing the best route (meaning simplest and fastest) as Como S.Giovanni—-Zurich—-Dijon—-Lyon, 3 changes, total journey time 8 h 6 minutes.
However, there is a scheduled interruption in service on this route June 1, so you would bbe better off with the route via Milan and Geneva. If you depart at 10:10, This takes 8 h 43 min and has 4 changes on the way. You cannot buy the whole route on SBB. However, if you wait til 12:10 to depart, you can take a direct train from Geneva to Lyon, and buy the whole thing on SBB.
If you are starting in Varenna, you use the Milan—Geneva route.
All of these have different prices, depending on the date and route chosen. So you will need to compare the options.
I appreciate everyone's help navigating this as it is all new to me. We are staying in the town of Como and plan to travel on Sunday, June 2nd ahead of the June 3rd show. It looks like there is still that construction on June 2 so the Milan and Geneva route seems to be the way we will have to go
