Milan Morning Traffic

If you are coming from the north, traffic should not be too bad. The train tickets from Malpensa to Milan are Regionale tickets and are the same price all the time. But where are you going from there? That is where you might want advance purchase tickets, if you are going to Venice, Florence or Rome for instance.

Thanks. Our family is splitting up at that point, with a party of two going to Zermatt and two others going to Venice, so we're not doing MXP, but Centrale. Google seems to say there is no benefit starting out so early - trip is supposedly 20 minutes shorter if we leave at about 8am and arrive 11am to Centrale.

If Centrale, I'd say it could be a bit stressful if it is a weekday. That is why I assumed (now I see obviously was in your text) that you would drop at the airport. I go by the rule of thumb that Milan is equivalent to Chicago. If I wanted to make a train at Union Station at 8:30 am, better plan on arriving at 6:30 am to cover traffic snarls which are unavoidable. Hope you are confident driving in Milan at rush hour.

I'm sure others can reply better to this post, but I would be concerned about driving into Milano Centrale instead of dropping a car at Malpensa. Roberto and Ken can offer advice about avoiding the "zones".

Personally, I would not drive into Milano when public transportation is convenient and reasonably priced.

Good luck!

Italian Alps is too generic. Where exactly will you be coming from? And which specific train do you intend to catch to Zermatt?

We're leaving Val Ferret and the Zermatt train is 12:23pm.

Thanks for the input, folks. It looks like we can change our AutoEurope reservation to MXP, so we can take the train from MXP to Centrale.

Wow. Sorry for being nosey, but where are they picking up the train to Zermatt? Were going to drive them over to Visp, or some other location. It occurs to me that you could drop them at Auto Europe agency in Gallarate, It is just a few blocks from the train station. From there, they can get trains to Brig, then on to Zermatt and you can get trains to Centrale then on to Venice. From MXP, it is 12 euro each because it is "1st Class" and there is a premium for being an airport run. But at MXP, the trains to Centrale go every 30 minutes.
Stresa is another option if you are cutting through Switzerland to drop them at Visp, then continuing over the Simplon Pass.
Edit-Domodossolo and Gallarate have stops for the daily EC train from Geneva to Venice.

I appreciate your interest and willingness to help, not thinking you are nosy. I am NOT the driver. I don't want to drive in Italy at all. My husband is the driver and one of the party heading to Zermatt, so we all need to end up near a train station together where we can then go our separate ways. It looks to us like the intercity 34 train from Centrale (to Brig) doesn't stop in Gallarate.

I'm assuming you are in the Italian Val Ferret (there is also a Swiss one).
To make it to Milan by 7:30 you'd need to leave before the crack of dawn, because it's at least a 3 hour drive. However I don't see why you have to go that early if the Zermatt bound party intends to take a train departing at 12:23 from Milan (EuroCity 34).
This is actually what I would do. I would drive your Zermatt bound party to Stresa. That same train stops in Stresa at 1:19 pm. After I dropped them off at the Stresa station, I would drive all the way to Venice and return the car in Venice. If that is too much for you to bear and absolutely want to return your car at MXP, I would definitely drop them off in Stresa, then I would drive to MXP (very near Stresa), return the car, then take the train to Milano Centrale and from Milano Centrale to Venice. I would go with the first choice (drive all the way to Venice), but that is up to you.
To drive the party to Milano Centrale then back track to MXP to return the car makes no sense whatsoever.
To return the car to MXP then take the train to Centrale and from there the trains to Zermatt and Venice makes no sense for those who go to Zermatt. Drop them off at Stresa, which is near MXP, then decide whether to return the car either in Venice or MXP.

Thanks for your input!

If the driver is going to Zermatt, then you either return the car near Milano Centrale after rush hour (after 9:30am) or return to MXP and take the train from there. From MXP one could take a taxi to Gallarate. From Gallarate you take a train to Stresa and there catch you EC34 to Brig. Unfortunately the EC34 doesn't stop in Gallarate, so one would need to get to the next big station (Stresa) on the way to Brig.

Thanks so much! We're going with the MXP plan.

Then it's probably best for the Zermatt bound party to take a taxi to Gallarate (10 min) and from there the train to Stresa (there are many and it's about 35 min). You can catch the EC 34 to Brig in Stresa. Going from MXP all the way to Milan Centrale to catch the EC 34 is a lot of backtracking because the train will pass by MXP. Unfortunately it stops only in Stresa (Gallarate would have been perfect). Still you'll save a lot of time and money to go the Gallarate way. The train from MXP to Milano Centrale is almost one hour (for 12 euro). Then you have to calculate another hour for that train to make it to Stresa. You can be in Stresa from MXP in under one hour. There is also a bus that goes from Terminal 1 to Stresa. That might be even more convenient for your husband, that way he doesn't need to transfer from taxi to train from Gallarate to Stresa. The bus departs from T1 at 11:40. It will arrive at Stresa station at 12:30. The EC 34 stops at Stresa at 1:19, so he has more than enough time.
http://www.safduemila.com/alibus-2015-malpensa.lagomaggiore.html

Either way going all the way to Milano centrale will take an hour extra.