Preplanning a stay in Milan and thought it would be fun to visit Switzerland for a couple of days in between. I was looking at train prices and I’m no stranger to high costs in Switzerland. When looking on the SBB website for a round trip ticket between Centrale and Zermatt, it gave me a price of about 169 CHF. But then I thought, what if I use Trenitalia to book the first leg to Brig and then separately purchase Brig to Zermatt on SBB. Well that round trip ends up being just over $100. So I’m puzzled and hope someone can weigh in and confirm that the second option is legit. Thanks!
Posted by
San Francisco Bay Area
5697 posts
SBB pricing assumes you have a half-fare card (most Swiss get an annual card) -- to get the non-card price, click on the box for "no discounts"
Posted by
Green Bay
21277 posts
Once at Domodossola, you are in the Swiss fare zone. The cost from Domodossola to Zermatt is 56.30 CHF. So that is 112.60 R/T. While in Zermatt, you might want to ride some lifts up the mountains. The Gornergratbahn is 47 CHF each way, so that is 206.60 CHF combined. The 30 day Half Fare Card is 120 CHF. Just another 34 CHF of lift rides will put you over the 240 break even point, 34 CHF is not hard to top woth a ride up to Klein Matterhorn. The Regionale from Milano Centrale to Domodossola is only 10.80 EUR.
Posted by
OP
Pico Rivera, CA
594 posts
Good point about the half fare card. I retried my search and buying the tickets separately still saves me about $30 I think. But yes I need to figure out which lifts I will be using once in Zermatt. I really am just interested in hiking to the areas that give the postcard view of the Matterhorn. I need to do more research as I read in the RS guidebook that some lifts are closed in May.
Posted by
OP
Pico Rivera, CA
594 posts
BTW Sam, I was looking at tickets between Milan and Brig, which is about 32 Euro with TrenItalia. Not sure where the other town you mentioned comes in to play.
Posted by
Green Bay
21277 posts
Only that if you did get a Half Fare card, it would go into effect at Domodossola. This is the station on the Italian side of the Simplon Tunnel. It is considered a Swiss station for pricing purposes, as there is also a connection from there to Locarno, Switzerland.
Posted by
Boston, MA
1832 posts
As mentioned the train ride to Zermatt does not cover any lift costs in Zermatt itself.
There are 2 main lines there and both are very costly.
I did some research as I may head there in July ; they have passes to cover all rides in that town but they are very expensive especially if only 1 or 2 days. For 3 and 4 days they start to get much cheaper.
I think I will be driving there so didn't do much train research (parking in Tasch) though what you found does not shock me that it may be cheaper to break it out onto 2 tickets since two countries are being visited on this trip and they may get a little bit of a premium for Milan to Zermatt for those to lazy to research further.
The ride Brig to Zermatt I believe is a very scenic train ride.