Trains from Milan Airport-Malpensa to Domodossola

From Malpensa to Domodossola is best done by Bus, even when the railway line is normally operating.

So just book the bus here: https://www.comazzialibus.com/ComazziAlibus/?locale=EN
And then continue by train to Domodossola. From there to Switzerland there will be trains, even if they do not all yet show up in the schedule...

At least 2 trains every hour from Domodossola to Montreux, connecting in Brig. A few direct trains may show up later.

From the SBB website:

From 9 June to 8 September 2024, the route between Arona and Stresa will be completely closed to rail traffic. This means that all EC trains between Domodossola and Milan will be cancelled. There will be a replacement bus service, but with longer journey times and reduced capacity.

https://www.sbb.ch/en/travel-information/rail-traffic-information/timetable-change/europe.html

Bless you, Lola, for highlighting that. I'm planning to take the scenic Centovalli route from Domodossola to Locarno in late August, so the rail infrastructure work will affect me. Now I know I need to watch the Trenitalia website for information about the replacement buses. Absent your heads-up, I could easily not have found out about this until a day or two before I planned to travel, because I wasn't planning to buy the regional-train ticket very far in advance.

I'm a bit concerned about the "reduced capacity", though. Will there be anything I can do to be sure I get on a morning bus to Domodossola? There are no assigned seats on the regional trains, so I'm guessing the same will be true of the replacement buses.

This is part of your loop through Switzerland to see Bellinzona and ride the Bernina Express, right? So your plan is to go Milan—Domodossola—Locarn0–Bellinzona—-Chur—-Tirano—-Lake Como?

I actually do not know how the bus transfer works. I cannot imagine how they even get everyone off a train and onto buses, considering how many people are on the trains. But maybe they limit the capacity of the trains to a number that can be accommodated on buses? I hope someone can answer that.

We faced this on our family trip from Switzerland to the Dolomites last summer. They were working on the track somewhere between Brescia and Verona, and the trains were not running past Brescia on the day we needed to travel from Luzern to Verona. So I booked a hotel for us in Desenzano and contracted a private driver service to meet us in Brescia and take us the last 20 miles to Desenzano. When we saw the scrum of people pouring off that train (a Regionale) and trying to get to the buses we were very happy we didn’t have to join them.

That was cost-effective for our group of 8, and was great because we were taken straight to our hotel. But for your trip that may not work.

Looking at the Swiss rail map (which I am sure you have seen, but I will post again here) I don’t see any easy way to get around the closure between Stresa and Arona without using the bus transfer, or spending more time in Switzerland and riding more trains.

https://www.mystsnet.com/en/download/swiss-travel-system-map-en-2023/?wpdmdl=14294&masterkey=63a023c8da36c

If Bellinzona were not a “must” for your travel partner, you could reverse your loop and go Milan—-Locarno—Centovalli RR to Domodossola, north to Brig and ride the Glacier Express to Chur to pick up the Bernina EX. But you would need at least one overnight on that loop, maybe 2.

Or maybe Milan—Locarno—-visit Bellinzona, then return to Locarno for the Centovalli RR, and overnight somewhere (Brig?) before catching the GE the next day. That is still a lot of train time (and expense).

So I hope someone can offer you some kind of reassurance on the transfer buses, and how they work.

Yes, Lola, you have my planned itinerary right. I wouldn't want to make significant changes now that I have finally found hotel rooms everywhere; it wasn't easy or fun, and I'm not willing to tear everything apart and rebuild it when I have 3-1/2 months of travel before I get to Italy that needs to be at least semi-planned before April 30.

I really don't want to give up the Centovalli trip, but it's not a decision that needs to be made until we arrive in Milan 5 days before heading to Switzerland. I can go to Milano Central and see what they say. I know about the alternative route up through Como. If we need to go that way, at least it's faster as well as less costly than the Centovalli route. It won't be a disaster if we go through Lugano instead of Locarno. There are plenty of regionals on the Italian side of the border, so I don't have to think about buying tickets early to save money.

I've casually considered going from Milan to Locarno then doing a round-trip on the Centovalli from the Swiss side, but that would be a lot of time on trains just two days before we'll be doing it again. That doesn't seem a good idea. It would also be rather costly (I think at least 2-1/2 times the original plan for the day), because there will surely be no well-priced Saver Day Passes available 5 days before the trip.

I'm lucky to be facing this at the tail end of the infrastructure work; I figure there's a good chance there will be some info on the web about how the rail-replacement buses are working out before I have to make a decision. I've run into replacement buses twice: One for some sort of short-term situation in England and once for a longer-term project in southern France. In both cases, things worked fine. But I bet the Centovalli folks are not pleased about this; if the buses aren't organized well, I assume Centovalli ridership will plummet.

I also just heard this and am trying to figure out what this means. We need to get from Milan Malpensa Airport to Stresa, and then 4 days later from Stresa to Wengen (Via Domodossola). The SBB notice posted above says all EC trains. Does this also mean all regional trains too, or are there only EC trains on that route? We didn’t want to take the bus because it doesn’t run often and we’ll have a tired 5 year old with us.

Take the bus to Stresa. Regional trains to Domodossola will not show on the schedule until close to the semiannual schedule update, which is June 9. That is the way it has been Italy for as long as I can remember.