Another Train Travel Question (I'm soooo confused!)

I have no experience with the Swiss trains or the many passes, but I’d like to refer you to this invaluable website: Seat61.com/train travel in Switzerland

Hope this helps! If not, I’m sure the Switzerland experts will chime in soon!

Wishing you a wonderful trip!

Thank you for taking the time to respond. I am very familiar with that helpful website. He does explain how to go about purchasing train tickets for getting from Interlaken to Milan (which is where we will go after staying in Lauterbrunnen), but he does not delve into the whole Swiss Travel Pass issue.

Consider you can buy your passes with a live person when you get there not unless you are getting a discount that is only available online. There is an SBB office at all 3 airports and most major train stations including at Lauterbrunnen. This method has proven to not be confusing as I have bought 3 passes over the years this way.

Make sure you are looking at the passes available for tourists. From this page look under leisure and holidays and then international guests.

https://www.sbb.ch/de/freizeit-ferien/inspiration/internationale-gaeste/swiss-halffare-card.html

The passes issued to tourists cannot be loaded into the SBB app. You will get a QR code that you will show the conductor.

I have only used the regular Swiss Travel Pass, so i am not as familiar with the half fare card. You can find some info. here that might help:

https://www.myswissalps.com/swisshalffarecard

I will just address your question about the Berner Oberland Regional Pass. Looking at the price chart, one can see that having a Half-Fare card, or other type of Swiss Pass, reduces the cost of a BO Pass by something in the range of 80-130 CHF, with the greater benefit coming with the longer-duration BO Pass.

https://www.regionalpass-berneroberland.ch/en/prices-tickets/

Since the Half-Fare Card itself costs 120 CHF, you can see that it iis nearly paid for in the savings on the reduced-cost BO Pass, especially with a 6- or 8-day BO Pass. With a 3-day BO Pass, probably not worth it, unless you have other destinations in Switzerland where you will use the Half-fare card alone.

You need not purchase the Half-Fare card first in order to use it for the Berner Oberland Pass savings, if you are buying that online to print at home. But you must have both the Half Fare Card in hand to show along with the BO Pass when you use it for travel.

@Lola - Thank you for your concise explanation. I'm headed to the BO in a couple of weeks and wasn't planning to get the half-fare card. Now I am!

I’m headed to Switzerland in 2 months. I will be coming in to Switzerland from Italy and headed to Zermatt. Is there a train station in Zermatt where I can buy a Half-price card? Are most train stations run with people or do you use a ticket machine?

Janet, yes, there is a ticket office at the Zermatt train station where you can buy the half-fare card. The office is open from 7:30 – 18:00.

https://www.sbb.ch/de/bahnhof-services/am-bahnhof/bahnhoefe/bahnhof.1689.zermatt.html

You’ll find that most of the train stations, except for the really small ones, will have a ticket office with people that can help. It will be quicker though to purchase tickets from the SBB app or the ticket machines in the train stations.

I assume you are coming from Italy on an EC train from Milan. You will change trains in Visp, so you might stop in Visp station and buy a Half Fare Card there. Then the train from there to Zermatt will be half fare.

"The passes issued to tourists cannot be loaded into the SBB app. You will get a QR code that you will show the conductor."

• That's wrong, they can be loaded into the SBB app. Simply create an account in the SBB shop, buy the Swiss Travel Pass or Swiss Half Fare Card. Login into the SBB app using the same username / password. The passes / cards are displayed in section "Tickets".

Part of the confusion stems from the fact that a few years ago the Swiss Pass was renamed the Swiss Travel Pass, and the Swiss Pass name was repurposed for a different product. So now the "Swiss Pass" is a red chip card that carries your photo and that you can load commuting passes on, ski passes, the Generalabo and the Halbtax... These are all products aimed at residents.

So to the OP: You probably landed on the "Halbtax", the Half Fare Travel Card, which is valid for a year and intended for the locals. It costs 165,- I believe, and you indeed need this "Swiss Pass" for it, to load it on.

Not useful for tourists, but confusing nevertheless. So if this is all to much, just go to the station and sort it out there.

You do not need the Half Fare Card to buy the Berner Oberland pass, but it does give you a nice reduction so it may be worth getting it.

Another source of confusion is that “SwissPass” is also a type of account for purchasing tickets, with our without a pass.

https://www.sbb.ch/en/help-and-contact/my-user-account/questions-signing-in.html#anchor1

For some reason I thought I had to create a SwissPass account to purchase simple tickets—-the page said “log in with SwissPass” or “proceed as a guest” and I chose the former and created a SwissPass account—-even though I already have an SBB Ticket Shop account.

Thanks WengenK and Lola. I'm not a travel newbie, but this was driving me crazy. Downloaded the SBB app and tried looking for tickets, but the first thing I had to do is choose which pass I have before I could get any further. And I don't have one!

Based on everyone's comments here, we're just going to wait until we get to Zurich and buy our BO pass at the station.