Eurail posted Train Times vs. DB Navigator

Which train line will you actually be riding on? Any reason not to go by their schedule?

I was told that the most reliable app for all train schedules throughout Europe was DB.

And that's great for planning purposes, or if you have a DB ticket or pass. But once you know your train line, you should be following their times, since they are the ones running the trains. Eurail is just a 3rd party seller.

I would use the Swiss site SBB.ch for the most up to date information.

What date is this?

Normally the 4 minute transfer is not an issue. Non Swiss planners are sometimes unaware of that and make you lose time.

It is impossible to answer the specific question without knowing how the Eurail database is compiled, how it updates, and what the underlying proposed assumptions are on what is a suitable connection. Given that the connection question varies between countries (and even lines), if a blanket assumption is made by Eurail, it will give wrong responses, like this.

The prime purpose of the Eurail planner is to sell you seat reservations, not to be a micro planner. Also to sell you reservations denominated in $ rather than the local currency- the more expensive option.

On this journey there is a 4 minute and a 34 minute connection. If you make the former, great, but if you don't it doesn't matter one iota- just take the next train. There are no domestic reservations in Switzerland (other than a few easily avoided tourist trains), it does not matter which train you take.

Think like one of the commuter railroads in the US, don't think like Amtrak, when in Switzerland. Of course if you have no experience of using railroads in the US that won't mean anything. But Amtrak requires you to be on specific trains, commuter railroads in all major cities in the US don't- and some of those have frequent service as well.

For international journeys DB is the best overall planner, but DB is German railways. If doing micro planning outside Germany like this use the websites of the national railways- in this case Trenitalia and SBB.

Please understand that Eurail are a third party company. They do not run any trains, but are ultimately trying to part you with more money than you need to pay, in the name of their profits and your supposed "convenience".

You have opted to use a Eurail pass in favour of point to point bookings in the name of flexibility. So relax, and be flexible,

If you suddenly decide you like the look of Brig and want to spend an hour or so there, you are free to do so.

To understand what happens you need to unwrap this a bit.

First there is the timetable data. This comes from a system called "MERITS", and it is what DB, Eurail, etc... connect to. But this database depends on the different railways of Europe feeding it. And sometimes last minute changes do not make it to MERITS in time...

Then there is the way you interpret the data. And there you sometimes see differences between different planners. And this is a good example.
SBB on purpose plans its schedules with efficient connections. This is because this is a cheap way of making train travel faster. Other countries spend billions to speed up a train by a 20 minutes, and then makes you lose 30 minutes at a station. SBB will just make sure that people don't waste time. And Swiss stations are made such that efficient transfers are doable.

But not everybody in the world thinks like that. So some planners assume that you should always at least leave 10 minutes between transfers. And then they miss the efficiently timed short SBB transfers...

So for trips to/from Switzerland, always use the SBB.

Now from your other posts I have gathered that you have purchased an Eurail Pass. The whole point of an Eurail Pass is that you should not worry about schedules till you are here. So you should not worry about the schedule for Milan - Interlaken till you are in Milan. Just relax. This is mass transit basically. To make the comparison with the US: Europe does not have an Amtrak. What Europe has a bunch of overlapping commuter railways, with an high speed line here and there.

I was told that the most reliable app for all train schedules throughout Europe was DB.

That would be a no. Unless you are looking at the times posted by the railway company operating the particular train, it is a secondary source and due to timing differences in the updates, it could be wrong.

Bottom line, always chance the actual train operators times before you travel.

If you are not too concerned about getting to Interlaken ASAP, you also have the option of taking the " Loetschberger" RE train to Spiez, connecting to Interlaken. It takes about 1 hour longer, but is very scenic, unlike the fast train that uses a 20 mile tunnel completely under the mountains.

Thanks to everyone for their thoughtful and informative replies. If you haven't already gathered from my numerous (to put it lightly) questions, I'm pretty nervous about all of this. I haven't been out of the country in a long time and I've never arranged a trip like this before.

The best advice I've gotten so far is "relax"! :)