Getting to Mürren from Zurich

The Schiltornbahn cable cars operate later than 8:50pm. According to the Swiss Rail site (rail.ch) the last train from Zurich Airport which will get you to Murren same day leaves at 8:43pm arriving Murren at 11:55pm. The Swiss Rail site will give you schedules for all forms of transport and connections: rail/bus/cable car/boat. You've got plenty of time.

Zurich is a pretty organized airport from what I have seen.

So - land at 15.00
45 minutes bags and checks - 15.45
next available train at 16.13 so plenty of time if your plane is 15 late or baggage collection is a bit slow.
Change trains - quick - at Bern, and -quick on same platform- Spiez and Interlaken (7 minutes) and you will be at the foot of the cable car station by 18.55, with 90 minutes until the last cable car if it is at 20:30 (sounds a bit early to me).

Or you can can miss that connection and go half an hour later from the airport and still have plenty of time. In fact the 16.40 only changes in Bern (and Interlaken Ost), not also in Spiez, but hustle in Bern - 6 minutes to change trains in Bern.

Sleep easy. The last train to get to the Grutschalpbahn is 4:43 pm from the airport which will be fine if your flight is on time. However, if you are delayed, you can get to Muerren by taking the bus and riding up on the Schilthornbahn. You could leave Zurich airport as late as 8:43 pm and still make the last connection.

Who told you the last cable car for the day left Lauterbrunnen at 8:30 pm??? There are actually 7 more trips up the mountain AFTER the 8:31 pm gondola departs. The last gondola from Lauterbrunnen to Murren actually leaves at 11:28 pm...and that's from the official Swiss Transportation website www.sbb.ch

I think you'll be fine, and you'll definitely sleep better if you stay away from RailEurope and travel agents ;-)

Tim, LOL.

Thank You to all.

Actually the site with that info which you are saying is inaccurate was
http://www.jungfrau.ch/en/tourism/travel-information/timetable/muerren/journey-there/

http://fahrplan.sbb.ch/bin/query.exe/en?OK#focus really does tell me that the last cable car leaves at 8:31 but there are other options after that. That's OK of course but now I am curious about the initials BLM and LB. What do they mean?

John,

You could also check the sbb.ch website for details on the transportation times, which will show the entire journey. For example, this is one of the trips you may connect with (I used an arbitrary date of May 15 to check).....

Zürich Flughafen Th, 15.05.14 dep 16:40 Mürren BLM arr 19:51 Travel Time 3H:11M Changes - 3 Trains IC, R
Fare from CHF 44.60 PP
NOTES:
1. High occupancy expected
2. Very high occupancy expected

That route has changes in Bern, Interlaken Ost and Lauterbrunnen. When you arrive at Interlaken Ost (note that there are two stations in Interlaken), you'll transfer to the small Berner Oberland railway for the short 20 minute trip to Lauterbrunnen. When you buy tickets at Zürich airport, specify Mürren as your final destination and they will include all modes of transport.

Are you clear on the two routes you could use to reach Mürren? The preferred option would be the Cable Car from Lauterbrunnen to Grütschalp and then the small mountain railway directly to Mürren (that's referred to as "BLM" on the sbb website, which is an abbreviation for Bergbahn Lauterbrunnen–Mürren). The other route is to take the Post Bus from Lauterbrunnen to Stechelberg and then the Schilthornbahn Cable Car to Gimmelwald and then Mürren (you have to change cars at Gimmelwald, which just involves walking across the platform). Either method will get you there, but the Shilthornbahn arrives at the opposite end of town from the mountain railway.

It sounds a bit complicated, but in reality it's very easy. The Swiss have amazing transportation systems!

BLM is the company that operates the lift/shuttle train method from Lauterbrunnen- Grütschalp-Murren.

Murren LB refers to the Lauterbruunen-Postal Bus-Schiltornbahn method of getting to Murren.

Thanks for this great information.

We were in the Berner Oberland in 2004 but without an RS book. We made the mistake of staying in Interlaken. We took the train to Grindelwald and then on to Kleine Scheidegg. We hiked from there down to the next train stop. It was beautiful. We only had a day in the Alps. It was July 4, 2004. We knew we wanted to get back and enjoy paradise for at least a few days. We are staying in Mürren 4 nights and then we go to Lyon (3 nights) and then Provence (L'Isle-sur-le-Sorg 3 nights).

"We made the mistake of staying in Interlaken" - luckily we ventured to Mürren for 2 nights on our very first trip to the area, and were SOOOOO glad we did. Can't imagine where so many people get the idea that Interlaken is in the Swiss Alps and is the destination to go for alpine beauty. I try to share that info to whomever will listen. Interlaken is not bad - but Mürren, Wengen, Gimmelwald, Lauterbrunnen are SO much better!