Half Fare Card and Glacier Express to Zermatt

You can use the Half Fare Card for all travel,within Switzerland. Just choose the reduction for the 1/2/3 year Half Fare Card; the tourist card is the same benefit.

My concern is that this is a very long journey. Salzburg to Chur is 5.5 hours, and the Glacier Express trip (on the named train) is 6 hours. So 11.5 plus wait time. You would have to leave Salzburg on the 7:56 train to get to Zermatt in time for the last GEX departure at 14:16.

And there is a problem with construction on the line, between Feldkirch and Innsbruck,with a bus substitution somewhere. They advise to allow extra time for the journey. All this shows up if you look at your actual date of travel, Sept. 1; younwill see the little red construction icon. The construction period is 17 August to 3 September.

I suggest you consider going straight to Zermatt by the usual,route via Zurich and Visp, which takes just over 9 hours. Then when you depart Zermatt, take the Glacier Express all the way to St. Moritz and spend the night. Then take the Bernina Express to Tirano the next day, transferring there for the 1.5 hour ride to Varenna..

Hi Lola. Thanks so much for the reply. The issue is we already have lodging reservations in Zermatt for the three nights and in Varenna starting the night of the 4th. So going back and staying in St Moritz for a night isn't an option for us. One of our big goals for this trip was to include the Glacier Express as part of the experience, so even with the pain of extra travel time we are willing to try to make it work. I am concerned about the construction you mention. For those dates listed, when I search on SBB it looks like the site is automatically adding 20-30 min onto the transit time for that trip from Salzburg to Sargrans, though it says allow up to an hour extra. Based on the estimated arrival times when there is no construction (~12:23 into Sargrans), the latest we should get to Sargrans during construction would be 13:23, which should leave me time to catch one of the trains to Chur to get onto the Glacier Express by 14:16 departure. Granted, it's a bit of a gamble, but my only other option would be leaving Salzburg near 5AM and getting to Chur via Munich and St Margrethen with only an 8 minute transfer time in Munich, which will likely present its own challenges. Any other thoughts on which option may be best to still make the Glacier Express trip on that day?

OK, looking at a "non-construction" day to compare, it Ppears theybhave died on some time. The train departing Salzburg at 7:56 normally arrives at Chur at 12:48 after a journey of 4 hours 52 minutes. On Sept. 1 they say it takes 5 hours 26 minutes and arrives at 13:22. So you should be OK, it that warning about the extra hour would concern me.

And getting up early enough for the earlier train from Salzburg would make your family's long day even longer.

You could do the reverse journey I suggested in one day instead of overnighting in St. Moritz. It would take 11.5 hours to Varenna, just as the Salzburg to Zermatt trip would. Like this: depart Zermatt on the 8:54 GEX, arriving in St. Moritz at 16:39. At 16:49, nine minutes later, you board the train to Tirano over the Bernina Pass. This is a regional train, not the named Bernina Express, but the scenery is the same. You would arrive in Varenna 3 hours 35 minutes later, around 20:30. This is about the same as your arrival time in Zermatt if you go the other direction. But you would be starting an hour later in the morning, so the overall journey time is actually less.

That short connection time at St. Moritz (9 minutes) is pretty standard for Swiss trains, which are very reliable in keeping to schedules. So you would need to weigh the chance of missing that connection against the uncertainty of the length of the construction delay on your preferred route. (Which is not, by the way, the whole Glacier Express, as by boarding at Chur you would miss the section between Chur and St. Moritz, with the famous Landwasser viaduct).

If you did miss the 16:48 connection in St. Moritz, there is another train an hour later. If you happen to miss the GEX on your preferred route, you could take a regional train (changing several times)! to reach Zermatt, but it won't be the GEX you were planning on.

I think you need other opinions on this, as I am no expert on construction delays on the train (especially since the delay is in Austria, not Switzerland). Maybe start a new topic in the Switzerland forum, or in Transportation, where it will,stay on the front page longer and maybe draw more replies.

Thank you, Lola! This is all helpful and i will certainly post another query on the board. Much appreciated.

Lola, thank you again for your thoughts. I'm looking closely at the alternative travel plan you suggested. Other than the Glacier Express route from Zermatt to St. Moritz, are there any of these trains from Salzburg and all the way to Varenna that you would recommend booking in advance? Thank you!