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How to secure train tickets: Venice to Murren

Posted by on

I've decided to begin a new topic, as this question is a very specific part to my original post and I'm as confused as ever. I need to get from Venice to Murren by train on June 20, 2023. I do not want to travel overnight.

WengenK: on www.sbb.ch it shows I can get from Venice to Lauterbrunnen, Switzerland but only if I change trains 4 or 6 times times, and travel overnight. I need to arrive in Murren on the same day that I leave Venice and not travel overnight. Here is the web address I was using. Am I missing something, or is 4-6 trains travelling overnight my only option? https://www.sbb.ch/en/buying/pages/fahrplan/fahrplan.xhtml

Marc: When inputting Venice to Lauterbrunnen, the Trenitalia website takes me to www.lefrecce.it and shows results, but when I select one, it says "We are sorry, this travel solution cannot be purchased on this sales channel". I thought maybe it was because my date is too far out, but tried dates next week and got the same message. Am I doing something wrong?

Another post suggested using seat61.com , and there it says, in part:
How to buy tickets, the easy way...
Buy tickets at www.raileurope.com or www.thetrainline.com.

www.thetrainline.com connects to both the Italian and Swiss ticketing systems. www.raileurope.com connects to the Italian system and can sell full-flex Swiss tickets through an arrangement with French Railways. That means both sites can sell from Venice to anywhere in Switzerland, at least in principle. Each handles the data slightly differently, so I'd check both sites.

I then tried RailEurope and for the 3rd & 4th legs of the trip, from Spiez to Interlaken Ost ( IC 81 826 #826) and then from Interlaken Ost to Lauterbrunnen ( R 62 187 #187) it's not clear what kind of trains they are or where I would find them. I feel like I'm going to get lost or miss connections trying to find these trains without more information.

Can someone give me detailed instructions how to go about booking these trains to get from Venice to Murren on June 20th?

Thank you so much for your time!!

Patty in Colorado

Posted by
3125 posts

Switzerland only sells tickets 60 days out. So, you won’t be able to buy tickets until April 20th.

In using March 1st as your travel date, to give you an idea of times and changes, you can travel from Venice to Murren at 7:18 am (arrive 15:28), 7:40 am (arrive 15:28), 11:48 (arrive 19:28). There is no way to avoid the numerous changes. You can pick an option that has the least amount of changes with a time you like.

Looks like a good option has you changing in Milan, then Spiez, Interlaken, Lauterbrunnen, then the cable car up to Grutschalp and train to Murren.

So, this gives you a good idea of what’s involved. You just have to wait a bit to buy your ticket.

I hope that helps.

Posted by
903 posts

It appears that Trenitalia will only let you book via them to Zurich. From there you would need SBB. But right now, all Trenitalia is showing are 2 late afternoon departures into Zurich, arriving 21:27 and 22:27 respectively. So that does not appear to be an option at this time.

Italo does not go to Switzerland, it seems.

You will need to wait until SBB updates their schedule for ticket purchase and/or continue to check until then weekly on Trenitalia for a better option.

Or...fly. From VCE to Zurich, Swiss Air flights from $135 each depart 09:40, arrive 10:55. From there it is an easy train ride to Lauterbrunnen.

On https://www.sbb.ch/en/home.html I can see a train journey from 09:26 to 16:55 in April. SBB may update as time progresses. Feel free to DM, I am happy to help as much as I can.

Posted by
3125 posts

Which website did you use to get this information?

SBB, which is what you should be using. Are you changing the departure time to an earlier time? Put in 7:00 and you will see earlier departures.
But again, you have to wait 60 days to buy this ticket on SBB. It will all be on one ticket. Please don’t try to buy from any other site.

Posted by
17 posts

Marc & Carrie: Thank you so much; you've been a tremendous help! I will wait until April 20th to look for train tickets from Venice to Murren on the SBB website :)

Posted by
2493 posts

You are trying to book this far to early. Way to early. I travel by train from Wengen to all over Europe. I buy tickets maybe a week ahead of time, sometimes only the night before. Trains do not sell out, but buying in advance saves money. But for that a few weeks in advance is enough.

Just do a search on www.sbb.ch for tomorrow. Repeat for a date a month from now. You will see that you can buy tickets for both, but that a month from now is cheaper.

Then make a note in you calendar for may: "buy train tickets", and buy your tickets then. The full Italian schedules should be loaded by then, and you will no longer get offered weird detours. Currently not all Italian trains for the summer are in the system, hence the weird results.

90% of all the confusion non Europeans experience when booking trains in Europe are due too trying to book to early...

Posted by
8966 posts

It looks like 3-4 of those changes are all at the end, when you are get from Spiez to Mürren itself. Thats because you are using a combination of gondolas and small local trains to get there. No way around that. It's not that hard to find those changes. Lots of people will be following that route, and those are not large stations.

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