Greetings! I'm 7 days out from my pandemic-delayed Switzerland and VFR tour! As I head to Venice I'll leave Lucerne with a Swiss Pass and have to change trains in Lugano with 4 minutes from Track 2 to Track 1. Can this be done? I need to catch the correct train as I'm ticketed thorough the border at Chiasso to Milan.
TIA!
Smaller stations have 2 to 4 tracks and 4 minutes (if your by the door luggage in hand to jump off) is plenty of time to transfer. Print the timetable and follow along, use the clock on your phone, be by the door and ready to go. You will mostly likely have 3 minutes to spare. J
This is why RS folks don't bring large, heavy suitcases. You need to be nimble and quick, as often elevators can be hard to find, so it's up and down stairs with luggage. If you're lucky, you're on adjoining platforms. Know your train number and it's final destination label.
Have a wonderful trip!
I have not been through that station before but looking at the station map, there are two rail lines with platforms on the sides of each rail line. From Platform 1 you take the stairs to come up in the middle to access platforms 2 and 3. The link is to a page with the station map. On that page there is a link to download a more detailed PDF of the station and platform layouts.
https://www.sbb.ch/en/station-services/at-the-station/railway-stations/lugano-station.html
Question: Do you have advance purchased discount tickets on a Freccia train from Milano Centrale to Venezia S. Lucia?
If so, at what time is the departure from Centrale? With a Swiss Travel Pass you can take alternate routes that avoid those quick changes, leaving a little earlier.
Also, I note from the actual train schedules, that the train you are changing to, an RE 80 coming from Locarno, will already have arrived at Lugano and will be waiting on Track 1 for your train to arrive. The hint is that it spends a total of 9 minutes sitting in Lugano. Normally trains only spend 1 or 2 minutes in a station, time enough for people to get off and on. It appears to be sitting in the station waiting for your train from Luzern to arrive and allow connecting passengers to make it on.
I swear the Swiss have had people with stopwatches (Swiss ones of course) checking to make sure that people moving expeditiously to the new platform can make it comfortably.
So, as an FYI, the transfer from my Lucerne train at Lugano was BRUTAL! I had my backpack on my back and my carryon at the ready in the vestibule waiting for the train to come to a complete stop. OMG, it was like the beginning of an Olympic track event! I swear everyone on my train was RUNNING for the Milan train throwing elbows and leaping over the slow, and infirm! Despite it being a small station there were two significant sets of stairs that were congested and difficult to navigate with some passengers moseying along like they had nowhere else to go. I made it but I don't think I'd want to run that gauntlet again!!!
And if the schedule says the train leaves at 12:00, it actually is moving at 1 second after 12:00. If you get there at 59 seconds after 12:00, you're looking at the butt end of the train down the tracks!
You will be happy to learn that since the semiannual train schedule change on June 12, you now have 25 minutes to make the change to the RE 80 at Lugano. But glad you made it, just like those Swiss clock-watchers planned.
