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Price of Train Ticket Zurich HB to Seregno, Italy - pre-purchase?

Posted by on

Hi all,

My husband and I will spend 2 full days in Zurich at a home stay and then take the train from Zurich HB to Seregno, Italy. We continue our trip in Italy, so the train ride will be one way. During our brief stay in Zurich we will just walk around the city and then our hosts will take us on a hike to Garda or a day trip to Bern.

My question is about when to purchase our train ticket from Zurich to Seregno. Right now the tickets are 88 Swiss Francs each for an April 19 one way ticket. If we wait until April 16 or 17 to buy our ticket, is the price likely to be significantly higher? It doesn't look like it on the SBB website but we've never been to Europe before so we are wondering if anyone has advice on when we should purchase these train tickets. Thanks and happy travels!

Posted by
1285 posts

The "Regular Offer" of 88 chf is the standard price.
The other cheaper option is to do this -- get a Saver Day Pass now for April 19th for 49 chf + buy a ticket from TrenItalia for Domodossola to Sergeno for 11.85 euro.

If you did that, your total would be $75.90 USD per person vs $111.65 USD for the regular ticket on SBB. So you save around $71 USD total for two people on the trip if you commit now.

The Saver Day Pass is good to the Italian border town "Domodossola" - you don't have to get off the train there on your journey, you just show the SDP when you're in Switzerland if someone comes through checking tickets and once the train crosses the border, you show your TrenItalia ticket if they come around checking.

The Saver Day Passes get more expensive as you wait, so the real savings is in the advance booking, but then it's non refundable so you can't change your mind on your plan. The TrenItalia tickets look like they are the same price for that route tomorrow vs. April 19th.

Posted by
7098 posts

If you know exactly what date and time of day you want to travel, then there are savings in booking ahead. If you want to see the price difference between buying now for April 19 and buying for 2 days from now, then just input those dates on the sbb ticket page when looking at your chosen route. Compare the price for the same train. Note that prices change from train to train even on the same day, depending on time of departure and number of changes.

Posted by
1285 posts

The problem with that plan is that if you miss your trains for any reason your ticket becomes invalid and the savings is only around 10chf. Not much reward for a decent risk.

Posted by
23142 posts

From what I see on the SBB site, 88 CHF per person is for the 9:33am departure, If you take the 8:33 am departure, you can get it for 71 CHF per person.

Posted by
3775 posts

Pay attention. Zurich to Seregno will not be via Domodossola, but via Chiasso. So if you get the Saver Day Pass the add on ticket you need is from Chiasso, not Domodossola.

If you book now you will be able to buy discounted tickets. If you wait you will only get the standard, walk up fares. So it is up to you. You will be able to do this trip even if you wait till 10 minutes before departure with buying your ticket though.

The way to compare prices is look up what it would cost tomorrow, and compare that with April 19th.

The problem with that plan is that if you miss your trains for any reason your ticket becomes invalid

That is not necessarily true. If you miss a connection due to something a public transport company did you can take the next train.

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