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Strasbourg to Luzern and return

Posted by (USA) on

We plan to travel from Strasbourg FR to Luzern and back, 22 May to 25 May

For Strasbourg to Luzern, it appears that I book separately for Strasbourg to Basel (on SNCF) and then Basel to Luzern. Am I reading things correctly? One message indicates I get the Swiss ticket at self-service terminal in station in Basel. So can I pre-purchase that ticket with SNCF or do I use SBB and book that separately?

For the return on 25 May, Luzern to Basel leg, I get the following message for every option on that day:

The reservation for your journey cannot be made. Train is already fully booked or cancelled due to construction work.

All the red boxes on the far right of the page showing all the departure options have a white checkmark in them. When I detail in on an option, it shows "not available" with the ticket icon.

Anyone shed some light on this for me? If I can't get back to Strasbourg that day, I've got to change my hotel reservation.

Thanks!

Posted by
6907 posts

SNCF used to be able to sell tickets for a journey like yours, but a quick check on their new, bug-ridden app shows me that this is no longer the case :-(.
So it does look like you need to purchase separately, Strasbourg to Basel and back on SNCF and Basel to Luzern and back on SBB.

These trains do not require booking. You can still save a bit if you book, but (1) you are too early to book the Swiss train, you can only book 60 days ahead, which probably explains the message you get and (2) booking restricts you to the train you have booked, which is a problem if the train from Strasbourg to Basel is late.

Posted by
32798 posts

It is likely that balso said, but if you find you are impossibly stuck you could take a DB train up the east bank of the Rhine from Basel to Offenburg, Germany and then an 8 minute one platform connection into Strasbourg. Trains go hourly, leaving Basel SBB hourly at xx:13 by ICE and taking just under 2 hours. Ticketing software will want to put you on the French train from Basel but you can force a zero minute stopover in Offenburg or Freiburg im Breisgau, the only intermediate stop after Basel Bad Bf. Freiburg im Breisgau by the way is delightful city and worthy of a visit if you want to have a visit. If you have reserved seats on the ICE you won't if you stop off on the way, but you could if you book a suitable stopover.

Posted by
371 posts

Thanks very much for the information. When I last used the Swiss trains, I didn’t book ahead (short trips around Geneva and Lausanne) so using their site this time was a new experience for me. Why can’t they just say “come back later to buy tickets” 😊

I’m a planner to the nth degree and prefer to avoid preventable surprises!

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