Swiss trains timelines

10 minutes in Basel is quite comfortable.
There's an old adage, "You can set your watch by Swiss trains."

Can I ask what train you are looking at specifically? The only direct train from BaseI see now is the 23:13 Nightjet. You can always take an earlier train from Luzern if you feel uncomfortable.

Yes, the trains are that timely. If you are a minute late for your train, you will have missed it. If your trains are on adjacent tracks, it could be as simple as walking 10 feet across to the next track. Or the track may be between the platforms, in which case you need to walk downstairs, walk 20 feet, then walk upstairs. Either way, be at the door with your luggage when the train arrives at the station.

!0 minutes is 8 more than you will need. These short transfers are there as a favor to you, as the railways know that people do not like it when their time is wasted.

But know also that when you "book" a train you are buying a ticket for a route, not a train. You may have a reservation for the Basel - Amsterdam part, but for he Luzern - Basel part you can at your own discretion take an earlier train if you so wish.

Sam,

The specific train I was looking at has a train change in Frankfurt, but that's all. Thinking we'll welcome a train change about that time for change's sake if nothing else.

Thanks,
Bob

I saw that route. Schedule says take a 7:54 train from Luzern to Basel with a 10 minute change from Platform 7 to Platform 9. That means you get off the train, go up an escalator to the cross-over bridge, walk 15 meters to the next escalator, then take that down to your train. It will be waiting there for you. Should take about 3 minutes.

But if you prefer, you can take the 7:30 train from Luzern to Basel and then you will have 30 minutes to cool your heels on the platform waiting for your train to Frankfurt.

Under normal circumstances 10 mins would be fine, however these are not normal times. At the moment the Swiss Railways are struggling to complete a big project requiring them to upgrade all stations and rolling stock to make it easier for people with handicaps etc.. So there is a lot more construction work going leading to delays that could eat into your 10 mins. I'd try to increase that 10 mins to 15 or 20 to be on the safe side.

I was in Switzerland last month and many of the trains were running a few minutes late which will eat into that 10-minute transfer time. For a long journey like that, I would want more than 10 minutes, especially because it takes longer to move among the crowds when you have luggage.

I’d take an earlier train from Luzern to Basel to give yourself more time. I’d rather stand around for a half hour than be stressed about making a train.

While it is true that trains often run a couple of minutes late, the departure time is not that rigid either.

Small delays are common. In the end SBB measures passenger delays: They want to deliver all passengers at their final destination with a maximum of 5 minutes delay. That means that they need to make sure everyone makes his connection.

So for example in a station I am familiar with, Interlaken Ost, you will often see that if the incoming IC is late by a couple of minutes that the connecting trains to Lauterbrunnen/Grindelwald, and Brienz/Luzern have their departure moved by a few minutes as well, so the transfer time stays the same. Busses do this too. We once arrived in Brig with 3 minutes delay. We had to take a bus to Belalp, and when we got to the bus stops we saw that all the busses had "+3" on their departure boards...

In the end, currently 98.7% off all connecting passengers make their connection.