We will be flying into Zurich, arriving on a Saturday morning. We will head for Lugano, where we will spend several days. We can, of course, take the "fast train" from Zurich straight to Lugano and be there in two and a half hours. I believe this train goes through the Gotthard tunnel and it would only have a single change at Zurich HB (nice when schlepping luggage.) But, we enjoy trains and know there may be other routes that would be super-scenic. What suggestions does anyone have? Since we will have our luggage, we probably don't want to make more than about 2 changes of train/connections. Thanks -- we're headed over mid-June.
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Basel, Switzerland
8889 posts
The Gotthard is the only route. The Bern-Lötschberg-Simplon-Milan route further west does not go via Lugano.
But, you can go via the older shorter Gotthard tunnel. This involves a slow climb up to the tunnel, and descent down, with double-backs and spirals, hence the new tunnel was built.
The map here shows the two routes: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/15/Gotthardbahn_map.png
Go to the Swiss Railways website: https://www.sbb.ch/en/
Enter Zürich Flughafen to Lugano, date and time, then click on "add via", enter Göschenen (see map), then click on "search".