Swiss Rail Pass Question

Thanks for the replies! Some good thoughts on the passes, and a few minor details I didn't quite understand I guess. I'll have to sit down and crunch the numbers for the half-fare card and the flexi-saver pass. I'm not sure we will be doing enough travelling to warrant a pass purchase, as the biggest cost of the trips will be Kleine Scheidegg and Jungfraujoch, which we could save 50% w/ the half-fare card instead of 25% with the pass. I don't anticipate it being a big deal to wait in line to purchase tickets, am I wrong? I actually am looking forward to the interaction I think. Does this typically take a long time or do people find this a hassle?

Sounds like a good plan to me. The only thing you will have to do is stand in line to buy your tickets before each rail journey. Hands down the simplest (and probably most expensive) is the Swiss Pass. With the SP you just hop on and hop off anywere anytime as many times as you want. There's no standing in line to buy tickets.

If you're looking for the "easiest" pass, the consecutive day Swiss Pass would be it. You literally just hop and off most trains. It also includes free entry to most all museums, and also covers municipal transport in the cities. It's the pass I always when in CH.

"Easiest" and "cheapest" are two different questions. The Half-Fare Card is often the most cost-effective, especially if you are definitely going up the Jungfraujoch, as it is the one that will give you a full 50% off the full ride (the Swiss and Flex passes give you 25% off above Kleine Scheidegg.) But it is certainly not the "easiest" as you have to stand in line and buy tickets each time you want to travel. The "simplest" is as Micheal S. suggested the consecutive-day pass. You just board the train, lift, etc. without going to the ticket window first. For lifts you may have to show your pass before boarding, but it is no more complicated than that. But unless you are traveling the same number of days that you cover on the pass (4, 8, or 15 days) you may end up wasting $$ with the unused days. The Flex Pass is a hybrid between the two and often a good compromise. You choose the number of "covered" days for your big travel days, and the rest if 50% off, as long as the first and last days are "covered". Activating travel days is no trouble at all---on a "covered" day, you just write in the date on the little box on the pas before you board your first train of the day. On a "non-covered" day, you go to th ewindow, show your pass and get half off your ticket just as you would with a Half-Fare Card (except for the jungfraujoch as noted above.)

The savings on the Jungfrau trip will almost pay for the Half Fare Pass so that's a no-brainer. I've always found the Swiss Rail Station workers to be very helpful and super smart. I don't think you'll have a problem buying tickets at the counter.

go to both peaks is that to both peaks of Mount Kilimanjaro? (credit to Monty Python) ;-)

I am staying in the same area in May and have been comparing passes also. When I looked at the chart on this web site for rail passes, you get a 50% discount on lifts above Murren. I don't know if that is just for the Schilthorn, I thought it would also be for the Jungfraujoch. It would be good to know for sure before purchasing one pass over another. Thanks

Steve, I'm really curious about your decision after you crunched the numbers. I'll be it Switzerland for a similar amount of time and I'm struggling with the train pass decision, too When you get back, I'd love to hear how easy/hard the lines were. One of my favorite things about the Swiss is how beautifully they run everything. I think you are right about the lines!

Kristy, the chart says 50 percent above Murren, for the Schilthorn cable car, and 25 percent above Wengen or Grindelwad. That latter is the train to the Jungfrau. If you want ti see it on a map, with a key to various discounts, Google "Swiss synoptic map".

Just a note that no Swiss pass of any kind covers you fully up to the Jungfraujoch or the Schilthorn. For the 1/2 fare card, you pay 1/2 fare - that's it. For the best Swiss pass, you are covered fully to at least Wengen or perhaps Kleine Scheidegg (where you change trains for the Jungfraujoch). Beyond KS, you get a 50% discount. Same for the best pass going to the Schilthorn. You're covered going to Murren but up to the top, you get a 50% discount. I believe that the 1/2 fare card now costs 110CHF. It was 99CHF when we bought them a couple of years ago. The card is good for 30 days.

OK, I have done some calculations. I did them all based on 1st class just for ease of comparison. One quick note, from my research, with a swiss flexi pass the discount on the jungfraujoch trip above wengen is 25%, but with the half fare card its 50%. If someone can verify that is correct I would appreciate it. I found my info on several websites, but this one was pretty comprehensive: http://www.myswissalps.com/swissrailpasses.asp?lang=EN our trips (one person 1st class in chf): lausanne to murren: 120 murren to shilthorn RT: 74 murren to jungfrauoch RT:187 murren to lucerne:77
lucerne to zurich airport:45 Total cost of trips is roughly 1000 for two people. With a 3-day flexi pass, using the free days for travelling between laussane-murren-lucerne-zurich, and the percent discount in the berner oberland, the price comes out to roughly 1000 again(700 for the passes. (Murren to shilthorn is 50% off, above wengen to jungfraujoch is 25% off, meaning this trip still costs 125 pp). With the half-fare card, the cards themselves will total about 250, then half off all of the trips listed above result in a total under 800 for two people. Obviously we may take a few additional little trips, and will probably not travel 1st class on every train, but I am comfortable with the half-fare card being the best choice. Again, if someone can confirm the 50% reduction on everything, including jungfraujoch above wengen with the half fare card that would be good, but it seems pretty clear from my research. Any comments on any of this nonsense are welcome. Thanks, hope this helps somebody.

I couldn't tell whether there will be two of you or just one, but if there will be two of you, make sure that you are looking at the swiss saver flexi-pass. Last summer we did a similar itinerary Paris to Basel to Interlaken to Murren, 4 nights in Murren, train to Lucerne, 1 night in Lucerne, train to Zurich the next morning for flight home. We ran the numbers and bought a three day saver flexi pass. We bought point to point tickets for Paris to Basel, then activated the pass in Basel and used the pass from that point on. Our activated days were the three travel days, then we used the pass for the half fares while in the Berner Oberland.

Hi Lynne,
Yes, the pass I was comparing to the half fare card was the 3 day saver flexi pass for two people. We are just not travelling enough outside of the BO for that saver pass to work.