My husband and I will be traveling from Zermatt at the end of June and want to take the route of the Glacier Express to the Pontresina area. I have several questions that I can't quite seem to find the answers for. 1. Can we take regional trains for the whole route? Or do they go through a tunnel between Oberalp and Realp? 2. If we take regional trains are they covered with the Eurail Pass or only Swiss passes? This would only apply to the section between Zermatt and Disentis. 3. Will we need to make reservations for the regional trains? 4. Has anyone taken the regional trains for this trip? Thanks for any information you may have.
Posted by
Elk Grove, CA, USA
6898 posts
You can take regionale trains from Zermatt to Pontresina. But, the journey takes just over 9.0hrs with 4-5 train changes. Your Eurail pass will cover you on these regonale trains. Or, you can take the Glacier Express from Zermatt to Chur on the same tracks. One train change at Samedan. This journey takes about 8.0hrs. There will most likely be a reservation fee with your Eurail pass for the GE. No reservations needed for the regionale trains
Posted by
Seattle, WA
17440 posts
A Eurail Pass will not fully cover this trip even on regional trains. It is a private railway, the Matternorn Gotthard Bahn, from Brig east to Disentis. We travel a section of that route, to Betten frequently. One time mybsister and her family were using France-Switzerland passes, a type of Eurailmpass, instead of Swiss passes. They had to pay a substantial supplement for the 25 minute trip.
Posted by
OP
Denver, Co
13 posts
We are thinking of splitting this up into two days to spend some time riding the William Tell Express. (My husband is a train fanatic and this is part of why we are going to Switzerland.) Does anyone know if this will mean two separate reservation fees? I am having a hard time determining the reservation costs.