How much time to changes trains

Yes generally if the train you are arriving on is on time. Just be ready to get off the train and walk straight to the next platform. Sometimes your next platform is very close by. All depends on the size of the train station where you are connecting. You can walk a long way in 6-8 minutes. Also, if you miss your train another is probably scheduled within an hour or less.

Be sure to get the DB app on your phone. It should give the platform information for your connection. You know, assuming you booked through Bahn.de

Lucerne to Stuttgart will normally be via Zurich. The SBB app will tell you the platform. 10 minutes is long enough for you to wish it was less...

It's a big advantage to have light luggage, as often the lifts aren't easy to find quickly. You may have to negotiate steep stairs with luggage.
Have a great trip!

A helpful hint is to be ready to get off before your train gets to your stop. So know the stops prior to yours. If you wait to gather your things and then slowly make your way to the exit, there's a chance you will get swamped by people rushing to get on, or having the aisles too crowded to pass.

There is a direct train from Zurich to Stuttgart every 2 hours, so pick one of those. The connecting train from Luzern gives you 12 minutes for the transfer time, usually from Track 8 or 9 to Track 13 or 15. That should be plenty of time to walk 100 yards or so.

There is a shortcut if you are at the end of the platform by taking an escalator down to the under passage, walking about 100 feet, then up the escalator to your new platform.

If you are still worried, there is a train from Luzern to Zurich every 30 minutes, so just take the earlier train and you will have 47 minutes to change trains. Time enough to stop for a coffee.

Pack light. I know you are taking trains in different countries than we did., but...We just took a train from France to Belgium. Possibly because we were going into a different country, the app didn't show the new track and the monitor inside the train didn't list the next connecting track. We pulled my very heavy luggage off the train; read the platformboard searched for the track we needed; realized the train we got off was the one we needed. Because we were scrambling before the train took off; as I heaved my luggage back up on to the train step, if fell off hitting me in the shin where I still have a divet a year later.

realized the train we got off was the one we needed

I've noticed that happening recently. A train added cars from another train and they changed the trains number, so on the Bahn website gave it a new number, and it looked like a change of trains, but when you looked at the schedule, there wasn't time for the first train to arrive, discharged passengers, leave, the next train to arrive, pick up passenger, and then leave, all on the same track. It had to be the same train.

And, when changing trains, you're not on an airplane. You don't have to stay seated until the train comes to a complete stop at the station. Before you get to the station, gather your things, go to the door, and be ready to get off when the train stops. If you do that, you'll have plenty of time. If you are changing platforms, most of the people getting off the train will be headed for the tunnel to get to another platform or leave the station. Just follow the herd to the stairs.

and some of the routes only allow for 8-10 minutes to change trains.
Is that enough time?

Depends on how disruptive missing a connection will be to your holiday. Personally, I wouldn't try it. I dont like stress on holiday. Sure you can hop on the next train, but is your ticket still good? Will you have a seat? I dont know. And you do know the connecting platform number, and how to reach it from the platform you are arriving at (whch stairs under which tracks, right or left, to get from platform 2 to platform 14, etc ... )

In the past 2 months I have met two different people at the train station in Budapest. One arrived 10 minutes late the other was about 30 minutes late. Both direct trains from Vienna so both with nothing that could go wrong .... well .....

There is nothing quite like the feeling of getting off a train just in time to watch the connection depart. It really helps to know what the alternative routes are, and how to move point to point.

What you want to do is go Lucerne to Zurich, Zurich to Stuttgart. This is a very common route and there's a train, at least, every hour. Note there is no good way to get into Stuttgart unless you take a IC/ICE train, so that ticket is best bought via the SBB or DB app. That way, if SBB/DB is the reason you miss you specific train SBB/DB will get you on the next one. Just go to the information booth and they will know if the train you came in on was tardy and issue you another ticket. This may not happen if you use a third party vendor.

You should always expect that they will check your ticket on any non-regional train. If you do not have a valid ticket they will either put you off, or charge you a fine on top of the cost of your fare.

thanks for all the advice everyone has given me. I fell confident that we won't have a problem. The best advice you have given is to go to seat61.com. so much great info on train travel there.
thanks to you all.

"Just go to the information booth and they will know if the train you
came in on was tardy and issue you another ticket."

This is actually not needed in this part of Europe. Tickets are not for a train, they are for a route, and to use your ticket on another train then the one you planned to use it on there is nothing special you need to do. You just get on the other train. That's it.

Even with discounted tickets with train binding you can still just take the next train without needing to exchange the ticket. This because your ticket is automatically valid for the next connection if a delay makes you miss a train. And that irrespective of where you bought your ticket.

WengenK, so if the train is on time, but I get lost in the station and move sort of sow cause of my bum leg and so miss my 8 min connection I can hop on the next train and the conductor will have no problem with that?

Interesting. But I won't have a seat assignment so a chance I will have to move at every stop.

That's not what I encountered in DEC moving through Zurich. I did get SBB to put me on the next train to Karlsruhe though and my DB pass got me home from there. My experience with IC/ICE is you must have a specific ticket.

See, on holiday i don't want to wonder which of you is correct, so I will get a train with as safe a layover period as possible, then relax and enjoy.

WengenK, so if the train is on time, but I get lost in the station and
move sort of sow cause of my bum leg and so miss my 8 min connection I
can hop on the next train and the conductor will have no problem with
that?

The transfer times are always under the assumption that you are a slow moving senior citizen unfamiliar with the station. Someone who for example knows his way around Zurich Main Station does not need more than 2 minutes to change trains.

That's not what I encountered in DEC moving through Zurich. I did get
SBB to put me on the next train to Karlsruhe though and my DB pass got
me home from there. My experience with IC/ICE is you must have a
specific ticket.

Can you be more specific? Quite possible SBB did something just to put you at ease, but it was certainly not needed.
SBB probably scribbled something on your ticket and told you to get on that train?

In Switzerland and Germany tickets are by default for a route, not a train. So if you have a ticket Somewhere - Zurich - Karlsruhe then you can take any train on the Somewhere - Zurich - Karlsruhe route.
Of course you can get a discount if you accept "train binding", but that gets lifted in case of delays. You will notice that your ticket will still have a validity of one or two days printed on it. Look for "gültigkeit".

So the default is that your ticket is flexible. The discount you may have gotten may impose restrictions, but those disappear magically as soon as your trip is disrupted by something the railway did.

The transfer times are always under the assumption that you are a slow
moving senior citizen unfamiliar with the station. Someone who for
example knows his way around Zurich Main Station does not need more
than 2 minutes to change trains.

Takes me 2 minutes to stand up after the ride and I don't know my way around Zurich station, doubt many on this forum do .... so a 8 or 10 minute connection is probably not a wise move. I guess trains are never late?

Again it's a holiday. I don't need stress. Give me 20 min. 30 would be better.

Takes me 2 minutes to stand up after the ride

Don't do that. You will miss your stop. Stops in Switzerland are often just one minute or less. You need to get up before the train arrives at the station, so that you can get off as soon as the train is stationary.

Then for the next train is is sufficient that you are visible moving towards that train before it has left. The conductor will not close the doors in front of your face and leave.

If you add a bufffer you will quickly add a lot of time to your trip, as train schedules in Switzerland have short connections on purpose. If you for example increase the minimum connection time to 15 minutes on a Wengen - Zuerich trip you will add 90 minutes to your trip. 90 minutes you'll spend hanging around a boring station.

In reality very few people miss their connection in Switzerland. SBB measures punctuality from the point of view of the passengers. At the moment 98.8% of all connections are met.

So in Switzerland I advise not to add a buffer. Just follow the flow. Stations are laid out for quick transfers and well signposted. And in the unlikely case you miss a connection you just take the next train.

WengenK, everything you suggest correct and is the anthesis of my enjoyable holiday. But great for many I suppose.

But I have learned one thing. If the only ticket they will sell me has a 8 minute change, according to you guys I can get off, have a bite to eat, stretch my legs look around the beautiful old station, then hop on the next train and just tell the conductor I missed the connection. The only downside might be having to play musical chairs for 4 hours.

But I will give the swiss this: https://dailypassport.com/why-swiss-trains-are-always-on-time/ which is a lot better than the DB long Distance Punctuality (whole journey) of 68.9%

If the only ticket they will sell me has a 8 minute change, according to you guys I can get off, have a bite to eat, stretch my legs look around the beautiful old station, then hop on the next train and just tell the conductor I missed the connection.

I'm afraid it doesn't work that way. SBB and DB have defined transition times between trains and the conductors can check if it was actually available to you. So your trip to the sausage stall could be quite expensive.

sla019, But WengenK says ...

KGC: Just go to the information booth and they will know
if the train you came in on was tardy and issue you another ticket."

WengenK: This is actually not needed in this part of Europe. Tickets
are not for a train, they are for a route, and to use your ticket on
another train then the one you planned to use it on there is nothing
special you need to do. You just get on the other train. That's it.

My ticket didnt say I had to get up 3 minutes before arrival, get my luggage and stand by the door in preparation for a dash to the sign to see the next train platform, then figure out the route under the various tracks and the stairs along those routes for an old guy like me what might take you 5 minutes could take me 15 minutes. So i get my sausage?

I am being sarcastic of course. The post you referenced was also a bit of sarcasim. Again, I am on holiday and I dont want to guess which one of you is most accurate, so I will just book a train with a reasonable transfer time if one is available. By the way I noticed the DB ontime percentage on the long haul trains is less than 69%. Thats reassuring. The last OBB train I waited for at the station arrived 30 minutes late.

The thing is that with normal tickets you just hop on the next train. So if you are travelling eg. from Wengen to Zurich Airport I would by all means add in a bit of buffer at the end, so that you do not miss your flight if you miss a connection. But if you miss a connection you just take the next train. They run every 30 minutes on that route.

So I wouldn't worry too much about it. Just relax. You are indeed on a holiday.

One thing though: In Switzerland they announce connections in the train, and they also show them on displays. So the usually process is you get up, gather your stuff and go to the door before the train has come to a stop. There while you wait for the train to come to a stop you can see on a display which platform your next train is going to be on. Then you get off.
If you miss the announcements on the train and the displays, then there will be an announcement as to where your connecting trains are on the platform as you get off. And there are displays. So just pause a few seconds and listen. Then just follow the signs.

There is a reason why 98.8% of all connecting passengers make their intended connection...

The thing is that with normal tickets you just hop on the next train.

What's a "normal ticket" A full price ticket?

In Switzerland and Germany tickets are by default for a route, not a train.

That is true in Germany for regional tickets and full fare tickets for long distance trains, but not for discounted Sparpreis (Savings Fare) tickets. Those tickets are for a specific (day and time) train. Miss that train, except for "the fault of the Bahn", and your ticket is worthless.

Which means is that your job is to be on time for the first train. After that it is in the hands of the railways. As soon as your train is delayed, your ticket becomes a flexible one that you can use on any train and that permits you to hop on any train. You do not need to do any ticket exchange, like you would eg. do in Italy.

This is why even discounted tickets will have a validity of one or two days printed on them. The "train binding" is not hard, it is only valid as long as everything is operating as scheduled. So the ticket is even in this case a ticket for a route, not a train...

WengenK, So, if I miss my connection, with a discount ticket, I can go into town do some sightseeing spend the night and leave the next day? And I don’t have to go to a ticket office, just tell the conductor that I missed a connection the day before, so I decided to make a holiday of it. EXCELLENT

Okay, but who gets to decide if it was my fault or the trains’ fault? If I am an old fart, and I booked a train with a 20-minute connection because I move slow while other trains had 10 minute connections, and my train was 10 minutes late leaving me with a perfectly acceptable 10-minute connection for you young folk …. does that still qualify me for the holiday in town benefit? Or does the resulting connection time resulting from my late train need to be less than 5.75 minutes? Or who gets to decide? The conductor on the train I take a day later? What if he says no way? I am on holiday; I don’t need this grief. Besides I don’t think KGC, a citizen of Alsenborn, Germany is 100% on board with you on this. Or are you KGC? And yes, we are just talking DB right now.

The rules varies by country, but yes, in Germany the rule is that as soon as it becomes evident that due to a delay your arrival time at your final destination will be more then 20 minutes after the planned arrival the train binding is lifted, and your ticket defaults back to a flexible one. So yes. Leaving a day later (if the ticket is good for 2 days), spending some time en route, it is all permitted now.
That is also the case if this even happens before you've left. If DB sends you a mail that says that "your original trip is no longer possible" you have just won the lottery. You know have a fully flexible ticket (that would otherwise have been rather expensive) where as you paid for a heavily discounted Sparpreis. Hurray!

In Switzerland it is a bit different. SBB is not that generous. But you can still just take the next train, and do not need to exchange tickets.

In both cases there is no need to have tickets exchanged, as the conductor can look up if there were any regularities. Usually they know it already, When I arrived on a delayed NightJet in Zürich a few months ago I just got on the next train to Bern. I had a supersaver ticket, that I had bought separately. When the conductor came she looked at my ticket and said "where you on that delayed NJ as well?" And then I said, "yes", and that was it.

To give you another example: A few weeks ago I was returning from Luxembourg. I had a ticket Luxembourg - Basel bought from SNCF, and a Supersaver ticket Basel - Interlaken, bought from SBB. First leg was a TGV from Luxembourg to Mulhouse, which arrived on time in Mulhouse. But then it turned out that my next leg, a TER to Basel was cancelled. Fortunetaly there was another TER train to Basel. That was however an omnibus, so it stopped everywhere, and so took longer to get to Basel. I arrived in Basel 5 minutes before the train to Interlaken I had a ticket for was about to leave. That was well within the 10 minutes minimum connection time from Basel SCNF to Basel SBB, so technically I could have taken a train to Interlaken half an hour later, again without needing to preform any formalities.
As it was I just walked off the TER, walked at my normal pace to the where the train to Interlaken was, and got on.

People don't realise how long a minute really is. At normal walking pace you will never need more than 5 minutes between two train doors at any station in Switzerland. Adn you have till the departure time to be at the door of your next train. If departure is 14:58 and you appear on the platform at 14:57:59 you will still be on that train, as the conductor will see you coming, and will not close the doors before you are on board... This is not SNCF. SBB actually likes passengers.

So my advise is always to just accept the transfer times the railways offer you, and not to worry about it to much. I see in Interlaken how tourists run to get to the train to Lauterbrunnen, even though it is still 5 minutes till that train leaves. What I do advise people however is to leave early, and not target arrival on the last train of the day.
Miss a connection, you just take the next one. And worst case you arrive half an hour or an hour later at your destination. If you add buffer you turn a low probability of a longer trip in 100% certainty. That is not necessary.

So, i have a DB ticket from Munich to Prague with a 6 minute connection in Linz that I miss. Who rules? OBB or DB. Then another connection in the Czech Republic ... again who rules. I noticed on one of the trains two connections, one 6 and one 4 min. I can't do stairs so I have to hunt the elevator to get under the tracks. 4 min I can count on with certainty? What if the train was 1 min early and this old fart doesn't make it? I know, get up early and prop myself up on my cane by the door with the 50 others who do what you say. Not sounding like a holiday. Munich to Prague flight sounds better.

Don't get me wrong. I appreciate the work you did to get the details. Just pointing out that all connections are possible is not a universal truth or in keeping with the stress levels of some. And if you are going to count on the rules saving you, you might have to learn the rules I more than one country. If you are in good health, have some experience in expecting the situation in the station, don't mind a quick walk the odds are in your favor .... although I did read that 32% of DB's long haul trains are late.