Help! I am currently on a cruise ship that will disembark in Venice on June 24th. When I get off the ship I need to take a train from Venice to Lauterbrunnen Switzerland. When I was in Rome a week ago I tried to buy train tickets from Venice to Lauterbrunnen but they would only sell me tickets from Venice to Domodossola. I have those tickets now. But they could not sell me tickets from Domodossola to Lauterbrunnen. Does anyone know about the train station in Domodossola? Can I but tickets for the Swiss part of the trip in Domodossola when I get there? Also, I looked at buying tickets on Swiss Rail. This list two options for station choice in Domodossola. Domodossola and Domodossola Stazione. Are there two stations in Domodossola or are these the same station? How do you suggest that I get from Domodossola to Lauterbrunnen? Thanks for your help!
Posted by
Northamptonshire, England
33848 posts
Domodossola and Domodossola Stazione are easy. The first is for trains with metal wheels. The second is for buses with rubber ones. The first is the station, the second a bus stop. Use rail.ch (or www.sbb.ch and click EN) and you can print off - can you find a printer shipboard? - your tickets. You could have done all the way from Milano to Spiez on the Swiss site, had you but known. There are problems right now with the Swiss trains due to a landslide closing the Gottard route so the route via Spiez is very, very busy. Am I right that the train you have reservations for is the EuroCity which will call after Domodossola at Visp, Brig, Spiez, Thun, Bern, Olten and Basel? If so you can stay on in your seat until Spiez. The reason the Italian network doesn't know about Lauterbrunnen is that after Interlaken Ost it is a private railway. You should be able to get tickets through Interlaken Ost, or if you are lucky all the way to Lauterbrunnen and up the cliff. You can easily add the tickets together, it is no more expensive to do separately than together. Swiss trains don't require reservations so holding on to your seat from Milano when people are standing all around will be a challenge if you wander down to the bar car. Happy cruising. If you can't get to a printer before Domodossola I see no reason the Italians can't issue you Domodossola to Spiez or Interlaken Ost.
Posted by
Elk Grove, CA, USA
6898 posts
Domodossola is one of 2 or 3 train stations outside of Switzerland that sells Swiss tickets, railpasses and cards. They do this as Domodossola is often a necessary transition point between Visp, Brig and Locarno. Next, it seems to be getting worse on what the Italians can and cannot see on their screens. For years, they have been unable to see anything into the Lauterbrunnen Valley from Interlaken Ost as, as Nigel explains, the Jungfraubahn and the Schilthornbahn are private railways within the Swiss train system. It looks now that the Italians can no longer see Interlaken Ost or Spiez. You can easily book the Domodossola to Lauterbrunnen portion on www.rail.ch. Just pick Dommodossola as your departure point (not Domodossola Stazione) and Lauterbrunnen as your destination (not Lauterbrunnen BLM. That's the cable car). I just looked and you can purchase this journey online. I see a full fare of about 60CHF. If you have trouble advancing the screen past the Route & Date page and you notice a red bar at the top that says Please Note, you are looking out too far. It looks like you must buy tickets within a 30-day window in advance from the date of travel. June 24th is fine. It worked for me. When you get to the Several Itineraries page, pick the first one. The second one looks like a bus segment between Interlaken West and Interlaken Ost (East). This should not be necessary.