Swiss transfer ticket

The only Venice to Lauterbrunnen tickets you can buy on SBB are strange itineraries that do NOT include a segment entirely in Italy (like Venice to Milan). That 16:20 departure from Venice to Brig can be purchased on SBB because that is a direct train from Venice into Switzerland (at Brig) with no change at Milan. The train continues on to Geneva. The other Venice to lauterbrunnen routes they show on Trenitalia utilize the Villand bus to Austria and take 15+ hours. Not good. You need to buy the Venice to Milan tickets on Trenitalia, and I see the website is working for that purchase on your dates today. The mini fare is 29 euros for the 8:50 departure. From Milan to Lauterbrunnen, you can buy on SBB, but as far as I can tell it is not a printable ticket for the Milan to Brig or Milan to Spiez segment; it is sent by post (expensive) or you pick it up at a station in Switzerland-not possible for you. So you have several options, depending on whether you are using a Transfer Ticket or Half-Fare Card, or tickets. If using the Transfer Ticket, you can buy a ticket on the Milan to Brig train buu you should only have to pay as far as Domodossola, where the Swiss coverage begins. If using a Half-Fare Card, I don't know how that would work, but maybe they can adjust the fare from Domodossola to Brig accordingly. It's actually probably simplest to just buy a ticket from Milan to Brig on the 12:25 IC, the one that connects with the 8:50 departure from Venice (arriving Milan 11:25) on Trenitalia for 34 euros, and do the Swiss part when you get to the station in Brig. You have 30 minutes to do that before catching the train onward to Spiez.

Hugh, no, I do not believe you want the Swiss Transfer Ticket. Personally I think you would be better off with the "Swiss Card" have a look: http://www.myswissalps.com/swisscard.asp?lang=EN The main difference is that the Swiss Card will give you travel discounts while you are in Switzerland...not just when you arrive and depart. While in Lauterbrunnen you will no doubt be visiting with the Schilthorn and/or the Jungfrau. The Swiss Card will give you discounts on both. Yes you son would be free with the Free Swiss Family Card...which is not the same as the the Swiss Card. You will need both Swiss Card and Free Swiss Family Card. As an alternative to purchasing from Trenitalia (saw your other posts) you can go ahead and order your tickets all the way from Venice to Lauterbrunnen on the Swiss Rail website: www.sbb.ch/en You can print from home. The Swiss website is much more user friendly than Italian.

I tried the www.sbb.ch/en link and I can.t get it to offer me any of the morning departures-just late in the day departures. Any suggestions? Thanks,
Hugh

Hugh, don't know what you're doing wrong. I'm on SBB and put in Departure: Venezia S. Lucia To: Lauterbrunnen BLM Date: June 7, 2012
Departure Time: 08:00 and I get loads and loads of possible trains departing at 7:50 and on. There's a little red FareBuy button to the right of each possible train trip.

Lola, don't know what you're doing wrong either. SBB lets you book the entire trip (including Venice to Milan) all the way to Lauterbrunnen. Works fine for me.

Interestingly, I'm looking at June 20 just for fun. As with Hugh, I cannot see a train earlier than 16:20. And, I know how to use this site. I then changed the date to two days from now and I can now see all of the departures. I see four departures before 9:00pm. Seems to be a temporary glitch of some type. This is very unusal for the Swiss site.

Tim, it works fine if you use June 7, but not if you use his actual date of travel, which is June 24. Maybe it's the "post mid-June" schedule problem with Italy trains, but SBB won't show the morning trains or any route that includes a Venice to Milan train apart from the one that continues into Switzerland. Also, when I work through the purchase for the June 7 tickets, it still comes up with no "print at home" or e-ticket option, only "post" or "pick up at a station in Switzerland." They won't be able to do that.

Can I safely assume if I book my flights today (leaving out of Zurich) that I will be able to buy train tickets for the morning of the 24th once we are closer to that date? If the train schedule fails me is there a backup form of public transportation such as a bus to take to Lauterbrunnen? One more question. Do I need to advance purchase transportation to Zurich(pricewise and availabilty) or am I better off to find something while there? Thanks for all your help!
Hugh

"If the train schedule fails me is there a backup form of public transportation such as a bus to take to Lauterbrunnen?" Hugh, you can be 100% certain that the Swiss train system will not fail you. You can see the schedules from Milan to Lauterbrunnen for June 24 on SBB today. The route is Milan to Brig to Spiez to Interlaken Ost to Lauterbrunnen, and that won't change. We may have created the false impression that you need to buy tickets in advance for this trip. Really, the only reason to do so is to save money on the Venice to Milan part, since you can get the mini fare. You can also get a discount "special offer" price on the ticket from Milan to Brig on SBB, but you won't be able to print that ticket at home and can't pick it up in Switzerland, so that's not an option. You CAN buy that ticket on Trenitalia. However, for some reason they are not showing any discount "Smart Fares" on the website. Unless a discount shows up, I would suggest you buy your Milan to Brig ticket in Italy at a station (any station) a day or so ahead of time. That way you will have it in hand and not have to scramble at the Milano Centrale station. We traveled in Italy last summer this way, buying tickets as we went, and it was fine. For the travel within Switzerland, Brig to Spiez, etc., there is no benefit to buying in advance. No discounts are offered unless you have a pass of some type. Reservations are not required for the seats, and the trains rarely if ever sell out. We have traveled around Switzerland on 4 separate 2-week trips, never with reservations. The only time we found a train crowded was on the day of the Zurich Street parade, when a 150,000 people show up there to party. The train between Bern and Zurich was pretty full that day, so we had to stand part of the way.

Hi everyone, I'm making this same trip next week, on May 1st. This is an Italian holiday....do I need to buy train tix in advance? Specifically the leg from VEN > Milan? I was planning to buy it all when I arrive but now I'm starting to wonder. Thoughts?
Kim