Train across the Alps

It would be easier to make suggestions if we knew your starting/ending locations and how much time you have available.

We can fly into Zurich before our trip and meet our group in Florence or we can reverse that after our walking trip. We may add a couple of days on either side of the trip to try to see Venice.....I am clueless about making this happen.

Some of the trains "across" the alps actually go through tunnels at the most rugged (and scenic) point. One which does not is the scenic Bernina Express route from Chur (in Switzerland) to Tirano (in Italy). You could easily connect to Chur from the Zürich airport (the train station is right in the airport). From Tirano you could head to Venice or yo could add Venice to the end of your trip.

Total travel time by train from Zürich to Venice if you go this route is 12-13 hours, so you would want to break it up with a stop or two along the way. Pontresina, high in the Alps, would be a good stop if you do this in September; this region of Switzerland (the Engadine) generally enjoys nice fall weather. That would leave a journey of 8.5 t0 89 hours if you are going to Venice, so you would probably want another stop. Varenna, on the shores of Lake Como, is near the halfway point and would make a very nice overnigh tstop.

Aother route, shorter and less scenic (part of it goes through a tunnel) would be the direct route from Zürich to Milan via the Gotthard tunnel and Lugano. It is only 3 h 40 minutes from Zürich to Milan by this route, and there are discount tickets available for this leg of the trip.

You can see the routes and schedules (for Italy as well as Switzerland) on the Swiss rail site at www.rail.ch

Thank you, this is exactly the kind of information I needed.

There are indeed other scenic route through the Alps, if you have more time. You could go from Zürich to Luzern and pick up the scenic Golden Pass Route, which takes you westward over Brunig Pass and past a lovely lake to Interlaken and onward. You would change at Spiez to the line running south down to Milan in Italy. From Milan you can connect to either Venice or florence (to start your walking trip).

If you go this route, you could stay overnight in Lauterbrunnen, a short detour from the Golden Pass route (change at Interlaken Öst). maybe include another overnight at Kandersteg, and vist beautiful Oeschinensee above town.

From Kandersteg on down to Milan on this route, you will cross under the Alps in 2 different tunnels. But you will have traveled through some nice scenery before that point.

This map of the Swiss travel network shows all the routes across the Alps. Tunnels are indicated with dotted lines.

http://rail.myswitzerland.com/download_sts/uebersichtskarte_en.pdf

I think those places where the train does a loop (to gain or lose elevation, I presume) must be really interesting. . .

Do you see any decent "scenic" mountains, etc. on the Milan-Zurich trip? Also deciding same thing.

The Zürich to Milan route via Lugano follows the "train" portion of the William Tell route. You can read the descriptions of each of the designated "scenic" routes on the link that Steve gave you.

Of the so-called scenic trains, we've only ridden the Golden Pass and portions of the Glacier Express route, so I can't speak from personal experience on the others. However, I have seen reports by people on other travel sites who have ridden them all, and say the Bernina Express is the most scenic and dramatic of all. However, if you take it all the way to Lugano (instead of ending at Tirano), you have several hours on the bus in addition to the train across the alps.