I will need to catch a flight departing 9AM from Zurich Airport. I plan to take a train from Lucerne. Will I find a train that will leave around 5 am? According to the website it will work, but I won't be there until September. On another train topic - is anyone familiar with the Tell Pass that covers bus, boats, train, gondola, etc. Would this pass cover the regional trains as well? Thanks
Posted by
Green Bay
21153 posts
SBB is showing a direct train at 4:55 in September.
Tell Pass does cover trains in the area of validity. http://www.swissrailways.com/en/products/regionalcentralswisspass?affiliateid=23¤cy=CHF
Posted by
OP
Lahaina, HI
74 posts
Thanks Sam - I did see that but do you think I need to purchase in advance? I am getting overwhelmed with train connections: etc. during my trip. Prior to Lucerne, I want to take a train from Varenna - I saw a route Varenna to Milan, then Milan to Lucerne; but some have mentioned that is not true. There may be several changes. I want to secure lodging and get an itinerary together. Several people have given differing replies. Any insight would be appreciated.
Posted by
Basel, Switzerland
8889 posts
Betty, you never need to purchase Swiss tickets in advance, It is a "turn up and go" service. A ticket is valid on any train on that day.
You can buy a ticket on the day, quickest from the ticket machine. You can also buy it the day before, from the machine or from the manned ticket counter, but in this case make sure you get it "postdated". It has a date printed in it.
EDIT: paragraph below corrected. I had Interlaken in my brain instead of Luzern - sorry
Varenna to Luzern usually involves changing twice, Milan and Arth Goldau. The train from Milan will be heading to Zürich, but you get off at Arth Goldau and change to a train for Luzern. Except one (or ist it two?) trains per day go from Milan to Luzern without changing.
You can easily look this up (as well as any other Swqiss rail journey) on: www.sbb.ch
Posted by
Green Bay
21153 posts
There is one direct train per day from Milan to Luzern according to the current schedule, the EC 158 leaving at 3:10 pm, arriving Luzern at 6:41 pm. The only way to "see" the connection from Varenna on the SBB website is to use the advance search function and specify a minimum connection time of 30 minutes. You can actually make the change at Monza, since there is no point going (and paying for the ticket) all the way to Milan and turn around and go back through Monza again. It leaves Varenna at 13:37 and has a 56 minute change time in Monza.
It will not show in September because it is too far out to show the Varenna-Monza train on the schedule yet.