1-day travel pass vs Swiss Travel Pass

  • Removed user
    Participant
    72625 posts
    21 April 2016 at 14:03:22 #808970

    Bonjour from our new home in Geneva!

    My wife and I recently moved to Geneva from New York, and after settling in we are ready to explore Switzerland. We bought the Half Fare Card (valid for one year) and the multi-pack (6) of 1-day travel passes each. We understand the 1-day travel pass is valid for travel by train, boat and bus, as well as by tram and bus in most Swiss towns and cities. However, we are unclear if we can use these passes on panorama journeys such as the Bernina Express, Glacier Express or the Golden Pass Line. We looked at the map that shows which lines are included and the routes for example the Bernina Express in on there; however is the Express a special train or can we ride the Express with our 1-day travel passes?

    Merci beaucoup, and I look forward to hearing from our seasoned Swiss travelers!

    Cheers, Raj

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    Arno
    Moderator
    15471 posts
    21 April 2016 at 14:29:13 #851046

    Bonjour Raj, and welcome to MySwissAlps,

    Good to hear you’ve moved to Geneva! You now have plenty of time to explore the Alps. The 1-day travel pass covers all trains, regardless of their name. The only thing to note is that a few trains require a seat reservation: myswissalps.com/ train/reservations.

    Have fun!

    Removed user
    Participant
    72625 posts
    21 April 2016 at 14:37:56 #851047

    Hi Arno,

    Thank you for your prompt reply brother! That was an easy solution. So to be clear the 1-day travel pass has the same features as the Swiss Travel Pass? For example, in the reservations site under “Rail Product” there is no 1-day pass option, so would I then chose Swiss Travel Pass? Apologies if this should be self-explanatory. After hours of researching, my brain is a bit confused, ha!

    Cheers!

    Arno
    Moderator
    15471 posts
    21 April 2016 at 15:07:26 #851048

    You’re welcome Raj! Your day pass is nearly the same as the Swiss Travel Pass, but not 100%. To be sure you’d best refer to the downloadable map on http://www.sbb.ch/en/travelca rds-and-tickets/tickets-for-switzerland/1-day-travelpass/1-day-travelpass-for-the-half-fare-travelcard.html. As you live in Switzerland you can buy products for Swiss citizens (like the one year Half Fare Card you have), so you can basically forget about tourist products like the Swiss Travel Pass. Reservation sites (see the link under “More on other websites” on myswissalps.com/ glacierexpress/ tickets, for example) allow you to select “other”, or “GA” (General Abo). All of these mean that you have a season ticket/pass that covers the trip. So they will only charge the reservation fee; CHF 33 in case of the Glacier Express.

    Removed user
    Participant
    72625 posts
    21 April 2016 at 19:44:06 #851049

    Good stuff! Thanks again Arno. Okay so one more question: If we wanted to use our 1-day pass for an upcoming Saturday, but wanted to start my journey by taking a train leaving Geneva at 11:00PM (23:00) on Friday would that train time fall under the 1 day pass? I know it’s not technically Saturday, but it’s just an hour difference, and was not sure if there are rules that allow this sort of thing. The reason I mention this is that we are looking at an ambitious plan to hop on the Bernina Express from Chur leaving to Torino at 8:32AM Saturday morning. The only way we can get to Chur before 8:32AM (Saturday) is by leaving on the 11:00PM (Friday) train from Geneva to Chur reaching there at 7:46AM. We want to see if we can use our 1-day pass to include the entire journey. Is this possible?

    Arno
    Moderator
    15471 posts
    22 April 2016 at 5:03:00 #851050

    Hi Raj,

    I don’t think it would be valid the day before, but you’d better check the SBB site for that. I wouldn’t recommend to travel at that time anyway. There are no real night trains in Switzerland, so you’ll be traveling with the last late trains and the first very early trains, and would need to spend quite a few hours at some station along the way. Not much fun in the middle of the night. The timetable can provide the details.

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