[Removed user]

30 April 2017 at 3:18:56 #811609

We shall be travelling from Luzern to Lugano in July and wanted to do this via the spectacular gotthard tunnel . I know the gotthard panoramic express does this, however looking at your site, this seems to be a special train and the first segment is on a boat Is it possible to do this same route on normal trains from luzern and without the boat section?

thanks sydney jen

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[Removed user]

30 April 2017 at 6:00:11 #862501

Yes, you can do that. You will still need reservations for the Gotthard Panorama Express train of course.

A sample of how to do it is attached as a screenshot. This set of connections will work from Monday to Friday from 3 July to 20 October 2017.

If you are travelling on a weekend, you will need a different set of connections.

Alpenrose

[Removed user]

30 April 2017 at 9:10:35 #862502

>> We shall be travelling from Luzern to Lugano in July and wanted to do this via the spectacular gotthard tunnel . I know the gotthard panoramic express does this

Just to clarify: The route through the new Gotthard-Basistunnel and the route taken by the Gotthard Panorama Express are two different routes.

You mention the “spectacular Gotthard tunnel”. There’s nothing spectacular about the tunnel from a scenic point of view.

The “spectacular” route between Luzern and Lugano avoids that tunnel, and travels through the beautiful scenery instead of underneath it. That’s the route taken by the Gotthard Panorama Express. It does go through a shorter tunnel though, from Göschenen to Airolo.

The map attached below shows a blue arrow pointing towards the Gotthard Panorama Express route between Flüelen and Bellinzona, with lots of twists, turns and loops (required to get up and down mountains).

The red arrow points towards the Gotthard-Basistunnel, going in a fairly straight line underneath the mountains.

Alpenrose

[Removed user]

30 April 2017 at 9:11:58 #862503

Thanks for that. I tried to replicate this on the SBB timetable website, but suspect that they are moving me through the new tunnel since the gotthard panorama express doesn’t seem to come up on the details of the journey. Do i enter Fluehen in the Via box? which website did you use to get that timetable? We shall be travelling on Thursday july 6th.

Also how do i reserve the section on the gotthard panorama train?

thanks for your help again

[Removed user]

30 April 2017 at 9:14:22 #862504

Thanks Alpenrose for that clarification – yes i definitely want the one that goes through the beautiful countryside instead of long segments in the tunnel – I had heard there was a tunnel built in the 19th century up there somewhere. your map is very helpful

[Removed user]

30 April 2017 at 9:56:18 #862505

>> Thanks for that. I tried to replicate this on the SBB timetable website, but suspect that they are moving me through the new tunnel since the gotthard panorama express doesn’t seem to come up on the details of the journey. Do i enter Fluehen in the Via box?

Yes, you must put Flüelen in the via box (note the correct spelling), and a train departure time of 12:30 (or 12:39 to be exact) from Luzern. If you don’t do that, the timetable will look for “better” connections, and won’t suggest the Gotthard Panorama Express. (There is only one departure of the Gotthard Panorama Express per day.)

>> which website did you use to get that timetable?

I’m still using my link to the old SBB (Swiss Railways) site, which I like better than the new one, but you will get the same results on the new site if you put in the right information, i.e. via Flüelen, and departure from Luzern at 12:39.

Unfortunately, Flüelen has an umlaut (two dots) on the “u”, which presents difficulties for people who aren’t used to typing in German. Either copy and paste it into the SBB timetable, or substitute “ue” for “ü”, i.e. Flueelen. (Although the timetable does seem to be able to cope with spelling it as “Fluelen” as well, though technically it is a misspelling.)

>> Also how do i reserve the section on the gotthard panorama train?

Information about how to reserve seats is here:

http://www.myswissalps.com/go tthardpanoramaexpress/ packages

Hope this works for you.

Alpenrose

[Removed user]

19 May 2017 at 4:58:28 #862506

Hi,

Don’t do this train ride at all, instead you can pick one of Glacier, Bernina, GoldenPass Line, Voralpen Express.

This train is waste of time and money from our recent trip experiences

– Gotthard Panorama Express company is a big cheat, we got cheated in below ways
– Had to pay 48 Frank for me and wife from Bellionzona till Fluelen, even when we had 15 days of Swiss Travel Pass 2nd class. This is reservation charge, seriously we paid 26 Frank total for Glacier Express reservation with Swiss pass.
– Panorama coaches are only for 1st class, this is really stupid of them
– Train travels super fast, you can’t enjoy scenery
– After travelling with Glacier and Bernina we had high hopes with this train as well but felt cheated.
– Do NOT waste your money and time on this train
– Only good thing we found is scenic journey and getting to know about Gotthard tunnel history and train travels really slow in tunnel.

Other than this it’s waste of time and money

[Annika]

19 May 2017 at 9:56:44 #862507

Hi Vikram VI,

Please see our replies here and here. It would be easier for you to post your experiences just once in a trip report.

[Removed user]

19 May 2017 at 13:22:42 #862508

Thanks Annika, I will do the needful this weekend as it can be helpful to other travelers.

Regards,

Vikram

[Removed user]

23 May 2017 at 19:47:36 #862509

Hi Annika,

We’ve shared our trip experiences http://www.myswissalps.com/fo rum/topic/switzerland-10-days-tour-trains-mountains-lakes

We hope it will be useful to community as well.

Kind Regards,

Vikram, Anna

[Removed user]

23 May 2017 at 20:32:43 #862510

How scenic is the regular train from Luzern to Lugano that goes direct, including a stop in Bellinzona, or changes at Arth-Goldau?

[Removed user]

24 May 2017 at 2:51:02 #862511

Hi artnuvo,

>> How scenic is the regular train from Luzern to Lugano that goes direct, including a stop in Bellinzona, or changes at Arth-Goldau?

If you mean the route that comes up in the SBB timetable by default, that route goes through the Gotthard-Basistunnel. So for 57 kilometres, roughly between Erstfeld and Biasca, you see no scenery.

The map attached below shows a blue arrow pointing towards the Gotthard Panorama Express route between Flüelen and Bellinzona, with lots of twists, turns and loops (required to get up and down mountains).

The red arrow points towards the Gotthard-Basistunnel, going in a fairly straight line underneath the mountains.

If you don’t want to travel on the official Gotthard Panorama Express, with its reservation fees, you can follow the same route on normal trains, on which no reservations are required. You just need to put “via Göschenen” into the timetable, to bring up the correct route, but you will actually change trains at Erstfeld, and don’t need to get out at Göschenen. To confirm you have the right route, you will see “Gotthard-Panoramastrecke” in the list of intermediate stops.

If you do need to take the faster route through the Gotthard-Basistunnel, you will still get a couple of very short scenic sectors of 5-10 minutes each along the Zugersee (Lake Zug) and part of the Vierwaldstättersee (Lake Lucerne), before you go into the tunnel. It doesn’t really compare with the more scenic route through the mountains though!

Alpenrose