[Removed user]

24 February 2017 at 12:10:11 #810890

I am travelling to Switzerland and Italy in June. We will be going from Bern to Milan at some point. While in Switzerland we are totally covered by the Swiss travel pass (8 days), we are not purchasing a pass for Italy. In that case, how do I purchase a ticket for Bern to Milan? Bern to brig will be covered by the Swiss pass, while brig to Milan will not be. If I purchase brig to Milan on Italia.com, must I reserve a seat from Bern to brig on SBB right away or can I get onto that train with simply my Swiss travel pass without a reservation. Even if I have to purchase a reservation, can I do that once I land in Switzerland in June (since I read that Swiss trains never run out of seats) or will that be too late since this is an inter-regional train connecting to a Eurocity one from brig onward?

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[Removed user]

24 February 2017 at 16:38:14 #859316

Hi Priya,

You need only to buy a ticket from the Swiss border town to Milan and no reservations are needed on any train you take if you don’t want to. Most Swiss trains aren’t reservable in any case.

You can buy the ticket on to Milan here.

Regards,
Lucas

[Arno]

24 February 2017 at 20:16:45 #859317

Note that you only need a ticket from Domodossola to Milan, not from Brig.

[Removed user]

25 February 2017 at 3:08:58 #859318

Thanks Lucas and Arno for your responses. But I am still quite unclear about how and where to purchase these tickets. We do need to ensure that we have seats since it’s a long journey from Bern to Milan. We want to take the intercity 806 (starting 806 am) from Bern to brig followed by the Eurocity 37 from brig to Milan. Given we have a Swiss travel pass and no Italian rail pass, how should I purchase tickets, also ensuring we actually have seats? Also while buying from sbb ticket office, I don’t see it asking whether we have a Swiss travel pass? So how do I make sure I pay only for the Italian bit of the journey?

[Arno]

25 February 2017 at 9:31:37 #859319

Hi Priya,

The SBB site is primarily geared to Swiss residents, not tourists, so they won’t ask whether you have a Swiss Travel Pass. You can use the site for train schedules though. To buy tickets, the last link Lucas gave you shows all the options. You only need to buy a ticket from Domodossola to Milan. It’s explained on the Swiss Travel Pass page here.

If you want seat reservations all the way from Bern, which is not needed, it’s a bit more complex as most websites do not sell such “pass holder” tickets (partly free because of the pass, but with a reservation for the entire route). As you live in India you can visit the Indian site at http://www.raileurope.co.in#t ab3 and select your pass, class and route to find a ticket.

Is this what you are looking for?