Buying train tickets with Swiss Half Fare Card
Marivic and her 10-year-old son are visiting Switzerland from November 21 for 10 days, staying in Zurich, Lucerne, and Chur, and plan to visit cities like Basel and Bern while taking the Bernina Express. She's considering the Swiss Half Fare Card for discounts on train travel but is unsure about booking train tickets online and which rail company to use.
- Get a Swiss Half Fare Card and don’t forget to apply for the free Swiss Family Card for your son to travel for free.
- You can buy train tickets on the spot using ticket machines, which allows for flexibility in your travel plans.
- For booking train journeys, use SBB or trusted retailers; all internal Swiss journeys are usually 'walk on' and valid for the day.
- For the Bernina Express, your son will need a seat reservation but doesn't require a ticket.
AI-generated summary-
Get daily forum questions & answers by e-mailGood day!
My 10 year old son & I are arriving Switzerland on Nov 21, and staying for 10 days. We will be staying in Zurich, Lucerne, and Chur (for Bernina Express); and would visit Basel, Bern, Mt Titlis from Lucerne.
I am considering of buying the Swiss half-fare card in order to save cost, as we will be taking the train to visit cities.
Do I need to book online the train tickets to avail the discounted rates? I am a bit confused on which rail company to use – do I book with SBB, Trainline, HappyRail?
Thank you.
Regards
Marivic
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Hi Marivic, welcome to MySwissAlps!
How nice you’ll be visiting Switzerland with your son. If you buy the Swiss Half Fare Card (https://www.myswissalps.com/swisshalffarecard), you can book tickets online in advance. Trusted retailers are listed here: https://www.myswissalps.com/traintickets/switzerlandhalffare. You can use whichever you prefer. Buying your discounted tickets from manned tickets desks or ticketing machines at railway stations is possible too. Please find more information at https://www.myswissalps.com/swisshalffarecard/howtouse.
Your 10-year old son will travel along for free if you order the free Swiss Family Card along with your Swiss Half Fare Card. Retailers can be found at https://www.myswissalps.com/swisshalffarecard/price.
You seem to be traveling quite a lot throughout the country. It might be worth it to calculate if an 8-day Swiss Travel Pass (https://www.myswissalps.com/swisstravelpass) is better than a Swiss Half Fare Card. In any case it’s easier as you won’t have to buy discounted tickets for each trip. Regular train tickets (https://www.myswissalps.com/traintickets/switzerland) or Saver Day Passes (https://www.myswissalps.com/saverdaypass) can cover the costs of the remaining two days. Here’s how to calculate: https://www.myswissalps.com/train/ticketspasses/practical/chooserailpass.
I hope this helps. Let us know if you have further questions!
Get daily forum questions & answers by e-mailHi Annika,
If I were to avail of the Swiss Half Fare card, and when I book/buy our train tickets online, does it mean the ticket is only valid for a particular train timing?
For example, ticket from Zurich airport to Zurich train station, if I book our tickets at 14:00 hrs, and we are delayed to board the train, do I need to buy a new ticket?
Actually, these are the train journey plan:
1. Zurich airport to Zurich main station – stay in Zurich from Nov 21-23
2. Zurich to Luzern – stay in Luzern from Nov 23-28
3. Luzern to Basel (return), also not sure if we are allowed to take the train from Basel to Colmar France (return)?
4. Luzern to Engelberg (return) for Mt.Titlis
5. Luzern to Chur – stay in Chur from Nov 28-30, for Bernina Express
6. Chur to Salzburg on Nov 30, is this included in the Pass?
Thank you so much!
Get daily forum questions & answers by e-mailHi Marivic,
For short journeys such as Zurich Airport to Zurich Main Station, a single ticket is valid up to 1 hour. So if you miss your train, you could just take the next one. There are many trains travelling on this route so this shouldn’t be a problem. For inter-region or inter-city journeys such as Zurich to Lucerne, single tickets are usually valid for 1 journey for the whole day.
A return ticket is valid up to 5am the next day.
Please find more details about ticket validity at https://www.myswissalps.com/traintickets/switzerland.
For the train tickets to Colmar, France, you can find details here: http://www.myswissalps.com/traintickets/france
For train tickets to Salzburg, Austria, you can find details here: http://www.myswissalps.com/traintickets/austria
For practical tips on how to use Swiss trains: http://www.myswissalps.com/train/practical/howtotravel
Hope this helps make planning a lot more easier.
Regards,
Anna
Get daily forum questions & answers by e-mailYou do not have to buy any tickets on line in advance if you don’t want to.
There are easy to use ticket machines at all Swiss stations, during the purchase process you can specify half fare. This can be helpful if the weather forecast makes you think twice about doing a certain trip on a certain day.
Background info: It is important to understand the difference between the railway network in Switzerland (small country, short distances, very frequent trains) and some countries eg USA where passenger trains need to cover huge distances and run a little as once per day.
Because trains in Switzerland are so frequent, virtually all Swiss trains are ‘walk on’ and have at least some space available. You can purchase a normal point to point ticket at any time on your day of travel and it usually be valid on all trains.
Applying the above information to your specific journeys: all internal Swiss journeys (your journeys 1,2,4,5) are ‘walk on’ – as is the Swiss part of your day 3
Swiss border to Salzburg is not valid on the Swiss half fare card because you will be in Austria
Basel – Colmar is nearly all on French territory and operated by SNCF French railways so the Swiss card is not valid.
Get daily forum questions & answers by e-mailGood day!
Please find attached for your reference. I am just trying to see how much it would cost to book from Luzern to Chur, using a Swiss Half Fare card.
I understood that kids do not need to pay when travelling with an adult with Swiss Half Fare card, is the train ticket cost correct on the attached file? On Trainline, I have added ADD Railcards for me & my 10-year old child.
It looks like that “both” of us are charged ( 50% off ), but it should be just me that needs to be charged, right?
How do I use the Swiss half fare correctly?
Get daily forum questions & answers by e-mailHi Marivic,
I have no experience using the Trainline timetable but the price indicated looks just about right for a single journey from Lucerne to Chur with a Swiss Half Fare Card. If you have the Swiss Family Card, there is no need to buy a ticket for your son, you don’t even have to key in his details on the timetable.
Please see attached picture. This is how the SBB mobile timetable looks like on my smartphone. The cheapest options or Supersaver tickets are indicated with the % sign. You can download the SBB mobile app and use it on the go: http://www.myswissalps.com/aboutswitzerland/practical/websites
For details on how to use the Swiss Half Fare Card, please go to this link: http://www.myswissalps.com/swisshalffarecard/howtouse
Regards,
Anna
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Get daily forum questions & answers by e-mailGood evening Anna,
When booking the Bernina Express, do I need to buy a ticket for my son? or do I have to at least key in his details on the timetable?
We will avail the Swiss Half Fare Card and the Swiss Family Card.
Thanks!
Get daily forum questions & answers by e-mailHi Marivic,
Your son doesn’t need a ticket to ride the Bernina Express. However, just like everyone else he does need a seat reservation. This needs to be paid separately. You can book the seats for your family online here: http://www.myswissalps.com/berninaexpress/tickets
Regards,
Anna
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