15471 posts
Hi FlyAway,
I recommend to enter Lugano to Mürren via Domodossola in the timetable at http://www.myswissalps.com/ti metable, and pick a closer date. The trip won’t be much different in September, not at all probably. As soon as the Italian or French railways are involved, train schedules might unfortunately be made available later than usual. That’s probably the issue.
Further details are here: http://www.myswissalps.com/ce ntovalli
72625 posts
Thanks for your fast reply. It appears we have to backtrack to Lucarno to pick up the Centrovialle. Do you know if 4′ on the rail site means 4 minutes? We have to go from the Lucarno train station to the FART station. We arrive Locarno 9:59 and have to get to the FART station for a 10:04 departure. Do you think we can make that connection?
15471 posts
You’re welcome! Yes, it starts in Locarno. How do you mean backtrack?
5 minutes to change is not a lot, but doable if you know where to go. Make sure you’re in the front of the train on arrival. Get off and turn right and right again to see the entrance to the underground station of the FART. This is from memory and I know they have been reconstructing the station, but I don’t think this has changed. You can of course take one train earlier. Locarno is not a bad place for a walk or coffee on the lake front.
72625 posts
Yes, Locarno is on a branch off the Gotthard railway route – so to reach the starting point of the Centovalli (FART) railway you must travel Lugano – Bellinzona – Locarno, ie travelling north to Bellinzona and ‘backtracking’ to Locarno
Don’t make a great effort to go on the panoramic train, in my opinion (with 59 years of experience of world railways) the Centovalli railway panoramic trains are a very poor design – just as good to take a regular train and cheaper.
I would be wary of suggesting to someone new to the area only having 5 minutes to make the connection between FFS and Centovalli at Locarno, as it even caught me out last time was there, despite me having been familiar with the FART at Locarno for many decades. I found it difficult to get quickly from the main line train to the Centovalli metre gauge train.
However, 4 minutes is the official minimum connecting time at Locarno so you are expected to be able to achieve it. but please note the Centovalli trains do not wait for late running connections
The timetables are published in the December – December Swiss official timetable, here is the PDF:
http://www.fahrplanfelder.ch/ fileadmin/fap_pdf_fiel ds/2019/620.pdf