Does the Glacier Express pick up at Celerina?

We plan to take the Glacier Express from Celerina to Zermatt. On the timetable it shows Celerina with an * note - "stop to board". When I try to book on the http://www.glacierexpress.ch website it only allows St Moritz or Samedan. If I choose leaving from St Moritz on the website, will the train stop at Celerina or do I need to request that somehow?

Another question, the website did not seem to allow me to choose seats - am I correct? I would like seats that faced forward.

Hi thomasalbert, thanks for your post!

The note means that people can only board in Celerina and not use this train to travel from St. Moritz to Celerina and then get off. Indeed only the main stops may be offered when booking seats, but you can simply pick the next (or previous) stop if you want to board in Celerina. The next stop is Samedan, the train will stop there 5 minutes later. Of course you should have a ticket or rail pass that includes traveling from Celerina, but for the seat it does not matter if you book from a different station than where you board. The train will stop in Celerina in all cases. It's not a stop on request.

Seat selection is indeed not available for all trains. The direction of traveling can't be picked anyway, because the train will change direction in Chur, and again in Brig, so a forward facing seat will be facing backward on the next leg. A travel map can be found on the Glacier Express page.

I'm not sure if you also need a rail pass, but if you do, you can order along your seat reservations when you purchase the pass. There's a discount of up to $75 being offered on your entire order (until tomorrow). Please see the promotion page for details.

Did this answer your query?

Thanks very much for your detailed reply Arno, I have since rang the Glacier Express ticket office (from Australia) and received excellent service. I booked our reserved seats and and was told exactly what you said - the train changes directions and the train will stop in Celerina. We plan to buy our Swiss passes when we first arrive in Geneva. Tom.

Hi Tom,

Great to hear that all is clear and you've arranged for your seats! I'm don't know when you travel but be sure to keep an eye on the promotion page I shared with you. It would be a pity if you pay more for your pass if you wait with your purchase until Geneva. The $75 off promo has expired now, but new ones may come along.

Have a wonderful trip!

Thanks, Arno, We intend to be there in first week of October. I have checked out various specials from resellers but when I compare the prices, even with the discounts applied, they are still dearer then the price from a railway station. Tom.

You're welcome Tom. Where to buy depends on which pass one needs, which point of sale/where one lives and the currency/exchange rate involved. So the best thing to do is different for everyone. Anyway, the promo page takes most of that into account so it's easy to compare. It's good that you do the comparison. Passes are always quite an investment, so the best price matters.