Travel hub for Titlis,Pilatus,Rothorn & Jungfrau

Hi Sartaj,

There's an exhibition you can visit: www.gottardo2016.ch/en /exhibition

Here's more information:

• www.sbb.ch/en/group/me dia/dossier-medienschaffende/gotth ard-basistunnel.html
• www.sbb.ch/freizeit-ferien/tagesausfluege/ erlebnisreisen.angebot detail.tagesausfluege-erlebnisreisen-fuehrerstandsfahrten-fuehrerstandsfahrten_g otthard_basistunnel.ht ml

>> my plan is only for 12 days but I will be buying the 15 day travel pass. Any suggestions for the 3 extra days? Is the Gotthard tunnel visitable.......the engineering marvel that it is.

Perhaps the Gottardino special train would suit you. The trip involves travelling one way over the scenic route, and making the return trip through the new tunnel (or vice versa).

www.sbb.ch/en/leisure-holidays/holidays--short-breaks-in-switzerland/regionen/g otthard/gottardino-special-train.html

As for the rest of your itinerary, it looks pretty hectic. Have you checked the online timetable for routes and travel times? From the information you have provided, it's hard to tell how feasible your plans are. You might need those extra days to accommodate the plans you have already made.

If not, a scenic Postbus trip or two might be good. They take a different route from any trains. Reservations will often be required (easy to do online), and some of those taking high altitude routes only run until early-mid October, so read the information carefully and check the dates of operation in the timetable, for which a link is provided on the description page for each route. Where you will be based during these "extra" days will also be relevant to which routes might be suitable.

Here are a few links to give you some idea of where you can go in a Postbus:

www.postauto.ch/en/lei sure/kiental-griesalp-route

www.postauto.ch/en/lei sure/rosenlaui-route

www.postauto.ch/en/lei sure/central-alps-passes-grimsel-nufenen-gotthard-susten-pass-route

www.postauto.ch/en/lei sure/maloja-bergellbregaglia-linie

www.postauto.ch/en/lei sure/chur%E2%80%93bell inzona-route

www.postauto.ch/en/lei sure/stelvio-route

Alpenrose

>> Merci vielmals.

Gern geschehen!

Alpenrose

>> Thank you for that weblink to the timetable - I have added the link to my favourites for quick access. It will be useful as I have been reading the book recommended in the forum called "Switzerland without a Car" and the author refers to the routes he describes using the route numbers from the timetable

Hi Maggie,

Glad you find the link helpful, and hope you are also finding the book useful. Only problem is, it makes you realise that you will never have enough time to go to all the places you would like to go!

>> My travel passes arrived in the post today so our holiday feels closer and anticipation grows!

Wonderful! I have now booked my flights and accommodation (staying in Luzern, Wengen, Meiringen, Saas-Fee, Locarno, St. Moritz, Scuol and Zürich), so things are starting to take shape for me too!

When I travel from Saas-Fee to Locarno, I'll take the Postbus route you recommended over the Simplon Pass to Domodossola, then the Centovalli Railway. I'm looking forward to the trip over the Simplon Pass! I have been on the Centovalli before, but in winter, when most of the trees were bare, so it will be nice to see how it looks in autumn.

Gruß

Alpenrose

Is there no reduction for the Swiss Travel Pass in the Gottardino?

You would pay the reduced price as mentioned under "With the GA travelcard".

Hello again Alpenrose

I am indeed finding the book useful, thank you. I would normally dip in and out of a travel guide type of book but this one I am reading right through cover to cover! I am about two thirds of the way through and have found quite a few good ideas for new places to go As you say it does make you realise it would take very many holidays to cover all the interesting places you would like to visit. We always go with a long list of possible trips, many carried over from previous years as we run out of time. People ask why we keep going back every year instead of trying another country but I say you can't get enough of a good thing!

Glad to hear your plans are also going well. Enjoy your trip!

Maggie

<<"I would strongly recommend planning the journey using the interactive

online timetable to avoid any unexpected surprises that might ruin your

day because you didn't fully understand the features and/or limitations

of a particular mode of transport or time of departure :-)">>

That is certainly a good recommendation, until you know the rail network well.

I have been using the timetable since 1980, have some knowledge of German, and still have that problem.

Sometimes I miss the symbol for a bus, and look at the wrong side of a station building. I have done it enough now, that if I can't find a departure on the yellow train departure board, but which shows on a page that I have temporarily cut out of the Kursbuch to carry in my pocket, I automatically look for the bus stop positions near the train station. Thanks the links that you provided, I'll not have to do that any more, as long as I can access a printer.

And, often, I miss the code for days of the week in the time table book. Or, the numbered footnote which explains days of non-operation or of operation.

Your cautions are well founded.

That said, having all the information on one page is very helpful for getting a sense of options.

Detailed planning is probably best done as you say, especially, since you can get a map for any journey from the option in the footnotes. A map is quite necessary, in my opinion.

Another choice is to use Mapsearch.CH, which can show all stations if you work the menus properly.

map.search.ch/

Slowpoke

I think that the only TRAINS stopping at Sachseln are on the #470 line....?

Slowpoke

>> I think that the only TRAINS stopping at Sachseln are on the #470 line....?

Yes, more or less.

The way I understand it is that 470 is the table number incorporating several different train services running along that track between Luzern and Interlaken Ost, i.e. the local S-Bahn lines S55 and S5 from Luzern, as well as the inter-regional InterRegio (Luzern-Interlaken Express/Golden Pass line), and the local trains that just run between Meiringen and Interlaken Ost.

Sachseln itself is served by the S55, which provides a morning and evening service Monday to Friday between Luzern and Sachseln (a commuter service I imagine); the S5, which runs between Luzern and Giswil at half-hourly intervals throughout the day until after midnight 7 days a week; and the InterRegio that runs between Luzern and Interlaken Ost every day, but less frequently than the S5. It also doesn't run as late, with the last arrivals at Sachseln being at 21:28 from Luzern and 21:29 from Interlaken Ost.

So the towns and villages between Luzern and Giswil, including Sachseln, and those between Meiringen and Interlaken Ost, get a more frequent service than those between Giswil and Meiringen. Not surprising I suppose, because - if I remember rightly - it's just after Giswil that the train starts climbing noticeably steeply up to the top of the Brünig Pass, and then Meiringen is the first stop after it descends on the other side. I imagine there are not so many people living along that part of the line as in the towns at lower altitude.

Alpenrose

>> I can't find a departure on the yellow train departure board, but which shows on a page that I have temporarily cut out of the Kursbuch to carry in my pocket, I automatically look for the bus stop positions near the train station. Thanks the links that you provided, I'll not have to do that any more, as long as I can access a printer.

If you can't access a printer, there is another option if you have a smart phone. An iPhone/iPod can read PDFs in the iBooks app, and I imagine other smart phones can do that too.

On an iPhone/iPod, when you bring the PDF of a table from the Kursbuch up on the screen of your device, you can save it to iBooks and carry it around with you for access when you have no internet connection.

>> Detailed planning is probably best done as you say, especially, since you can get a map for any journey from the option in the footnotes. A map is quite necessary, in my opinion.

Yes, I wish the SBB iOS app had a mapping feature. There is another free iOS app that does though, called Railteam Mobile:

itunes.apple.com/en/ap p/railteam-mobile/id338225195?mt=8/

I've attached a sample of what it produces once you have selected the connection/s you want. In this case I selected a trip from Meiringen to Saas-Fee via Kandersteg to avoid the Gotthard-Basistunnel.

Alpenrose

<<"there is another option if you have a smart phone. ">>

Regretfully, not yet.

Slowpoke

<<"The way I understand it is that 470 is the table number incorporating several different train services running along that track between Luzern and Interlaken Ost, i.e. the local S-Bahn lines S55 and S5 from Luzern, as well as the inter-regional InterRegio (Luzern-Interlaken Express/Golden Pass line), and the local trains that just run between Meiringen and Interlaken Ost.">>

Indeed, though perhaps I did not say it clearly, I agree and believe that the #470 (and other numbers in the timetable) refer to the stretch of track. There is only one going through Sachseln. In contrast, there are several through/to/from Luzern, including the 470.

S-Bahn trains, IC trains, etc, with different names can and do run on a single numbered section of trackage.

Since the Brunig line is meter gauge, the international trains do not run on that section of track.

Slowpoke