[R2go]

17 March 2018 at 0:08:01 #814812

This is a followup to my previous thread that has been closed. Based on all of your excellent suggestions, we’ve decided to buy a Swiss Travel Pass for other travel in Switzerland (including the Glacier Express). We’re trying to figure out the last leg of our journey from St. Moritz to Rome – using the Swiss Travel Pass for part of the travel. Our goal is to take the fastest route and not the Bernina Express – all on trains without having to sit for a long time on a bus.

1. On the map, it looks like the Swiss Travel Pass is valid from St. Mortiz to Tirano to Lugano. Is this true with regular trains or only the Bernina Express?

2. Or is there a better route to make better use of the Swiss Travel Pass for part of the travel to Rome? Again, we’re trying to take the fastest route.

3. Is it important to make reservations from St Moritz to Lugano?

4. If you recommend reservations, how can we book a train from St. Moritz to Rome while still being able to use the Swiss Travel Pass for only part of the trip?

4. If we only need to make reservations for the non-Swiss Travel Pass portion, how much time do we need to change from the “Swiss Travel Pass Trains” to the other trains? Of course, we prefer to not have to physically run from one train to the next with luggage.

Thank you again for your help.

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[rockoyster]

17 March 2018 at 2:44:53 #879006

Welcome back R2go,

1. The Swiss Travel Pass cover regular trains from St. Moritz to Tirano and from Tirano to Lugano on the BEX bus. There is no train. You can get an Italian train from Tirano to Milan.

2. The Swiss Train Timetable (http://www.myswissalps.com/ti metable) will give you the fastest connection from St Moritz to Rome by default. That may include a bus (not the BEX) if you don’t specify via Tirano. For example the Palm Express goes from St Moritz to Lugano but only once a day at certain times of the year.

3. For trains in Switzerland you only need reservations on the Bernina Express or one of the other buses if you go via the Palm Express or the bus that goes via Thusis.

4. The Swiss Travel Pass will only take you to the Swiss border; Tirano or Chiasso. From there you will need a ticket to Rome. You can even buy tickets from SBB for the whole woute. You just need to nominate GA 2cl (domestic equivalent of Swiss Travel Pass) the discount for the Swiss leg to get the correct overall price. You might want to shop around though. See http://www.myswissalps.com/tr aintickets/italy.

5?. Depends which way you go but if you go via Lugano then you will stay on the same train at Chiasso. If you go Tirano to Milan that’s an Italian train.

Hope that helps.

[R2go]

19 March 2018 at 15:39:21 #879007

Thank you for the tip about specifying via Tirano.

I’m having problems with the SBB Ticket Shop when I try to book a ticket from St. Moritz to Rome.

1. The first big problem is that when I select a date and go to the next screen, it always changes the date to the day before. Is this normal or am I doing something wrong? I tried both the calendar screen as well as typing in the date.

2. When I select St. Moritz as the starting point, the first two screens show that I’ve selected St. Moritz as the starting point, but when I get to the third screen, the starting point changes to Milan. It also says: “PLEASE NOTE that we are unable to calculate or issue tickets for the complete standard offer.” I also tried each of the following:

I also tried: removing the via Tirano, changing the starting point to Tirano and changing the dates to next week (rather than our actual travel dates) and have the same problem.

I also tried using Trainline.eu but this appears to be a much longer route because the train takes us back to Zurich before going to Rome.

I’m really glad that you are here to answer questions because this is really confusing.

[Arno]

19 March 2018 at 19:06:14 #879008

Hi R2go,

The date issue should not happen, but I’ve heard about it before. Also be careful with credit cards on the SBB site, as there are issues with foreign credit card payments sometimes.

So you want to travel from St. Moritz via Tirano to Rome, entirely by train, with a Swiss Travel Pass? In that case I’d recommend to not book the Swiss leg as it is fully included in your pass, so there is nothing to be booked. Then book the Tirano to Rome leg on http://www.trainline.eu/searc h. I’m not sure of your travel date, but I just checked for that route on March 31 and got plenty of options starting from € 58 (not via Zurich, but the quickest route via Milan).

Does it work out for you now?

[R2go]

23 March 2018 at 17:08:55 #879009

Thank you all for your help. With each reservation, we get even more excited about our trip.