Using Swiss Transfer Ticket or Pass

Hi

I'm travelling from Paris to Lauterbrunnen and then from Zurich to Milan and I'm intending on buying a Swiss Transfer Ticket.

Can someone advise:

1. On the way to Lauterbrunnen, I'm intending on getting the TGV from Paris to Geneva and then on Swiss trains from Geneva to Lauterbrunnen via Bern using the transfer ticket. Is it possible to break the latter journey at Bern just to go and have lunch or do I need to buy a separate ticket Bern to Lauterbrunnen?

2. From Zurich to Milan, there is a direct train departing 7.32am which requires seat reservations according to the sbb website. The question is how do I buy tickets on this train and reserve seats using a transfer ticket? Or instead of a transfer ticket, if I had a Half Fare Card or s Swiss Pass/Flexi, how do I buy tickets or reserve seats?

Hope this makes sense. Thanks in advance

Hi jackfromoz,

1. The quickest way from Paris to Lauterbrunnen is via Basel, although there are different options depending on day and time. Regardless if you travel via Geneva or Basel, the Swiss Transfer Ticket allows you to break your trip in Bern. All tickets and passes in Switzerland allow that, unless you have booked a seat for a specific train, which is not required for 99% of Swiss trains. All the Swiss Transfer Ticket details are here.

2. Actually that train only requires seat reservations for the Italian portion of the trip: from Chiasso onwards. There are two options:

• You can buy a ticket (including a seat reservation) from Chiasso to Milan. The Swiss Transfer Ticket (or Swiss Travel Pass) covers the first part of the trip. If you're at the station in time it should be no problem to find one of the non-reserved seats.
• You can buy a ticket from Zurich to Milan "for passholders", which means that you get a seat reservation for the entire trip and a discount because of the free Swiss portion.

Since you live in Australia you can get the Swiss Transfer Ticket or any other pass here on the Rail Europe site, and they offer the ticket as well. More purchase options are on the Swiss Transfer Ticket page.

Thanks Arno. That's very helpful.

When you say to buy a ticket from Zurich to Milan "for passholders", is that somewhere on sbb.com? I managed to locate the section on raileurope to buy a ticket as a passholder but couldn't find it within sbb.com

You're welcome jackfromoz! I suppose you mean sbb.ch, right? That's the website of the Swiss Federal Railways. They don't sell tickets for Swiss Transfer Ticket holders. They do sell tickets for "GA" holders, which is a pass for Swiss citizens and that option gives the same discount. I'm not sure if train conductors would accept that though, but I think it should not be a problem. The SBB has a webshop for tourist passes at www.swissrailways.com. They sell the Swiss Transfer Ticket, but no point to point tickets.

I think the easiest option is to get everything you need from your local Rail Europe site. The ticket to Milan (you can get it here) is currently just AU$ 1.40 more than on the SBB website, plus you can pay in AU$ and possibly get an additional discount (see the Discounts section of the Swiss Transfer Ticket page).

I hope this makes sense!