What to do if Glacier Express fully booked?

Hello.We wanted to take the glacier express on the 21st of September from St. Moritz to Zermatt but it appears that it is already fully booked. Given this, we have no option but to take the regular trains just so we can see the route passed by the glacier express.

Can someone advice if the regular trains follow the same schedule as the glacier express. We were hoping to take the 8:57 schedule of the GEX so that we would arrive Zermatt at around 5Pm. We have Swiss Travel Pass. How do we go about it? How many transfers will there be?We have luggage with us. Will that be a problem?

Are the regular trains attached to the glacier express? so that at least we can see how the glacier express train looks like? and take pictures of it :)

Thank you in advance for your response.

Hi corigillego, thanks for joining MySwissAlps!

The regular trains are separate trains and have another schedule. Just enter "St. Moritz to Zermatt" in the timetable. Once connections are presented, click the "advanced search" link and enter Andermatt as a via-town to make sure it only lists options via the Glacier Express route. Luggage is no problem. You can send it ahead if you prefer.

It could be worth it to ask at the station of St. Moritz whether there are any seats left on the Glacier Express when you are there. That might work in case of cancellations.

Enjoy the ride!

Thanks so much for your quick reply!

By the way, will a 3 minute gap be sufficient time for transfer considering we have luggage?

Hi corigillego,

All changes suggested by the timetable are perfectly doable. Many travelers will make the same change. Just don't dawdle.

On my trip in June there was also a normal Trains attached that shared part of the journey. In some respects I think the view may be better as the panaromic windows cause lots of reflections. The journey from Chur to St Moritx definitely links with a normal train and we had a train linked at "Oberalp" (I think that is where we stopped for 10-15 minutes and there was a normal train connected at the front

You are right, the 8:57 train from St. Moritz is a combined Glacier Express/regular train. That's why the timetable shows two options: one with required reservations (direct to Zermatt), and one without reservations and multiple changes. Both options departs at the same time. I'm not sure if it's like that all year round, but the timetable has all the details. Basically you can just ignore the first option if you don't have reservations and follow the second schedule to reach Zermatt.

I got the seats in Glacier even a day before on 29th Aug, for the 30th travel from Brig to Chur in Glacier. There are 3 trains, I even got window seats for me and my wife. All the 3 trains have space that day luckily.