Originally Posted by
fastflyer
I am planning the route for our driving trip from Italy to Germany through Switzerland in late July, and online searches are recommending that we transit via two different "car carrier" trains: the Iselle IT-Brig CH "Simplon" train, and then the following day, the Loetschberg tunnel, also a car-train.
We just did one of these “car trains” three weeks ago - unplanned! We were going from Fully to Lucerne and entered Lucerne into our rental’s GPS (TomTom). It plotted our route which did not give us the route we expected. We thought the GPS knew better than we did, so we followed that path. 😂 We wound up at Goppenstein and the entrance to the car train, completely surprised. We told the lady at the ticket booth that we wanted to go to Lucerne and she rang us up a ticket for CHF 27. We didn’t know what we were doing, so just followed the line of cars onto the train. We were on the Goppenstein - Kandersteg train. It turned out that we were happy that this GPS “mistake” happened because it was a new experience for us. 👍
1. Are these trains first-come, first-serve?
Essentially, yes. Is a timed reservation necessary, as often for a ferry?
No.
2. On weekdays in July, what would be the typical wait for the next train transport?
Don’t know. Check out bls.ch . Also, Google is your friend.
3. Approximately what are the costs?
bls.ch Is cash necessary CHF ?
You can buy tickets online or at the station’s drive-up ticket kiosk using a credit card or CHF.
4. Our rental car will be a standard Hertz car, possibly a SUV -- any size or registration restrictions to be aware of ?
With the type of vehicle you will have, No.
Enjoy your ride. It’s a pretty painless process.