Steve Weagant

What is the stop in Switzerland that comes after the gothard tunnel and switchbacks as you travel north from Milan. I would like to take my gf on a quick rt just to show her this alps crossing.

Steve Weagant

A second question: Do the trains on the route from Milan to Zurich still follow the traditional route through the gothard tunnel? I know a longer tunnel under the alps is either built or being built. This trip wouldn't be worth it to go through the new tunnel.

Reindeerflame

From Wikipedia:

The Gotthard Tunnel (German: Gotthardtunnel, Italian: Galleria del San Gottardo) is a 15-kilometre (9 mi) long railway tunnel and forms the summit of the Gotthard Railway in Switzerland. It connects Göschenen with Airolo and was the first tunnel through the Gotthard massif. It is built as one double-track, standard gauge tunnel.

The tunnel rises from the northern portal at Göschenen (1106 metres / 3650 ft) and the highest point (1151 metres, or 3800 ft) is reached after approximately 8 kilometres (5 mi). After two more kilometers, the border between the cantons of Uri and Ticino is passed; after another 5 kilometres (3 mi), the tunnel ends at the southern portal near to Airolo (1142 metres, or 3770 ft). The trip takes about seven to eight minutes by train. Services are operated by the Swiss national railway company SBB-CFF-FFS

Steve Weagant

I know that. Thx. I was asking about the new base tunnel.

nrr

http://www.alptransit.ch/en/project/...se-tunnel.html the NEW tunnel (completion is expected in 2016).

nrr

http://www.alptransit.ch/en/project/...se-tunnel.html
not until 2016

nrr

NOW, the trains "spiral" around the Wassen Church [depending on your direction of travel], you see the church first on the left, then on the right and for the last pass on the left. At night the church is illuminated, much easier to find...there are several other churches on this route--none in the spiral.

Steve Weagant

Ok. Then this is still a great trip. I was telling my gf about that trip years ago. Always wanted her to see it. What's the best website fir booking this ticket?

greg5

http://www.sbb.ch/en is the Swiss Federal Railways website. Sometimes they'll have deals on trips.

Steve Weagant

This website does not sell international tickets. I need to buy a rt from Milan to Arth-goldau. This is the first stop for the 7:10 am from Milano central where I can get off and catch the next train back to milan. Is there a way to buy these types of tickets on the Internet?

nrr

I tried to do a "dummy" purchase, and www.sbb.ch/en let me get very far in the process (it didn't reject my purchase from the start)--maybe it stops at the final stages(?) [I know you can do Swiss-Germany and Swiss-France on their site.]
In a few years, 2016 (if all goes according to schedule) the route will be very different than it is today (particularly the spiral around the Wassen Church), which I noted in a post above.

Steve Weagant

I plugged in Milan-Arth goldau. Apparently sbb and trenitalia don't play nice with each other

greg5

There should be some SBB trains going from Milan to Zug, but perhaps they only stop in Chiasso along the way. Transferring in Chiasso might be an option, and then go further to Arth-Goldau and back.

Try to stay away from the trenitalia trains when you can, unless they're a good bit cheaper. The SBB trains are generally in much better repair.

Steve Weagant

I stand corrected. The swiss rail site works fine on a computer. For some reason the app on my iphone does not. I was able to price this out and it appears that to travel in april this trip would be 304 swiss francs round trip for 2 people on EC trains. This seems a bit high for this trip. I've never done travel in Europe without a rail pass, so I am new to the point to point ticket thing. I was thinking that if the round trip was less then 100 US for the 2 of us it would be a neat excursion for my GF.

Thank for your help with this matter.

ritesa

Try www.trenitalia.com, I found round trips Milan-Zug (next stop after Arth-Goldau) starting at 88€ - and if it fits your schedule, they have a 2 for 1 special offer for travels on Saturdays (but it's only valid on full-fare tickets): http://www.trenitalia.com/cms/v/inde...008916f90aRCRD.