Help!! Eurail Global passholder needs serious Swiss Rail advice.?

Question

On my trip I will wake up in Geneva but will be taking an overnight train from Bern to Rome at 22:39 that night. I would like to take the 8:45 train from Geneva to Bern (arriving 10:26)in order to leave my luggage in a locker. Then catch the 11:09 train to Zweisimmen (arriving 12:23)in order to go on the 12:28 Goldenpass Panoramic train from Zweisimmen to Montreux (arriving 14:15). Explore Montreux, then take the 17:58 train from Montreux to Lausanne (arriving 18:25) and the 18:56 train back to Bern (arriving 20:56 collect our bags and catch our overnight train). The SBB website won't let me pick a day past June 8th. Goldenpass site won't let me pick the 12:28 departure from Zweisimmen. And I can't tell if I can use my Eurail Pass. I also want to make sure that for all of my traveling the Bern station is always the same one so that my luggage is in the same place that I am. Any ideas? Someplace I can call? Is the trip I want to do too ambitious?

Answer 1

The 12:28 from Zweisimmen to Montreux is the Goldenpass Classic not the Goldenpass Panoramic. It doesn't have the Panorama wagons with the high windows; I don't know what it DOES have (it *may* be a "classic" in the sense of an old-fashioned train, I have seen such trains but I don't know where).

Yes you can use the Eurail Pass. Reservations are recommended on the Goldenpass but not required unless you're a group (probably at least 10). That costs about 5 or 10 francs.

Yes there's only one train station in Bern. Yes quite ambitious, I'm not sure it's worth going to Bern just to have your luggage in a locker. Did you know you can have it sent from one train station in Switzerland to another? I believe it's 10 francs/piece, not much more than a locker will cost, but I think it takes 24 hours, so it depends when you get to Geneva and how late the counter is open in Bern. Then you can go from Geneva to Montreux, see Montreux, take the Goldenpass the other way, hike around Zweisimmen or stop in Thun or Spiez on the way to Bern.

I don't think you'll have a problem in Zweisimmen. In the very unlikely event your train to there is late, they'll probably delay the Goldenpass for you and everyone else. Most people on that train will be planning to catch the Goldenpass. (Zweisimmen is in a lovely area but it's not a particularly happening place.) And you'll probably only have to cross the platform in those two minutes.

Answer 2

First. YES they will take the EuroPass. don't worry about that.

Second the Panoramic train, MAY or MAY NOT take the Europass.

I do not where you live, check with the Swiss Bureau of Tourism. They will have the answer, or sometime even the consulats.

Geneva-Bern, you will stop at Lausanne, as fas as I remember.

Second:  From Montreux go to Vevey (have some cold white wine at a restaurant) and from there go to Bern. Not much to see in Lausanne in one hour.

Also you may not have enough time for your connection in Zweisimmen (5 min.)  This is my opinion.

Do not forget :   TRAINS LEAVE ON TIME  (arriving even one min. late, you will miss it)

Yes, it is quite ambitious.

Have a nice trip anyway