marketzero8991
Traveller
1 comments
Posted 10 months ago
I’m looking at reserving seats between Milano Centrale and Geneva however I can’t find any direct trains to reserve seats between the two cities. Even weirder, I can buy full price fares on Trenitalia and Trainline for a direct train. I’ve checked OBB, the Interrail seat reservation service website, not to much avail. Can anyone help? I understand that there is an option to take multiple trains between the two cities, but I just want to take the fastest, most straightforward route as I am a first time interrailer.
Flo
Traveller
10723 comments
Hi!
When?
Flo
marketzero8991
Traveller
1 comments
23/08/2023, around midday
Arend7
Traveller
594 comments
There is no fast straightforward route from Milano to Geneve. The fastest is over Zürich. The most straightforward is over Brig through the Alps, pretty scenic, very slow.
MisterSteve
Traveller
920 comments
There IS a fast straightforward route from Milano to Geneve. It is via Brig and normally this would take just over 4 hours. Unfortunately it is severely restricted for most of the summer by engineering work on the Simplon Tunnel line. The train you are looking for is EC34 at 13:05 from Milano Central but during the closure this only runs to the border station at Domodossola and there is a long wait for a local train to Brig. Omio may sell full price tickets because they are not fixed to specific trains or direct trains. The journey is still possible but takes much longer because of the waiting for onward trains. Online journey planners are often biased towards fastest journey or least connections unless you alter the parameters. Via Zurich is neither fastest nor most direct but at that hour is the least connections. But by full price tickets is also the most expensive. On that date there are three options in a short period,
12:43 by local train to Lugano/fast train to Olten/fast train to Geneve arrive 18:47 (fastest)
13:05 by EC34 to Domodossola/local train to Brig/fast train to Geneve arrive 19:18 (shortest but 2 hours slower than usual)
13:10 by EC to Zurich/IC to Geneve arrive 19:47 (longest, slowest and most expensive if paying full price)
The Olten option does not require reservations. Via Domodossola or Zurich you need to reserve the first part.