DavidB
Traveller
0 comments
Posted 12 years ago
I guess the core of my query is how much time is reasonable to allow for when connecting between trains?
I haven't been able to find comments about this anywhere.
We'll have 3 people travelling on a Eurail Select pass. None of us have travelled by train in Europe before, other than a Bodø-Oslo overnighter last year.
[b]Hannover-Interlaken[/b]
We'll be starting in Hanover and needing to get to Interlaken on the 20th of June 2012.
I have found a connection which looks great for overall timing:
Train: IC 2277
08:01 HannoverHbf, dep.
08:38 Göttingen, arr.
Train: ICE 375
08:55 Göttingen, dep.
15:57 Interlaken Ost, arr.
Is a scheduled 17-minute connection reasonable at Göttingen?
An all-day trip fits into our plans as we'll at least see some of the countryside (first visit to Germany).
[b]Interlaken-Milan[/b]
Then on the 30th June we need to get from Interlaken to Milan.
We'll actually be coming from Grindelwald that morning so amazingly-early starts could be tricky.
The two suggestions I've seen are:
Afternoon
---------
Interlaken 1200 - Spiez 1221: ICE 290
Spiez 1405 - Milano 1638: Train 57
1h44m connection in Spiez definitely leaves lots of lee-way, but we're eating into our Milan stay.
Morning
-------
Interlaken 0900 - Bern 0952: Train 962
Bern 1002 - Zuerich 1058: Train 819
Zuerich 1109 - Milano 1450: Train 17
I like the overall timing of this, as we have an extra 2 hours in Milan (we're leaving the next morning).
However, are scheduled connections of 10 minutes in Bern and 11 minutes in Zurich reasonable?
We're not disabled or particularly slow (ages in the 40s) and are fairly experienced at racing around airports/etc. It's just the big unknown of a new (to us) travel system and the need for these legs to go smoothly...
We have later train legs in Italy, but I'm pretty confident I've built in enough lee-way that we should be able to cope with Trenitalia.
Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks!
Flo
Traveller
10724 comments
Hej,
hopefully you have purchased your EuRail passes here at railcc - to support our work here answering questions like yours. :)
17 minutes is easily enough to change in Göttingen, given that the train is on time, of course (which you can never predict).
Switzerland has some of the best punctuality figures in Europe and connection times are usually slim but always long enough to be able to change. So you dont have to worry...if you are in doubt where to go in Bern, just ask the conductor who will tell you which platform you'll have to go to get your connection to Zürich.
Anway, if you want to see some of the countryside of Switzerland as well, think about investing some extra time and go via Meiringen - Luzern - Arth-Goldau instead which is a really nice scenic line. :)
Or, go to Spiez and then via Goppenstein to Brig where you can catch an EC train to Milano.
Remember that you will need a compulsory reservation for any CH <> IT EC train which is 10€.
Flo 8)