Train from Milan to Basel
 

I have been researching with Trenitalia and RailEurope.

The Trenitalia website shows tiny narrow boxes for inputting data (AAGGHH) and I can only read the top eighth of any letter or number I type in!. Is this my computer?? The other print is extra large!

Trenitalia is E75 for 2nd class and E110 for 1st clas. However, the first class price may be E119 as I can't really read it!

RailEurope is $116 and $184 respectively.

Is it worth the ease of using the RailEurope site and paying more?

I'm not sure what to request in terms of seat reservations (other than a window for the scenery!).

Is the first class seat worth the extra money (just over 4 hours for the journey)?

Any ideas for a day trip by train out of Basel?

Thanks as always......

Call Byron at BETS 800-441-2387; www.budgeteuropetravel.com and ask any questions about RailEurope fares - even if you are buying on trenitalia.com IME he or someone will expertly answer your questions whether you buy from them or not. 75 euros is about $100. Another reason to call and talk to someone is the RailEurope.com often IME does not always list the cheapest fare available so i always suggest a manual check.

Is it worth the ease? Well i've been reading about many folks who have become extremely frustrated at the fickle Trenitalia.com site - so it means how much worth it is it - spending often a few hours and then hitting a blank wall. I would try Trenitalia.com first and if you can't get it to work then turn to RE - or wait until Italy where the tickets should be readily available i would think - at full price, however - i am not sure if the 75 euro ticket is full fare or some online discounted fare.

Thanks for the advice.
It is not a 'restricted' fare; that box says unavailable.
The fare itself seems pretty reasonable,as we understand the journey itself is a scenic delight.
I will call Byron.

I live in Basel, there is lots to see, your day trip options are extensive, how far do you want to go?

If you are staying in a hotel in Basel, you'll be given a card that allows you to ride the trams and buses for free during your stay (up to a limit, you can't take the yellow trams that serve suburban routes all the way to their final stop...which in some lines is in another country!)

Popular day trip options include Luzern, Zurich, Bern, Freiburg am Breisgau (Germany), Colmar and Strasbourg (France), Rheinfelden (take a boat along the Rhine), Stein am Rhein.

I did a day trip all the way down to Wengen on Sunday.

Within the Basel city/canton, you can visit village-y suburbs like Ettingen or the more upscale suburbs like Riehen. You can visit the Roman ruins nearby or simply enjoy the city.

The trams are comfortable and frequent. They're upgrading some of the lines with extra-spiffy new trams. "My" line (the 14) hasn't been upgraded yet, but it's still pleasant to ride. If you ride the Tram 14 from Aeschenplats all the around its loop, you get a pretty good tour of the city, including the Altstadt, the convention center, the big Novartis campus, and back into the altstadt.

Oops, Aeschenplatz (with a z not an s). And apologies for any other spelling mistakes.

I took this route (eastern route via Lucern) in August. The train was less than 1/4 occupied. Since I didn't want to use RailEurope and I couldn't make Trenitalia accept my payment, I ended up buying tickets at a Trenitalia ticket window in Italy 3 days before the trip. I got the same price as the Trenitalia online price.

The train I traveled used plain TrenItalia IC cars. If I travel this route again, I would leave earlier on the western route on Cisalpino ETR trains and get nauseated in a Pendolino car...

www.cisalpino.com for Cisalpino trains Italy to Switzerland. a tilting train that gains speed over conventional trains because it can 'bend' going around curves in rugged terrain.

"Chis-alpino"

I'm doing something similar in summer. Have a week in Basel with a friend, then train to Interlaken for another week, then train to Milan.
I just called Byron at Budget Europe Travel and he is very helpful indeed, and pleasant. Thanks for the tip PalenQ

Hi PB,

> The other print is extra large!<

You can shrink the type with "CTRL + minus sign".

Enlarge it with "CTRL + plus sign".

See if that helps.

The current value of the Euro is $1.29.

((I))

Philbill - Ira has been extremely gracious is helping folks navigate the trick trenitalia.com site so ask him (or others too who have been helpful) if you need help).

PalenQ..unless I have misread there is one change of trains on Cisalpino and the Trenitalia train goes straight through. I may be wrong! You cannot book at this time on that site.

I called Byron but it went to a message machine so will try tomorrow.

Ira I will try the control feature! Haven't done so yet.

passerine..a wealth of info! We will have Friday afternooon, all day Sat. and over half a day Sunday in Basel. I booked the Hilton at a great rate as the site said it was close to the station (hope I have the right station!).

Thanks to all, Philbill

Oops..any thoughts on 2nd versus 1st class??????

For a 4-hour journey, I'd pop for 1st class.

I’m not surprised that Raileurope charges like wounded bulls, they do that a lot. You don’t need them.

The regular adult fare Milano-Basel is 75 Euros in 2nd and 119 Euros in first class, one way. Roundtrip is double.

Second class is plenty nice for most people, there is nothing “second-class” about it. But if you want to splurge on the slightly wider seats in first class, and maybe get a free coffee or newspaper (I’m not sure about that), that’s your call, of course, only you can decide if “it’s worth it” for the extra 44 Euros.

These trains very rarely fill up, so you don’t need to jump through hoops to book online unless you want to secure a discounted fare in advance. If you see an “Amica” fare, grab it. Do this only if you are absolutely sure you can make the train at the appointed time, since reservations are for specific seat numbers in specific carriage numbers on specific trains.

You may or may not end up riding on the “pendolino” Cisalpino train that leans into the curves, they break down a lot and the Swiss are getting frustrated because they have to supply trains of their own to fill in a lot - the Swiss are unhappy with the Italian maintenance workers in Milan...

Other than that, there is not much to it, you can buy your ticket on the day of your travel, even very late, and if worse comes to worst and you walk up to be told that the immediate departure is not available any longer, there will be another train very soon.

But if you have not booked a discounted ticket by the time you get to Milan, booking the trip a day or two in advance is not a bad idea - you can do it at any major train station, or at any travel agency in town that displays the FS logo (FS = Ferrovie dello Stato, Railways of the State). Just ask for a one-way ticket Milano-Basel in whichever class, and tell them on what day and at what time you want to go, and ask for a window seat.

In Switzerland the logo is SBB - Schweizerische Bundesbahnen = Swiss Federal Railways.

If the info you have been getting so far is not enough, tell us the exact date and time of your trip and we can help you figure out what you need to know.

From Basel you can easily go to a great many places by train, too many to list here in detail - Zürich, Luzern, Strasbourg, Rheinfelden (by boat!), Schaffhausen and the Rheinfall, Bern (nice old town center, seat of the federal government), Murten (picturesque walled-in fortified old town near a pretty lake), and on and on.

Look them up at www.rail.ch

I would think you should be able to get the Cisalpino Smart price (requires 14 day advance purchase) for 19€ (1st or 2nd cl are the same price).
http://www.trenitalia.com/cms/v/inde...003f16f90aRCRD

If you are checking prices on Trenitalia (the Italian train company - it's not the name of a train), you must enter a date further away than two weeks for the Smart price to show.

Kybouron,
I went on-site and entered everything but at the end got
"Impossible calcolare del prezzo".
I am trying to book for 2 people May 15th on the 7:25am train.

Also I got a pop up that said something about for connections after Domodossala passengers would find connections in Domodossala.

Can you help?

Thanks to all.

Trenitalia only lets you book 60 days in advance. If you want to price a train route or get times/routes, enter a date within the next 60 days (if you want smart prices enter a date at least 2 weeks from now, but not more than 60 days). Use the day of week you will be traveling. You will have to wait until mid-March to book for mid-May, but the prices/routes will be the same.

Another quirk of Trenitalia is pricing the slower local trains (R or D trains). You have to enter a date within the next 7 days.

Yes, observe the 60-day and 14-day time limits - mark our calendar...

Domodossola is the station at the south end of the Simplon tunnel, on the Swiss border. For technical reasons some trains now stop and pax have to switch to a train that carries on into Switzerland. Not a big deal, just a nuisance.

Thanks kybourbon and dalai..I will mark my calendar!!!!!
You have all been such a great help and I shall be looking at all the suggestions for day trips.

I saw a Cisalpino train the other day and the seats were looking a little worse for wear.

All things considered, I'd rather ride one of the brand new Swiss IC trains than the CIS. They're quite elegant, at least in first class. Second class looked nice too. I'd even take a new IC train over an ICE train.

It looks to me when viewing the Swiss site that all the trains leaving Milan are CIS; but with some changing to IC in Brig or Bern.
The journey takes longer than the CIS train which goes all the way through. I want to keep to one change if possible.

I do not think the Cisalpino trains IME are cattle cars at all but modern trains and if you can not have to change that's all the better. Cisalpino trains are run by the Italian railways and Swiss railways as a subsidiary i believe.

I can't get Trenitalia to show prices for ICE or Swiss IC trains. On the Swiss website, all the options are either a combo of IC+CIS or ICE+CIS or IC+IR trains and involve changes. The cheapest I see involves two train changes, 2nd class is 62€ (1st is 98€) and the trip takes two hours longer. I would much rather try to book the CIS 1st cl for the 19€ Smart fare and avoid the train changes. The Swiss website says half the CIS trains were to be replaced Dec 2008 and the rest mid-2009.

Phillbill - Trenitalia is difficult to use so there is no guarantee your purchase will actually go through. If it doesn't, I would contact my hotel and ask them to get tickets, making sure of times, train number, dates (Europe formats their dates differently)and that you want the 19€ Smart fare price. A 1st cl CIS ticket should entitle you to use the Club Eurostar lounge at Milan Centrale while waiting for the train to arrive.

This thread has gotten off the rails a bit... If you want to know about Cisalpino, look at the company website www.cisalpino.ch where it says (SBB meaning Schweizerische Bundesbahnen - Swiss Federal Railways):

"Cisalpino AG is a jointly-owned subsidiary of Trenitalia SpA and der SBB AG. Both companies hold an equal share in Cisalpino AG."
"Cisalpino operates all international services between Italy and Switzerland"
"The company’s main office is in Berne. Other offices are located in Zurich, Visp and Milan." [end of quote]

For the network info and network map go to
http://cisalpino.com/go/Destinations

As I have reported elsewhere, all is not well with the Cisalpino trains and the partnership. The Swiss are unhappy with the Italians in the company's maintenance works which are in Milano, the trains are breaking down too often, then Swiss rolling stock has to be substituted, and the Swiss are moving to bring the maintenance to Zürich because they think they could do a better job. But this is not going to happen anytime soon, there are contracts and unions to consider...

This summer new Cisalpino rolling stock will come into use, fast enough to come close to the newly approved speed limits (I think 250 km/h or so) in the new base tunnel through the Lötschberg.

But all that doesn't affect pricing - you pay for the fast train from Milan to Basel, and if it is rolling stock of the "Cisalpino" model XYZ or some other rolling stock that carries you - you have no control and there is no price difference. Remember the phrase from the website: ""Cisalpino operates all international services between Italy and Switzerland" - so you don't pick and choose.

"Off the rails" is just too funny yet so appropos!!

I intend to try to book via the website when the dates become available, but I have been told US credit cards may not be accepted on line. The concierge idea is a great one and should the web site not work I will go that route. Hadn't thought of that.

BTW Byron who specializes in train travel called back and was very accommodating.
Thanks again so much!

Dolly - When i've pointed out in the past that the Cisalpino group operates all trains between Italy and Switzerland, even quoting the Cisalpino language like you i was met with several critics who pointed out that that was simply not true.

So even the fancy new IC Swiss trains are Cisalpino trains. Hopefully the new Cisalpino labeled rolling stock will bring the comfort level up to the new Swiss IC trains.

Cheers - Polly

Phillbill - It might be possible to purchase or get the discount through the Swiss railsite if Trenitalia doesn't work. I tried to enter the info to see about prices and whether Smart fares were on their site, but it said they would e-mail with fares. It wouldn't hurt to e-mail and find out. Maybe they let your purchase further in advance.

Pal, don't be so definitive. The new IC trains are not yet serving Italy, so they would NOT be Cisalpino trains. From what I was told, they are serving routes within Switzerland, such as the train I took from Basel to Interlaken.
They may be added to Cisalpino line, but not yet.
At any rate, the CIS train I saw this week-end looked very shabby and not up to the standards I would expect in Switzerland itself, esp in first class on a "major" route.

Cisalpino: the most hated train in Switzerland.

Why?

They rock back and forth and many people get motion sickness. Having said that, I have had no problem at all.

They have smaller windows than other trains.

They are continuously late. Seriously. Worse than ever. Last time I waited 15 min. for the darn thing. A 15 min. wait is a big deal in Switzerland.

Switzerland's government is considering pulling the Italian maintenance contract and doing the maintenance on their own.

They are testing new Cisalpino trains but they have run into problems. Don't expect them for awhile.

Passerine - thanks for the info. I was thinking the new CIS trains may be as nice as the IC in Swiss trains - apparently the current stable of CIS trains is not up to par - i'll take your word for that.

Swiss vs Italians a long running story

everything in Switzerland is so so clean and well kept - not just the trains but everything

quite the opposite in Italy.

When you cross from Swiss areas to Italian areas you notice the woodpiles in Alpine areas - all evenly stacked on the Swiss side - haphazard on the Italian side. Ditto for France - even the French Swiss part has woodpiles not so evenly as the German parts - i remember on the Golden Pass line noticing that - around Chateau d'Oex not so even - toward Spiez all very even.

Well, Byron told me that the rules have changed and you can now book 90 days out.
So, on to the web site of Trenitalia. It would not let me book the Smart fare so I retried with the Standard and sure enough I could book that.
However, the 75 Euros 2nd class is a lot more than either of the Smart fares, so I wondered if anyone (esp. kybourbon or Dalai) had any further ideas?? The Swiss site has no deals that I could find.
Everything is coming together thanks to all of you.

TTT..this new format is a little strange!

Just reporting back...eventually could book a second class Smart fare but after payment with Visa would not go through.
Got an email from Trenitalia asking for proof of ID and said they would get back to me within 48 hours..still waiting.
Has anyone experienced this???