My family is planning to travel on June 19 from the Cinque Terre to Lauterbrunnen. We will be using rail passes. Questions:<BR>1) We will need to get to Milan and would like to spend a little time there. So, planning to take the Cisalpino train from Milan to Spiez at 5:10 p.m. Is travelling by Cisalpino a good idea? How dependable is the 5:10 departure time from Milan?<BR>2) We will be on a bit of a tight schedule in making train connections in Spiez and then again in Interlaken. How dependable are the departure and arrival times in Switzerland? Somewhat concerned with being stranded in Interlaken, unable to get to Lauterbrunnen where we have hotel reservation.<BR>3) We know we must buy tickets for the Interlaken to Lauterbrunnen train. Can we buy them on the train?<BR><BR>Thanks.

I guess Amtrak reputation is indelible!!<BR>Swiss trains are punctual.<BR>The last train from Interlaken Ost leaves for Lauterbrunnen at 11:38.<BR>I don't know why you cannot buy the last leg of your ticket from Interlaken Ost to Lauterbrunnen when you buy the rest of the ticket.<BR>If you can't, it is my understanding that you can pay the conductor.<BR><BR>Why do you think the connections will fail you, and why do you think riding the Cisalpino might be a bad idea??

PS. You have 8 minutes for the connection in Spiez and 15 minutes in Interlaken Ost. If you miss the 20:00 connection, there is a later one at 20:07 and another at 21:00 to Interlaken Ost.<BR>That should be sufficient; I have made shorter ones. The Spiez station is fairly small, so one train should be close to the other. The Swiss do try to coordinate those things.<BR>

The 5.10 Cisalpino will leave Milan at 5.10, not 5.09 or 5.11, but 5.10 exactly.<BR>The connections at Spiez and Interlaken are 99.99% guaranteed.

My experience with the Swiss rail system is that you can quite literaly set your watch by their departure and arrival times. It became a bit of a game to watch the station clocks, which have sweep second hands, to see how punctual the trains were - the latest departure I saw in three vacations in Switzerland was 15 seconds! I can only assume the engineer was subject to some sort of reprimand. Eight minutes in Spiez is plenty, 15 minutes in Interlaken Ost is an eternity.