Trenitalia - Luzern to Milan
 

I want to get a ticket for a trip from Luzern to Milan on July 13. Now, when I check Trenitalia's site and try to select a ticket, I get the message "Solution not available". It seems for nearly every departure time (except for one, oddly), there is not ticket available. Is this because the tickets are sold out, or I won't be able to purchase one for some other reason? I'm concerned, because I have hostels booked around my travel dates and would need to reschedule all of those. Would I be able to get a ticket or reserve a seat when I arrive at the station? It seems weird that there is nothing available for this trip (I'm not also not a fan of Trenitalia's poorly designed site).

You need to buy on the Swiss website not Trenitalia since you are departing from Switzerland.
www.sbb.ch

Look for saver fares that have to be advanced purchase. You might be able to get it for 25chf.

The only train you can buy on this route from Trenitalia are the ones entirely operated by Trenitalia. There are only a few of them such as 8:18-11:50 EC153. Otherwise, you have to use the train company of the departure city country.

Do I still need to make a seat reservation? I'm actually using a eurail pass, so I don't need the ticket itself.

Thanks! I was starting to get really worried about the train schedules.

There are two aspect of the reservation. Answering "yes" to either requires a reservation.

1. Does the train require reservation irrespective of the loading? I presume you have not looked at www.sbb.ch as recommended? If you did and looked up EC153, for example, you should have seen the "R" in square box in the travel information column. If you look at the legend at the bottom, "R" in a square box is "Reservation compulsory." If is not up to you to decide whether to make a reservation on these train. Most of the train that runs this route are "EC" trains with compulsory reservation requirement. There are a few runs with IR and ICN trains not needing reservation.

2. Is it necessary? If you have chosen a few non "EC" run of the day, is it necessary because of the loading? Probably not, but not one knows. But 7/13 is a Friday. Some folks who take this route more often might be able to comment.

Someone reported here recently that there were disruptions and cancellations in Switzerland because of landslides.

Here's a link with information:

http://fahrplan.sbb.ch/bin/help.exe/...owmap_external