I have been booked on a train from Luzern to Paris with a connection in Basel. My schedule shows I have 11 minutes to switch trains. It also shows the train from Luzern arrives at Basel SBB train station and my connecting train to Paris leaves the Basel SNCF train station. I think these are in the same building. Does anyone know how these 2 train stations are set up and can I possibly make this connection?!?

The Luzern - Basel train is quite prompt so unless you have unusually bad luck, the train should arrive on-time or within a couple of minutes.

So long as that happens, you should have no problem with the connection.

To get to the TGV platforms, once you get off the train in Basel, go up one of the escalators and at the top, take a 90 degree turn and head to the main hall of the train station.(I can't remember if that means walking towards the lower platform numbers or the highter numbers, you can ask someone for directions to the ticket booth which is in the main hall). Once you find the main hall and take another escalator down into it, you will see on the left side of the hall(near the train station exit), a hallway about 100 yards long with some shops on either side.

At the end of the hall is the entrance to the platforms for France. Be aware that you will need to go through a passport control at that point.

From my personal experience the long distance international trains like the TGV to Paris tend to leave a couple of minutes later than scheduled so that everyone has had a chance to make the train.

I had a similar question and got a few responses. No one has given me specifics on the EXACT routing between these two stations: whether the passage between these two stations are located at the head of the train or the tail of the train, etc.


http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...greg&fid=2

In 90% of the cases, you will make the connection. But there IS a slight chance that the incoming train may be late for just a few minutes, and then things will become tight, especially if you have baggage.

If it is very important to catch exactly this TGV then I would probably take an earlier train from Luzern.

Hi mr,

Look up Basel at www.viamichelin.com

It's about 150 meters from Basel SBB to Basel SNCF.

pdf-map (1,3MB) of the Basel SBB/SNCF station: http://mct.sbb.ch/mct/situationsplan_basel_sbb.pdf

As far as I know, Basel SBB is tracks 1-17, basel SNCF tracks 30-35 (lower right corner).

I have worried about and done this connection with just 8 minutes and I had time to spare.

You don't always need to go through passport control as sometimes it is not even manned - esp. in the direction you are headed.

You will have to hustle a bit, but I doubt your Swiss train will be late. Unless it's coming out of Italy, I've never been on a late Swiss train in 15 months living here.

Just ask the conductor as you exit to point you in the right direction so you don't waste time looking for your connecting train.

gruezi

A few years ago I would have said it's a piece of cake, but now it's certainly doable but as gruezi noted, you may have to hustle a bit.
The Basel train station has had a MAJOR renovation (and expansion). So it depends on which platform you arrive at in Basel SBB.

Basel SBB and Basel SNCF are basically different wings of the same station...like the "regular" part of Brussels Gare du Midi and the Eurostar/TGV/UCE/Thalys wing (of course, Eurostar has check-in requirements the other high speed trains don't).

If you are nervous about the connection, take an earlier train. There's plenty in and around the renovated Basel station to occupy you for an hour--cafe, shops, even a Sprungli chocolate shop (although I prefer the "home grown" Basel chocolates from Schiesser).

IF you're not on the first TGV of the day and if you've never been to Basel, you might want to also consider arriving in Basel about 3 hours early, storing your luggage in a locker, and taking a peek into Basel's attractive old town. Very easy to do.

Looking at the map Nautiker mentioned, it looks like the passageway from SBB for SNCF is located at the FRONT of the train?

Looking at the NORTH marker, I am presuming that trains coming from Switzerland arrive at the station from the lefthand side of the map?

http://mct.sbb.ch/mct/situationsplan_basel_sbb.pdf

You would most likely make your TGV train. However, I will still plan on arriving in Basel earlier just in case. You do not need reservation on the Swiss train but TGV always requires a reservation and I would hate to miss it.

In our nine weeks of train travel in 2007 (with Swiss passes), we only had one late train; just 10 minutes but enough to miss our planned connection.