Purchasing a ticket from one city to another with a few hours stop in middle

Katelewasivad43

I would like to purchase a ticket from Zurich to Zermatt and get off the train at several places along the way to wander around those towns. I do not want to get on the next soonest connection, rather I want to get on a connection an hour or two later. Do I need to plan this in advance when I buy my ticket? Can I buy one ticket from Zurich to Zermatt on the route I want and then use it for any time train on that route? thank you!

Danhiel

Hello Katelewasivad43

No problem if you buy a point-to-point ticket, you are allowed to do this, but not to use another route. For example, if you buy a ticket via Bern you cannot travel via Lucerne. It is not necessary to buy such tickets in advance.

Another option is a Saver Day Pass, you can travel everywhere in Switzerland during the day of validity (except for mountain excursions). You must buy such passes in advance and they are not refundable.

Kind regards
Danhiel

RolandP

Hello Katelewasivad43

If you purchase a Point-to-Point ticket you can take as many stops as you want along the way yet no backtracking.

With a Saver Day Pass you can ride the entire network at will, and take as much stops as you want.

A Supersaver ticket is out of question, it becomes invalid when you leave the train.

Kind regards.
Roland

Katelewasivad43

RolandP Thank you. I want to take the Glacier Express route and get off along the way to take photos and walk around a town or two so I don’t want to take the Glacier Express itself. I am planning on getting a Half Fare card, so I it sounds like I would buy either a point to point ticket from Zurich to Zermatt via Andermatt (as an example) or a Saver Day Pass for that route and then I could stop walk around, take photos and get on the next train that arrives along that route (obviously checking that there is a next train 🙂

Tafunge25

If you buy a regular point-to-point ticket, you can get off at any intermediate stop and get back on again. The ticket is valid on any train on that day and it is explicitly allowed to get off and continue the journey on a later train. Note that you may not take a different route than what is indicated on your ticket (In your case, that would probably be passing via Bern, Spiez, Visp) but you may chose to take slower trains, if they run on the same line. Your ticket is not valid to do an additional detour to also walk around Lucerne, for example.
Note that this does not work with Supersaver’s tickets.

Krist

For what you want to do a saver day pass is probably going to be the best option. You must buy that in advance though.