Commuting from Lucerne-Zug vs. Horgen-Zug

Transportation, Travel and Trips
1
Hello!

We are moving to Switzerland early next year, and different people have recommended Horgen or Lucerne as possibilities for us to live. My husband will be working in Zug, and when I do work I will be self-employed (hopefully) so location isn't an issue for me. We aren't planning on buying a car.

We've been told the train commute from Horgen to Zug is excellent - around 30 minutes from station to station. Does anyone know what the commute from Lucerne to Zug is like? His current commute here in Australia varies from 45 minutes - 1.5 hours by car, and he's actually quite looking forward to being able to chill out on the train.

Also, I will post this in the taxation forum, but does anyone know the difference in tax rates in the two cantons? From looking at apartment rentals in Horgen vs. Lucerne, Lucerne seems to have the advantage - bigger, nicer & much cheaper (as much as you can tell from a website, anyway!).

Thanks in advance!

2
Hi,

You seem to be doing something very similar to what I have just done / just finishing up!

I have been in switzerland since the beginning of August and was originally looking at both Horgen/ Lucerne and Zug. Also I was previously doing 1 - 1.5 hour commute each day! My wife and child will be joining me in a week (finally) to settle in our flat!

Before arriving I had my heart on Horgen but upon arrival I had more chance to go around all locations before chosing where to live. My wife has family in Horgen hence why we initially wanted to stay there but when i looked around it didnt seem to have as much of an atmosphere as I had been hoping for! Don't get me wrong I'm not a party animal or anything but It was very quiet! But the benefits ar ethat its mid way between Zug and Zurich so you have easy access to both and have a direct train to the airport as well if need be! Beautiful views over the lake.

Lucerne is beautiful but you would need ot check about the commute! I think this commute is slightly more then to horgen based on the one train journey ive taken to lucerne! But i dont think it would be noticable to your hubby!I think you can tell I don't know as much about Lucerne as I do Horgen!

www.sbb.ch is a very good website to bookmark! This allows you to put in your complete journey not just station to station to give you an idea about commute time and also has an icon for how busy they expect the train to be!

I'm not sure of the taxation difference but i think www.comparis.ch should be able to help! You can select your canton etc and it will tell you how much tax to expect to pay!

Our personal choices have resulted us getting a beautiful flat in Cham (7 minutes from Zug on the train) in non of the places we originally chose to look at. The flat cost somewhat more then Lucerne and Horgen (about 500 more then I originally wanted to spend per month) but is worth it! Not sure of how it is where you currently are but I have come from London and the life style shift has been amazing so come the summer instead of the train I will be cycling into work along the Lake Zug! I can't wait!

Things to take note of:

1) Housing is Very difficult to get here! I was rejected from 2 apartments and took the whole 2 months to find it There is a huge demand for each apartment here

2) From my understanding tenants can move out at 3 main points during the year. One was today (1st October) the next I believe is March (please correct me if im wrong) so you may not have a massive selection if you are arriving in Jan!But I haven't experienced this first hand just from what I have been told!

3) Are the company your husband workgin for providing temporary accommodation while you find your apartment? Will they provide a relocation company as well?

4) You can search for apartments on www.comparis.ch as well to get an idea about prices and size etc.

5. Language - Not speaking German myself I was a bit nervous about coming here but everyone is very polite and will try their hardest to accomodate!

Other places to look:

Cham

Baar

Zug

Personally the time saved on the commute now is a god send with a 4 month year old baby!

Best of luck

Ed

3
Look at the sbb website. There will be local trains from Lucern to Zug that stop a lot and there will be fast ones that stop once or twice if you are talking about from Lucern main station. The fast trains will be 22 minutes the slower ones 40 odd.

4
Thank you both!

I'm worried now about getting an apartment - how odd that tenants can only move out three times a year. I'm really looking forward to getting to know Switzerland and all of its quirks.

I will check out those websites. Much appreciated.

5
Horgen to Zug, you will have to change trains, usually in Thalwil or Zurich Main Station. You have to travel in towards zurich and then out to Zug. Luzern to Zug is direct. Timewise it's about the same depending on it stops at lots of the inbetween stations or just a few. Train services are generally very good.

I would agree with what one of the other people suggested, about looking in Zug, Baar, Cham, Steinhausen as places to live too. They are all within canton Zug and that's the lower tax canton.

Luzern is a very nice city, Horgen is a lot smaller.

You can also look on www.homegate.ch for apartments, and once you get here there is a magazine/book that comes out every Friday with rental properties listed in it. It's called Amtsblatt and is pale blue about A2 sized. They also have a website www.amtsblatt.ch where rentals are listed.

Good Luck with the move.

6
This is not true. Horgen has more than one train station and there are several direct trains from Horgen Oberdorf to Zug or Baar. They are S Bahnen and not fast connections but they are direct. The fastest connection takes 13 minutes.

7
Very true but one thing to note is that Horgen Oberdorf is up the hill somewhat so depending on your personal fitness or personal situation e.g. young children in buggies this may be something worth noting!

You do get absolutely stunning views up there of Lake Zurich. My wifes cousins own a place there with panoramic views of the lake and it is a view to die for!

8
OOps sorry, forgot about the Oberdorf station! I was just thinking of the main train station.