In the meantime, I would like to understand the best solution for travelling between two Cantons on SBB trains.
I was considering Half travel card, GA, and the more I read, the more confused I become.
My primary requirement is travelling from point A to point B, crossing different cantons. In this case Luzern and Zurich.
Thank you in advance
It all depends how often, if it is daily then a GA is almost certainly cheapest option and you can explore Switzerland at the weekend too.
Hello and welcome to the Forum.
To begin your train-fare calculations, have a look here:
https://www.sbb.ch/en
Enter your starting point and destination, and note the single and return fares .
Please realise that the fares are typically quoted assuming you have a half-fare card. If you don’t, then you’d need to click on “full fare”. Multiply those fares by the anticipated number of times you think you’re likely to travel.
Here’s the explanation of the half-fare card :
https://www.sbb.ch/en/travelcards-an…ravelcard.html
It makes sense to buy one if you’re going to be able to amortise it over the year, i.e. if you will travel enough times at half-fare to make up for the cost of the initial outlay.
If your journey is frequent, on the same stretch each time, you might want a point-to-point ticket:
https://www.sbb.ch/en/travelcards-an…n-tickets.html
At some point, however, the total cost of your point-to-point journeys, plus any other trips you might make to other places (glorious way to explore Switzerland, by the way), it might be worth your while to buy an annual ticket (called GA , for Generalabonnement, in German):
https://www.sbb.ch/en/travelcards-an…passes/ga.html
If you’re living under the same roof as your family, then it’s worth looking into the discounted GA for family members , too. Scroll down to “for Duos” and “for families”. The first family member buys a full GA, but the others pay a substantially reduced price.
But that is all you can do all day long, for an extra Chf 1k you can go wherever you want, weekends included plus use all the city buses/boats that you want.....
This is very true, but also true they are new here and may not realise the full advantage of having a GA as opposed to a point to point ticket.
If they need to take a bus at each end for instance, that is Chf 2.-- x 2 in the morning and same in the evening, so a total of Chf 8.--, 200 days per year.......Chf 1'600.--
But you can go around switzerland every day , if you got the time or need
a change of scenery.
But then you cannot use the for example the tram to Enge. Or any other bus connection in Lucerne. Adding either full lucerne, or full Zurich will bring you close to the price of a GA. If you add a half fare card then you are over the price of a GA.
I can buy it monthly, as opposed to GA which has a minimum of 6 months.
GA can be paused for 1 month so you pay 11 months per year. That brings the price down to 3538 CHF / year.
Since the COVID pandemic they also introduced monthly GA, albeit it's more expensive. I bought it last summer 3 times in a row as I was traveling a lot. The price was 450chf if I remember correctly. IMO, if the estimated spending for tickets are close to GA - 100chf, it's better to take the GA for the peace of mind, also it's then motivating to do something during the weekends
I think you are wrong here, you can suspend it for 1 month, sure, but that doesn't mean you don't pay, you pay for it, just it becomes usable over 13 months rather than just 12, with 1 month suspension.