How much of a trip to milan do i need to pay?

Transportation, Travel and Trips
1
I just thought I'd ask here, if you don't mind. Maybe someone knows the answer!

I'm taking the train to Milan and I already have a 'GA PASS' which means I can go anywhere in Switzerland on public transport. The train is direct from Zurich to Milan. I think therefore I just need to pay the Italy part of the journey ... but how do I work it out exactly? What ticket do I need to buy?

Thanks. Probably I should just go to the SBB desk coz it seems quite a complicated question

2
You assume right. You only have to buy the Chiasso-Milano part. The rest is covered by the GA.

3
From the last stop in Switzerland.

Unless you are taking a slow train, that would be Lugano.

Tom

4
I think you can simply buy a ticket Chiasso - Milan on trenitalia.com for the exact train you are planning to be on

5
I guess covid had changed a few things. There are no direct trains. The ones still running are the ones that make a lot of stops, including Chiasso.

BUt, this is good. With all the comments, OP can now formulate a better question at SBB counter.

6
Indeed, I just checked, even the direct train now stops and can be boarded at Chiasso.

Tom

7
But, Tom is right. Train ticket must be bought from the last station covered by Swiss AG, no matter if it's still 30 min to the border.

8
In railway jargon, "direct" means that you don't have to change train. Trains from Zürich to Milan have always been direct and always had 5-6-7 intermediate stops.

This is the general rule in CH for calculating when a zone-based ticked ends its validity: one must look at the last actual stop of each train.

In other words: you can change ticket only when you could also physically change train.

My recommendation in this case is to book through the Trenitalia website. When selecting the seat class and price one can choose "other offers" and then "GA Switzerland": the website will calculate the appropriate price and issue a single ticket, which will be bound to the specific train for the Italian stretch (as always). Since the ticket will say "Zürich to Milan" there will be no confusion.

EDIT: I never tried before with the SBB system so I did a simulation. The same functionality (single ticket with GA discount) is present on the SBB website, and for a Zürich-Milan travel the suggested price is 19.- CHF while Trenitalia offers 17,00 EUR - so more or less the same result.

9
You don't have to buy it from the last station. You either go online and choose the trip from Zürich to Milan and then when it comes to the part where you put in reductions, you choose GA.

It will then automaically charge you only for the part outside of Switzerland.

If you plan to buy your ticket at a counter, same process. Just mention you have a GA and they will do the same. Simples.

10
Almost: 15% for Austria and Germany, 20% for France (Lyria services). Nothing for Italy.

https://www.sbb.ch/en/travelcards-an...nefits-ga.html

11
Thanks for the correction. I always go North, so assumed it was the same for Italy. Post Edited.

12
It's definitely worth spending a minute or so checking both ways.

In this case it's roughly the same but for a longer distance in Italy, the differences can be considerable.

The SBB system can book you a ticket but they don't have access to Trenitalia's system so if there are any cheaper tickets or special offers, you won't have access to them.

It makes a much bigger difference if you are going onwards from Milan to Rome or Venice.

To the OP and others:

For all the ways of booking tickets, The Man at Seat 61 website is the best.

For those who have never travelled by train in Italy - getting the train to Milan and onwards to Venice is great - stepping out of the station at Venice and being right in the middle of it all is fantastic.

The High-speed train to Rome is amazing too.

13
Would definitely buy a ticket for the whole route and use GA for the discount - otherwise you won’t have a seat reservation for whole journey.

14
So the general rules are as follows:

- A national ticket covers you to the last actual stop before crossing an international border when exiting.

- A national ticket covers you from the first actual stop after crossing an international border when entering.

- For non stop international trips one or both national carriers may offer you a discount for having a particular card when you buy a single ticket for the whole of your journey

- And like all good rules there are exceptions ;-)

15
How did people survive before the Internet?

16
When we were kids:

Cheap rail tickets were offered on the side of Kelloggs cornflakes packets.

(You could make use of them if you hadn't already choked on the plastic toy inside the packet with the cereal).

Otherwise, it was a trip to the library to get out the relevant Lonely Planet book.

Next question?

17
By going to the library to make copies of travel guides Then travel 3-4k km away from home by bus and find out the hostel was indeed there.

18
Very, very well, thanks.

19
It was pretty easy actually.

20
It was more of a challenge - but a nice one - for longer trips. Lots of background reading and sometimes many, many phone calls.

But everything was easier as you said.

French cars, for example, had registration plates which told you which geographical department they were from so when you were hitching-hiking, you knew which cars to target.

Stuff didn't go out of date so quickly either so older information was usually still valid.

We may have more information now but I think the quality of the information we used to have was better.