Swiss transportation and queries

Transportation, Travel and Trips
1
Hi,

Could someone please tell me which would be beneficial to buy in my scenario?

1. I will get SBB half fare card from the employer. This I might get after 5 th day of my arrival in Zurich. One of my friend told me Half fare is only best for long distance and for short commute , you don't get to enjoy benefit of half fare. If that's case I live in same district as my office , i might require to travel thrice weekly including night travel ( 8pm or 9pm). Presently when i look at the viable convient options I Could find bus , trains that takes less time to reach and can avoid traffic too. Most probably i choose train or bus depending on the time of commute and easy access to it.

Buying tickets everytime looks little cumbersome for me as of now as I am still familiarising and getting comfortable.

I am aware about easy ride but for that I need bank account to login and register which currently I don't have . Next month till salary gets credited my card is going to be empty

So i feel I can't make use of easy ride in the first month

2.Hence would you suggest to use my employer half card on short trips , does it work on short trips .? Or buy zone 110 monthly pass?

I have my family coming with me for initial two weeks so if they want to travel on their own without worrying much ,would you suggest zonal or Switzerland pass ?buying day pass everyday is it worth it? in their case bec they will return from Zurich on July 16th If then which pass best recommended . Only concern we have is incase we accidentally got into wrong train or tram based on Rome to rio app or Google app will be fined or so.

3. Does the ticket vending machine has Zurich day pass , Switzerland day pass, tickets for trams or bus?

Or is it seperate vending machine?

2
Half price works on almost all ticket purchases both short and long haul.

3
You can buy tickets super quickly through the app, you don’t have to use easy ride.

I’m not sure, but maybe the half fare gives you half price on the zone tickets?

You could also get a GA, which gives you free unlimited travel.

4
How I use it, the SBB app:

I do have the half card --> I go to the office 2 days / week --> you can add any card ( Revolut is also accepted ) and click on a destination : you will see the prices and then you can click again on the return button. This way you buy a 24 hour ticket for the zones which you selected in your route. And you can take anything ( bus , tram, train ) in the zones which you purchased the ticket.

For the family, I do know you can buy from ZVV a monthly pass for 90 ( or more ) CHF which contain most zones of the Zurich area --> and one of this cards is transmittable ( so you can try selling them after they leave )--> for EX : I bought for 20 CHF a card which I've used to go by boat / cable car / any transport available in the Zurich area and it had 14 days availability

You can look thru this page : https://www.zvv.ch/zvv/de/abos-und-t...9-uhrpass.html

Hope it helps

5
Fairtiq app on your smart phone allows travel anywhere in Switzerland. You lodge your credit card and opt for half fare.

Fairtiq makes all the calculations for you - like 24 hour ticket if that’s the cheapest option...

6
But not on monthly and yearly passes. Alsos the reduction on short trips is not 50%.

Example for a 1-2 Zone ticket in ZVV Zurich.

A full 24h ticket costs CHF 8.80, a "Half-fare" CHF 6.20

A half-fare 6x multitrip 24h ticked costs CFH 35.20 (CHF 5.866 per ticket)

A personal monthly pass costs CHF 85 (pays for it self after 15 days or 3.46 days a week)

A personal one year pass costs CHF 782 (pays for it self after 134 days or 2.56 days per week)

7
This was very informative. I didn't know return ticket would make it 24hr. I was in the perception if i get to and fro ticket it's only from the point you drop and point you board. If by adding return it covers all routes and stopovers without paying anything extra for stop over in route that makes life easy

8
For you, OP, let's just say you go into your office on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. While your family is with you, you're not going to sit at home from Thursday to Sunday, but will be out and about with them. In fact, that will probably be true even after they leave. Therefore, I think it would be well worth your money (and convenience) to have a month-card for Zone 110. This is what many commuters use. For a whole month, you can then hop on, hop off, all day long until the buses and trams stop shortly after midnight, or you mgiht choose to use a night bus at 2h or 3h on Saturday morning, after Friday night out, or Sunday morning, after Saturday night out.

A month starts on any day you designate, not necessarily on the 1st of a calendar month.

Once you've been here for a month, and got everything set up with your salary and bank account, etc., you'll then be able to decide whether, for the second month, to just buy another such month-card, or whether to decide on a year-card for zone 110, or for a larger area (more zones) or for the whole country (GA).

9
The 24-hours starts whenever you buy the ticket.

For your family members, let's just say they're early risers and will set off, with you, when you go to work, let's say on Monday at 7h15. Right then they can start a 24-hour ticket. Then, while you're at work - as long as they stay in the zone they bought (I recommend Zone 110, as there is lots to see), they, too, can hop on and off all day. They might join you for work or meet you after work. Then, together, you could do something in the city in the evening, and all go home. Or, they might take an afternoon nap back at home and then come into the city again to fetch you after work. Their 24-hour ticket runs up until Tuesday at 7h14.

Some tourists do this: set off on Monday at 7h15, look at the city, sleep, and then go into town again the next day 30 or 45 minutes' earlier, so as to be off the public transport (but already in town) on Tuesday at 7h14. Then they can have a swim, eat their picnic in the park, visit a museum and a view a church, but all on foot, near the city centre. Then they buy their next 24-hour ticket at, say, Tuesday 18h, to go home. And that will include rides all day Wednesday up until 17h59. So they could even plan to use that same ticket to get back home again, off the last bus or tram before Wednesday at 17h59.

10
A few clarification:

The 24h rules only apply to tickets valid in the ZVV transport region (canton Zurich plus a little bit more. FAQ about the ZVV transport region ). If you travel outside that area a return ticket is usually only valid till the end of the last run of the day. This might be as late as 5am of the next day. In that case the validity period just shows the current date.

A return ticket usually costs exactly twice the price of a single journey ticket.

As doropfiz says, in the 24h period you can ride as often as you wish. Furthermore, in the ZVV transport region even a single journey ticket is also valid for as many trips as you can during the validity period.

A long distance SBB ticket allows to do as many stopovers and sightseeing along the way as you wish. However, you cannot travel backwards.

If bought in advance, the SBB has super saver tickets for long distance at a reduced prices. However, there you must use a specific train and cannot change that (some exceptions apply if there are delays along the rout and you can not make a connection).

11
I will get swiss pass and half fare card from employer,will i be able to use that on zone 110 pass and get reduced price? And Is this zone 110 transferable to third person if we didn't use it whole month,bec my family is with me for two weeks only

12
Technically the half-fare card is called the "half-tax" card (Halbtax) and, as somebody else said, is not half the full fare - it's the child/concession fare.

The half-tax card is personalised - only you can use that card.

Other people can also have a half-tax card, and then if you buy a paper ticket at the concession rate, you can hand it over to them to use as long as it's valid.

A point to remember is that for the point-to-point travel cards (Streckenabo) for a month or a year, for the annual pass you can have it personalised (only you can use it) or transferable (anyone can use it).

A personalised one is cheaper and, if you lose it or it's stolen, you can get it replaced.

A transferable one costs more, and they will not replace it if it's lost or stolen.

An extra option, if you have kids (under 16) who will be here more often, is that you can buy a special ticket for them (30 francs per year) and whenever they ride with you or their other parent (specified by name on the card) then you don't need to pay for their ticket if you have a valid ticket for yourself and are traveling with them.

This would make sense if you know they're often traveling with you or your partner, and they'll be doing so enough that buying individual tickets for them would cost more than 30 francs in the whole year.

To be honest, your best option is to walk into a SBB (or ZVV) ticket office, explain your situation (the staff all speak excellent English, if you're worried about your ability to communicate in German), and ask their advice.

They work hard to give customers the best deal, even though there's no competing service you could choose instead. Sometimes they'll suggest things which few people know about, in order to give you the lowest price for what you want.

13
Hi all,

This is to inform all that I have settled down slowly and within 1day I got adapted to swiss transportation., Found it very easy to transport. Thank you so much for useful Post and replying to this thread