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UK to Switzerland by train...
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Taking the train to Switzerland: On
board an evening TGV from Paris to Lausanne, 1st
class, from just 55 euros (£35) each... |
It's easy to travel from
the UK to Switzerland by train. It's also civilised,
comfortable and affordable, a much less stressful and far more
environmentally-friendly alternative to flying. Take
Eurostar from London to Paris in just 2 hours 15 minutes for
as little as £59 return, then take a high-speed TGV train from
Paris to Geneva, Lausanne, Bern or Zurich for as little as £22
each way. Or as little as £44 in 1st class! Unlike
a flight, that's city centre to city centre, with no baggage
fees, no airport taxes, bring your own bottle of wine for the
journey if you like, and infants go free. Paris-Geneva
takes just 3½
hours and there's great scenery in the French Alps on the way.
This page will explain the best routes, train times, fares, and how
to buy tickets both online and by phone.
On this page...
London to Basel & Zurich
London to Bern
London to Geneva
London to Lausanne, Montreux, Gstaad
London to Interlaken,
Grindelwald, Jungfrau region
London to
Brig, Zermatt, Matterhorn area
London to Chur, Klosters, Davos, St Moritz, Engadin region
For the best
map of the Swiss rail network,
click here.
The Jungfraubahn mountain railway
to the Top of Europe.
On other pages...
The Glacier Express scenic
train from Zermatt to St Moritz
Connecting from other UK
towns & cities
Taking bikes
Dogs
Luggage
Left
luggage facilities in Paris
General info
Sponsored links:
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It's easy to
travel from London to Basel or Zurich by train, taking
Eurostar to Paris, a
10 minute walk
from the Gare du Nord to the Gare de l'Est, then a direct
Paris-Switzerland high-speed TGV on the brand-new TGV-Est
line, opened in June 2007. It's affordable, too, London to
Basel starts at £119 return, city centre to city centre.
The TGVs from Paris to Basel & Zurich are run by Lyria, a
consortium of the French and Swiss national railways.
Train
times...
The new
TGV-Est high-speed line opened on 10 June 2007,
replacing conventional trains with high-speed TGVs and
slashing journey times from Paris to Basel & Zurich. A wonderful
and relaxing way to travel!
London
► Basel & Zurich
|
|
Eurostar
(30 min check-in): |
Mon-Sat |
Daily |
Mon-Thur
* |
Fri * |
Sun * |
Daily
* |
|
London St Pancras depart: |
07:20 |
13:10 |
19:39 |
19:39 |
19:39 |
19:39 |
|
Paris Gare du Nord arrive: |
10:59 |
16:53 |
23:14 |
23:14 |
23:07 |
23:14 |
|
10
min walk
to the Gare de l'Est for the Lyria TGV to
Switzerland... |
|
Paris Gare de l'Est depart: |
12:24 |
17:54 |
06:24 |
06:54 |
06:24 |
08:24 |
|
Basel
arrive: |
15:51 |
21:15 |
09:56 |
10:25 |
09:56 |
11:50 |
|
Zurich
arrive: |
17:00 |
22:26 |
11:26** |
12:00** |
11:26** |
13:00 |
How to
read these timetables... *
These journeys require an overnight
hotel stop in Paris. Take any Eurostar you
like between London & Paris.
** Going to
Zurich, you must change in Basel. The Lyria TGV
from Paris terminates in Basel.
***
Coming from Zurich, you must change trains
in Basel. This Lyria TGV to Paris starts in Basel.
Basel & Zurich
► London
|
|
Lyria
TGV: |
Daily |
Daily |
Daily |
Daily * |
|
Zurich depart: |
07:02 |
09:34*** |
14:02 |
18:02 |
|
Basel depart: |
08:02 |
11:01 |
15:02 |
19:02 |
|
Paris Gare de l'Est arrive: |
11:34 |
14:34 |
18:34 |
22:37 |
|
10
min walk
to the Gare du Nord for Eurostar (30 min check-in) |
|
Paris Gare du Nord depart: |
13:01 |
16:13 |
20:13 |
07:01 |
|
London St Pancras
arrive: |
14:36 |
17:54 |
22:06 |
08:32 |
On board
the TGV from Paris to Basel or Zurich...
 |
|
 |
| The TGV
trains from Paris to Basel & Zurich feature chic new
designer interiors by Christian Lacroix. |
How much does
it cost?
|
London to Paris
by
Eurostar:
|
Return fares
start at £59 2nd class, £149 1st class.
One-way fares start at £44 2nd class.
Advice on one-way Eurostar fares. Child, youth & senior fares
|
| |
|
Paris to Zurich
by
direct Lyria
TGV train: |
2nd class
|
1st class |
|
One way |
Return |
One way |
Return |
|
Book-ahead fares: |
From £30 |
From £60 |
From £56 |
From £112 |
|
Normal flexible fare: |
£84 |
£135 |
£125 |
£206 |
|
Youth fare (anyone 12-26): |
£50 |
£100 |
£81 |
£162 |
|
Senior fare (anyone over 60): |
£59 |
£118 |
£84 |
£168 |
|
Child (4 to 11): |
£41 |
£82 |
£63 |
£126 |
|
Child (0 to 3): |
Free (if not occupying
its own seat) or £11 each way with own seat. |
|
Person in wheelchair: |
£60 one-way, £120 return, 1st class. Companion
£15 each way. |
|
|
|
Paris to Basel
by
Lyria
TGV train: |
2nd class
|
1st class |
|
One way |
Return |
One way |
Return |
|
Book-ahead fares: |
From £22 |
From £44 |
From £43 |
From £86 |
|
Normal flexible fare: |
£72 |
£112 |
£108 |
£171 |
|
Youth fare (anyone 12-26): |
£46 |
£92 |
£68 |
£136 |
|
Senior fare (anyone over 60): |
£50 |
£100 |
£76 |
£152 |
|
Child (4 to 11): |
£32 |
£64 |
£50 |
£100 |
|
Child (0 to 3): |
Free (if not occupying
its own seat) or £11 each way with own seat. |
|
Person in wheelchair: |
£50 one-way, £100 return, 1st class. Companion
£15 each way. |
The easiest & cheapest way for UK residents to buy tickets to anywhere in
Switzerland is online at
www.raileurope.co.uk.
But please read the booking tips below first.
If you live in another European country,
click here. If you live
outside Europe,
click here.
Booking tips:
-
Use the booking form above, or go to
www.raileurope.co.uk.
-
There's no booking fee, and tickets can be sent to any UK
address or collected at St Pancras on departure. Only
UK-issued credit cards are accepted.
-
Reservations for the Paris-Switzerland trains open 90 days
before departure. You can't book before reservations
open, but if you make a journey enquiry at
www.raileurope.co.uk
for a date outside this period, it will offer to send you a
reminder email on the day when reservations open. A
useful facility!
-
First, try booking the easy way: Enter 'London' to
'Basel' or Zurich' and see what departures and prices it
comes up with. Note that if you're going to Zurich, it
will only show journeys involving the direct Paris-Zurich
TGVs, as it can't cope with 3-stage journeys involving
Eurostar, a Paris-Basel TGV, then a Swiss train from Basel
to Zurich.
-
But for more control over your booking, and sometimes a
cheaper fare, try booking this trip as two
separate journeys, one from London to Paris, the other
from Paris to Basel or Zurich. This gives you more
control, for example, you can look for earlier Eurostars if
you want to stop off in Paris, or if there's a cheaper
Eurostar fare available earlier in the day. You can
also upgrade to first class on the Paris-Basel/Zurich leg,
often for only a little extra cost, without having to
upgrade the whole journey from London to Basel/Zurich.
And it will now book Paris-Zurich journeys involving
a Paris-Basel TGV then a Swiss train on to Zurich, as this
is now only 2 stages. If you have any difficulty
booking a Swiss Basel-Zurich ticket to connect with a
Paris-Basel TGV, a ticket for this section can easily be
bought at the station in Basel on the day of travel, no
reservation required.
-
Step 1, using the train times on this page as your guide,
book the train from Paris to Basel or Zurich and back.
-
Step 2, when you've booked the Paris-Switzerland train, stay
with
www.raileurope.co.uk
and click 'continue shopping'. Now book the Eurostar from London to Paris
and back as a separate journey. Use the Eurostar times
on this page as a guide, but feel free to choose an earlier
Eurostar from London, or a later Eurostar returning from
Paris, if these have cheaper seats available or if you'd
like to stop off in Paris.
-
For a one-way trip on Eurostar,
see this
advice.
 How to buy
tickets by phone or in person...
Call
Rail
Europe on 0844 848 5 848 (lines open
08:00-21:00 Mon-Fri, 09:00-18:00 Sat, 10:00-17:00 Sun), or Ffestiniog
Travel on 01766 772050. You can also buy
tickets in person at Rail Europe's central London travel
centre, at 1 Regent Street. For
more information about booking European trains, see
the London to Europe general
information page.
Residents of any country may use voyages-sncf.com.
Tickets can be sent to any address in Europe, including the
UK, or collected from any main French station.
The French Railways website has exactly the same fares as
www.raileurope.co.uk.
On the plus side, because of exchange rates, buying in euros
at
www.voyages-sncf.com can be a bit cheaper than buying in
pounds at
www.raileurope.co.uk.
The disadvantage is that if anything goes wrong you'll be
dealing directly with French Railways through French call
centres rather than a UK company. It's your
decision..!
-
Booking for trains to Switzerland opens 90 days before
departure, you can't book before reservations open!
-
Go to
www.voyages-sncf.com. The 'English' button is a UK flag at
the bottom. Clicking it now sends you to their UK mini-site,
www.tgv-europe.com. The UK version of tgv-europe.com
will send tickets to any UK address or allows
ticket collection at any main French station (if your
journey starts in France, obviously). To have tickets sent to
addresses in other European countries, change the mini-site
to the appropriate country by clicking the flag and country
name at the bottom of the page. If you live outside
Europe, see the advice in the next
section.
-
First, book the train from Paris to Switzerland and back.
Top tip:
If you see no cheap fares through to your final destination, try looking for a
cheap fare from Paris to the first interchange point, then
book a full fare
ticket for the internal Swiss leg of the journey separately.
For example, if you see no cheap fares from Paris to Zurich,
look for cheap fares from Paris to Basel then book Basel to
Zurich as a separate journey.
-
If and when an advanced booking form appears, look for the
drop-down country list and change it to 'Great Britain'.
Tickets can then be sent to any UK address or picked up at
any main station in France. Selecting other countries
will switch you to the relevant mini-site, allowing ticket
despatch to other European countries.
-
When you've booked the Paris-Switzerland train, click 'add
another ticket' and book the Eurostar from London to Paris
and back as a separate journey. Use the Eurostar times
on this page as a guide, but feel free to choose an earlier
Eurostar from London, or a later Eurostar returning from
Paris, if these have cheaper seats available or if you'd
like to stop off in Paris. For a one-way trip on
Eurostar, see
this advice.
-
You can buy tickets for both
Eurostar and the Paris-Switzerland trains online at
www.raileurope.com
(if you live in the USA or Canada),
www.raileurope.com.au (if you live in Australia
or NZ), or
www.raileurope.co.za (South Africa), which are
subsidiaries of French Railways. Be aware that the fares
charged may be slightly higher than those charged in Europe.
Tickets can be sent to any address in the USA, Canada,
Australia, NZ, South Africa or
worldwide.
Find agencies in other countries...
-
Alternatively, to buy tickets at
European prices, buy the
London-Paris Eurostar online at
www.eurostar.com, selecting the option to pick up
tickets at the station. Remember that on Eurostar, a
return ticket is often cheaper than a one-way..! Then book the Paris-Switzerland train online at
www.voyages-sncf.com,
following this step-by-step advice, leaving 'France'
selected, which allows you to pick up tickets on the day of travel at the ticket office at any
main station in France, including Paris Gare de Lyon or Gare
de l'Est.
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Taking the train is the stress-free and
environmentally-sound alternative from London to
Bern.
Eurostar links
London and Paris in just 2 hours 40 minutes, from £59 return. High speed
'Lyria' TGV trains link Paris with Bern in
just 4 hours 45 minutes, some direct, some with a change of
train at Lausanne, with fares from £23 each way (from £41 in 1st
class!). TGVs
have
1st & 2nd class, with a buffet-bar car selling
drinks and snacks. There are power points for
mobiles & laptops at 1st class seats. Lyria is a
consortium of the French and Swiss national railways.
 |
|
 |
|
 |
| 'Lyria' high-speed TGV
train. |
|
TGV 1st
class... |
|
TGV 2nd
class... |
London
► Bern
|
|
Eurostar
(30 min check-in): |
Mon-Sat |
Sun |
Fri |
Mon-Thurs |
Sat, Sun |
Daily |
Daily except Fri * |
Fri * |
|
London St Pancras depart: |
07:20 |
09:26 |
10:23 |
10:23 |
11:51 |
13:10 |
19:39 |
19:39 |
|
Paris Gare du Nord arrive: |
10:59 |
12:47 |
13:53 |
13:53 |
15:28 |
16:53 |
23:07 |
23:07 |
|
Cross
Paris by metro
to the Gare de Lyon for the Lyria TGV to
Switzerland... |
|
Paris Gare de Lyon depart: |
12:58 |
14:10 |
15:58 |
16:58 |
16:58 |
17:58 |
07:58 |
07:58 |
|
Lausanne
arrive: |
16:52 |
17:58 |
| |
| |
| |
21:52 |
| |
11:52 |
|
...direct or change at Lausanne? |
Change |
Change |
Direct |
Direct |
Direct |
Change |
Direct |
Change |
|
Lausanne depart: |
17:20 |
18:20 |
| |
| |
| |
22:20 |
| |
12:20 |
|
Bern arrive: |
| |
How to