Group ticket validity

Leenchen64

Our 15-person group is traveling from Zurich Airport to Neuchâtel. We might be able to leave even before 11 but because of possible flight delays, I’m about to purchase a group ticket leaving at 12:08 with only a 9-minute train change immediately at Zurich Hbf. I understand that group tickets are valid for a given time after the departure but not before it - so does this mean that we cannot take an earlier train from Flughafen to Hbf - just to make the change of trains a little less hasty?

RolandP

Hello Leenchen64

Provided you have a national point-to-point group ticket from Zürich Airport to Neuchâtel, you can in fact take any train. It is OK for a ride to Zurich HB (not Hbf, that is used in Germany and Austria only, here it’s just HB).

However, the railways do reserve seats for you on the trains as confirmed on your itinerary. You can use other trains provided there is space left, but this is not the idea behind a group ticket. With a group ticket you get a discount, on the other hand, since you announce your trip at least two days out, you allow the railways to plan their rolling stock ahead of time, to assure there are enough seats for all the groups and individual travellers. This is not possible if you just take any train.

Kind regards,
Roland

Leenchen64

Thanks Roland for the clarification, with HB and all 🙂
This is pretty much how I wished it would be - so I now have the courage to invest the four-digit amount of CHF in our tickets, not having to fear for the timing.

RedBaron

Leenchen64
If you book an IC 5 for your group (leaving the airport hourly at xx:48), you could remain seated in Zurich HB without transfer. And you’ll get some reserved space for the group - marked with yellow + white stickers on the windows - usually in the two carriages at the front of the train (wait in sector “A” of the platform).

RolandP

Hello Leenchen64

Great!

Keep in mind, to book group tickets online, you must create a Swisspass account first. Group tickets cannot be purchased as a guest.

https://www.swisspass.ch/register/1?lang=en

And, some trains are not available for groups, mostly due to capacity restrictions; especially ICN trains that run on the IC5 line might know such capacity restrictions.

Kind regards,
Roland

Leenchen64

Thanks for the suggestion, RedBaron. For some reason, the ..:48 trains were not bookable (in grey colour) for groups. This was the reason for my hesitance.

Leenchen64

Yes I noticed that the best connections were not available to us. However, I managed to steer our group through the many changes even though the margins were “kind of” tight. Now safely back home in Finland 🙂