Synopsis
Treno Gottardo Round-trip: The Treno Gottardo scenic railway runs from cities in northern Switzerland, including Zurich, to Locarno over the historic Gotthard Line and through the Alps via the Gotthard tunnel. Definitely a tourist favorite, you’ll find many online articles extolling its beauty and wonder, claiming that it should be on everyone’s bucket list.
We are staying an extra night in Zurich for two reasons:
- in case our checked bags missed the connecting flight from Schiphol and need to catch up to us;
- logistically easier to round-trip back to Zurich than to jump from Zermatt to Locarno.
Travel time each way is 3’19” with a 3+ hour layover in Locarno, hopefully enough time to get lunch and lightly explore the city immediately adjacent to the train station.
Commentary
We boarded the 10:05am Interregio 46, a.k.a. Treno Gottardo, at Zurich Hofbahnhof for the trip to Locarno. A woman was settling into our reserved seats, apparently surprised that anyone would actually reserve seats: how would I know seats are plentiful, never having ridden Swiss trains other than between the airport and Zurich. As a result, Südostbahn made an easy (unnecessary) 10CHF from us unaware tourists.
The train is composed of multiple carriages connected to make a long, seamless train. The seats are grouped in four, two facing each other across a table. A vending machine dispenses drinks (including alcoholic ones) and snakes (mostly chocolate), but nothing too elaborate. Very clean, little noise, clear windows, very pleasant and uneventful.
The one-way trip to Locarno takes just over 3 hours and allows you to see the bucolic Swiss countryside with interspersed rural towns tunnels through the mountains (mainly the Alps). Low-lying clouds, rain showers and a generally blah gray day made viewing difficult at times, though still beautiful and stunning. The bright florescent lights threw reflections on the window, as did our Mag Safe phone cases, people and seats. Large rain drops on the windows as the rain intensified further impacted our pictures. Didn’t stop us from trying!
Switzerland is multi-lingual and so is the train: the Gotthard Base Tunnel that crosses the border between German-speaking Uri and Italian-speaking Ticino marks where the train becomes Italian: the train’s automated announcements are Italian, the station signs are Italian, and the conductor leads with Buongiorno when speaking to passengers.
Locarno
Our arrival at the Locarno railway station dropped us in – I believe – central Locarno near the Lake Maggiore shore. Our first visit to Locarno was a brief 3 hours, limited by our scheduled return trip to Zurich, so little pre-planning accomplished: we left the train, followed the crowd, and hoped we found something interesting: the crowd walked with a conviction we definitely didn’t have.
Still following the crowd, we stumbled across the Locarno–Madonna del Sasso funicular that, for 8CHF, takes you up the nearby hill (mountain?) overlooking Locarno.
The funicular’s first stop is Madonna del Sasso Sacre Monte, a sanctuary founded in 1480 and dedicated to the Assunta, the Virgin Mary. The Swiss government has owned the sanctuary since 1848.
The second and final stop ends at the top of the hill which provides some scenic vistas for picture taking.
A gondola ride continues up the mountain which, in clear weather, must be incredible. We passed: besides our lack of time, the very low-lying clouds would make it an expensive ride for nothing. After riding the funicular back down, we at lunch and then went to the lake front for more pictures.
Next we walked back to the train station via a roundabout route to await the reverse Treno Gottardo back to Zurich. The increasingly gray skies, low clouds, increasing rain, and finally sunset meant we saw very little, much less took any pictures. In hindsight, catching a faster Intercity by transferring at Bellinzona would have made more sense. Live and learn.
Regardless, a great start to our Swiss train adventures.
Image Credits
- Wassen spiral maps produced by Orell Füssli in 1909
- photos © 2025 Scott C Sosna, all rights reserved
Image Credits
- Wassen spiral maps produced by Orell Füssli in 1909
- photos © 2025 Scott C Sosna, all rights reserved
