TRAVEL ADVISORY; City Rides Added To Swiss Pass (original) (raw)
Travel|TRAVEL ADVISORY; City Rides Added To Swiss Pass
https://www.nytimes.com/1991/09/29/travel/travel-advisory-city-rides-added-to-swiss-pass.html
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TRAVEL ADVISORY
- Sept. 29, 1991
Credit...The New York Times Archives
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September 29, 1991
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Section 5, Page
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The Swiss Pass, which allows free travel on trains, rural buses and boats in Switzerland, includes a new benefit this year: free rides on the tramways and buses of 25 Swiss cities. This might inspire visitors to discover not only Geneva and Zurich but also, for instance, Lugano, St. Gallen and Neuchatel.
Tramways and buses are run on the honor system: you buy a ticket from a machine either inside the tram or at the stop. If you are caught without one, there is a fine of about $20. Swiss Pass enables you to avoid all this.
The Swiss Pass comes in a red plastic folder with a tiny map. Take a magnifying glass and read the fine print: some of the rail transportation near mountain summits is not free but available at reduced rates (25 to 50 percent off). These mountain rides include funiculars and cable cars going up the Matterhorn and a small-gauge train from Schaffhausen to Beggingen. It's hard to find any other trip in Switzerland not covered by the Swiss Pass. One small loophole: the bus belonging to the Montreux-Oberland-Bernois railway, which shuttles on the five-minute journey between Gstaad and Saanen, does not accept the pass. The trip costs about $1.35.
For four days, the pass costs 470insecondclass,and470 in second class, and 470insecondclass,and720 in first; eight days, 573and573 and 573and830; 15 days, 675and675 and 675and980; one month, 930and930 and 930and1,300. A subdivision of Swiss Pass is Swiss Flexi-Pass, valid for 15 days for those who want to stay in one place for most of their visit; they can choose any 3 days within that time to travel freely. It costs 470secondclass,470 second class, 470secondclass,720 first class.
A correction was made on
Oct. 13, 1991
:
SundayNovember 24, 1991, Sunday
A report in the Travel Advisory column on Sept. 29 misstated the various prices of the Swiss Pass, which allows unlimited travel on trains, boats and buses in Switzerland. The report also listed a pass that is no longer sold. The prices, in effect through 1992, are: for 8 days, 159insecondclass,159 in second class, 159insecondclass,239 in first; 15 days, 189and189 and 189and289; one month, 269and269 and 269and389. The Swiss Flexi Pass, valid for any 3 days within a 15-day period, costs 129insecondclass,129 in second class, 129insecondclass,199 in first. The four-day Swiss Pass has been discontinued.
A report in the Travel Advisory column on Sept. 29 about the Swiss Pass, which allows free travel on trains, rural buses and boats in Switzerland, referred incorrectly to one of its benefits. A reader has recently pointed out that free rides on tramways and buses in Swiss cities are not new; they have been a benefit since 1989; the number of cities in which free rides are allowed with the pass rose this year to 30, not 25.
A version of this article appears in print on , Section
5
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3
of the National edition
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