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Basel / Bâle to Domodossola by train
How to take the wonderful rail journey from Basel to Domodossola, where connections are available to the lovely Centovali Railway
Domodossola is in Italy, but because it is at one end of the popular Centovali Railway which crosses back over the border to Switzerland, it is included on the map of Swiss rail routes.
To enable easy access to the Centovali Railway for those who want to explore Switzerland with a rail pass, the Swiss national operator now provides a direct morning train to Domodossola from Basel.
If you will be using a Swiss Travel Pass, a Saver Day Pass or valid Eurail and InterRail passes, you can take this IC train and not pay the rail pass reservation fees, which are usually applied to international trains between Switzerland and Italy.
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Routes
From Basel SBB/Bâle CFF to Domodossola
Journey Summary
2hr 41min
Daily
Travel Information
Final Destination:
Milano (the EC trains), Domodossola (the IC train)
All trains also call at: Brig
3 x EC trains per day
1 x IC train per day
Tickets
Book early and save: No
Tickets will cost the same price if purchased at the station immediately before departure.
Discounted tickets are seemingly not made available for this journey, but they are usually available for journeys between Basel and Milano, so somewhat perversely it can be cheaper to travel the longer distance to Milano.
Rail pass users should take the IC train to Domodossola that departs Basel at around 10:28, becasue unlike the EC trains, no rail pass reservation fees are payable on the IC train.
Where to book
| Ticket Provider | Approximate Cost | |
|---|---|---|
| SBB | * | |
| Trenitalia | * | |
| Happyrail | * |
On this journey
Travelling On
Journey Features
Good to Know
The first two EC trains of the day AND the IC train, which is usually scheduled to depart daily at 10:28, have excellent connections at Domodossola into the Centovali (F.A.R.T) trains to Locarno.
Now that these trains use the Lotschberg Base Tunnel this journey is not as scenic as it once was.
But from the left of the train (when facing the direction of travel) there are views over the Thunersee between Thun and Speiz.
The trains on this journey reverse direction at Bernso when boarding in Basel take a seat on the right hand side if you want to see these views of the Thunersee.
On departure from Thun station:
And then on departure from Speiz station:
Though not only was that video captured on a different, more sunny, day - it was taken when travelling in the opposite direction. It's been included here to showcase, what you will see from the right on this part of the journey, when heading south!Then after exiting the Lotschberg Base Tunnel, the train will travel through a steep valley for the final part of the journey on to Visp and Brig.
After departing from Brig these trains travel through The Simplon Tunnel - which was the world's longest regularly used railway tunnel for much of the 20th century.
When the trains exit the tunnel, they travel through an impressive gorge in the mountains before descending to Domodossola.
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