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Zürich / Zurich to Paris by train
How to take the rail journey from Zurich to Paris
Direct high speed trains mean that travelling by rail from Zurich to Paris is a very straightforward journey.
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Routes
From Zürich HB / Zurich main station to Paris Gare de Lyon/Paris Lyon
Journey Summary
4hr 20 min - 4hr 35 min (approx)
Daily
Travel Information
Final Destination: Paris
All trains also call at: Mulhouse-Ville
Most trains also call at: Dijon-Ville
At Zurich HB these trains will depart from gleis (platforms/tracks) 3 - 18, which are directly linked to the street level concourse.
5 x trains per day
Tickets
Book early and save: Yes
Online bookings open: Around 105 days ahead of the travel date*
*Yes this does seem random and apologies for not being more precise, but there doesn't seem to a firm rule for when tickets will be released for this journey.
If tickets aren't on sale yet for your travel date, then this is a journey for which it's worth signing up to the ticket availability notification service on Oui.SNCF.
Do that and you'll receive an email within moments of the tickets being released for sale.
It's worth making an effort as this is a journey on which the very cheapest tickets tend to sell out particularly fast.
When looking for tickets on Oui.SNCF tick the 'direct trains' box - on Trainline tick the 'fastest journeys' box.
On Oui.SCF enter 'Gare de Lyon (Paris)' in the to box, on Trainline select Paris-Gare-de-Lyon.
Trains departing at different times can be cheaper than others leaving on the same day, so you may need to look through the day's departures to find the cheapest fares.
There can be particularly big discrepancies between departures on this route.
Using rail passes
If you will be travelling with a Eurail or InterRail pass you can make significant savings on the rail pass reservation fees, by instead:
- Taking an express train from Zurich to Basel SBB
- Connecting into a TER train on to Mulhouse or Strasbourg
- Taking a TGV train from Mulhouse or Strasbourg to Paris.
You will need to pay a €10 reservation fee for those TGV trains, but avoid having to pay a booking fee by not purchasing then at Swiss stations.
Where to book
| Ticket Provider | Approximate Cost | |
|---|---|---|
| Oui.SNCF | from €29 | |
| Trainline | from €29 | |
| SaveATrain | from €29 | |
| Omio | from €29 |
On this journey
Travelling On
Journey Features
Good to Know
When travelling to cities north of Paris you will need to transfer across the French capital in order to catch trains from Paris Nord.
Though if you will be travelling from Zurich to the The Netherlands there is one ICE train per day that takes a Basel – Koln/Cologne – Utrecht – Amsterdam route; so connecting into this train at Basel SBB station is a much easier option than making the cross-Paris transfer.
This is a journey of four distinct parts.
1: The first part of the journey from Zurich to Mulhouse is on conventional tracks.
2. Between Mulhouse and Dijon there is a high speed line.
3. The train switches to conventional tracks north of Dijon - the most scenic part of the journey
4. Finally the train will travel on the high speed line north to Paris.
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