Zürich / Zurich to St. Anton by train

How to take the rail journey from Zurich to St Anton

Zurich is connected to numerous Swiss Ski resorts by easy rail connections, but none* of them can be reached from the city by direct trains.
*=We're 99% sure about this.

So a tick in the box for St Anton is that it does have direct trains from Zurich and the journey time is also shorter than to many of the Swiss Alpine resorts.
Oh and the end-to-end rail journey is pretty much fabulous for the entire train ride!

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Routes

From Zürich HB / Zurich main station to St.Anton am Arlberg

Journey Summary

Travel Time
2hr 21min
Frequency
Daily
Travel Information

Departing from Zurich:

These trains* will depart from the platforms/tracks by the street level concourse in Zurich HB station (gleis 3 - 18)
*The train which is usually scheduled to depart at 08:40 is the EC train, all of the other departures are by Railjet trains.

Final Destination: Wien or Budapest or Innsbruck or Bratislava or Graz

All trains also call at: Feldkirch (and at Landeck-Zams after St.Anton)

From Zurich Flughafen/Airport:**

There are no direct trains between the station at Zurich Flughafen/Aiport and St.Anton

You will have to change trains at Zurich HB station.

Making the transfer will be much easier if you take a train from Zurich Flughafen to Zurich HB which uses the same part of Zurich HB station (platforms/tracks/gleis 3 - 18) that the trains on to St. Anton will depart from.

So when taking a train from the airport target either;

  • the trains on route S24 heading to Zug - every 30 mins.
  • the IR trains to Luzern - every 30 mins.
  • the IR train to Basel via via Brugg - 1 x train per hour.

6  x RJX trains per day
1 x EC train per day

Tickets

Book early and save: Yes

Online bookings open: 180 days* ahead of the travel date

*There's no need to book 6 months ahead to obtain the cheapest tickets.
If you look for tickets around 3 - 4 months ahead then the cheapest 'Sparschiene' tickets can be available on more trains.

The prices of the tickets are usually cheaper on OBB, particularly as its cheapest 'Sparschiene' tickets can now be booked up until the day of travel (if they haven't sold out) - previously Sparscheine tickets had to be booked at least 3 days ahead.

When looking up this journey on OBB, copy this spelling St.Anton am Arlberg into 'arr' station, the site struggles to find other variations of writing it.

However, it's worth comparing prices with SBB, but remember that the price on SBB will be in Swiss Francs and not euros.

Where to book
Ticket Provider Approximate Cost
OBB from €24

OBB Guide

OBB is the national rail operator and its booking service offers journeys by express trains within Austria, as well as international journeys which don't involve making a connection outside of Austria.

It pays off to book online, as the discounted 'Sparscheine' tickets are only ever made available on the website, and when making international journeys to and from Austria, these Sparscheine tickets tend to be cheaper.
OBB can offer particularly good value for money when travelling with children on international rail journeys, but something to watch out for when travelling between Austria and Germany on daytime trains, is that reservations are an optional extra; but if you book 1st class tickets with the Germany railways website DB, the reservations are complimentary.

OBB often takes a unique approach to its booking path, but a key thing to keep in mind is that the first price you will see for any journey is that of a Second Class seat.
The costs of upgrading to first class, a reservation, or a sleeping cabin etc, is then added to this price.

SBB *

SBB Guide

SBB is the main national rail operator in Switzerland, but tickets for journeys by the other significant operators including BLS and SOB can be be booked on the SBB website.

SBB also sells tickets for journeys to many destinations which involve a combination of SBB trains and services provided by the many independent operators who serve the Alpine resort towns.
However, if you will be making a long-distance return day trip, look out for he possibility of SaverDay passes being cheaper than tickets.

Though if you download the SBB app, booking tickets on SBB's mobile services can be simper than using the website.
Also watch out for the fact that booking international tickets can be comparatively quirky.

Trainline from €24

Trainline Guide

Omio from €24

Omio Guide

Omio is an online ticket agency which offers tickets for rail journeys in France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy and Spain.

The three key advantages of using Omio are

  • it offers prices in multiple currencies
  • it usually offers price comparison with other modes of travel including flights and buses
  • when visiting Europe, you can book journeys in multiple countries in one transaction.

The disadvantage of booking with Omio is that it often adds a booking fee to the final price; therefore when it does so without offering a price advantage, SMTJ doesn't tend to offer Omio as a booking option.

Happyrail from €24

Happyrail Guide

Happy Rail is a Netherlands rail ticket agency which sells tickets for both national and international journeys within a range of countries including Belgium France, Germany, Sweden, Switzerland.

HappyRail doesn't charge booking fees in the conventional sense, but if you're not Dutch you can expect to pay additional transaction fees, which will be added to the total cost.
That's because the most common form of online payment used in The Netherlands is 'iDEAL' and HappyRail doesn't charge a transaction fee for 'iDEAL' payments, but only Dutch residents can sign up to 'iDEAL'.
Other forms of payment include Visa debit cards will incur a fee.

On this journey

Journey Features

Scenic - YesLake viewsMountain views

Good to Know

Arriving in St. Anton:

Listen out for the announcements, or keep an eye on the info screens on the train, because the approach to St.Anton station is in a tunnel, so you won't be aware of the train slowing down.

The train will reverse direction on departure from Buchs.

The view over Lake Zurich #1 The view over Lake Zurich #1
The view over Lake Zurich #2 The view over Lake Zurich #2
Looking over the Walensee Looking over the Walensee
The shore of the Walensee approaching Sargans The shore of the Walensee approaching Sargans
Near Sargans Near Sargans
Between Feldkirch and St.Anton #1 Between Feldkirch and St.Anton #1
Between Feldkirch and St.Anton #2 Between Feldkirch and St.Anton #2

Step on board one of Europe's most epic rail journeys, with amazing views of two Swiss lakes AND a passage through the stunning Arlberg Pass.
This journey has arguably fewer 'nothing to see' moments than any other journey of this length.

Sit on the left (when facing the direction) of travel) on departure from Zurich for the best views.

Within 10 minutes of departing from Zurich there are a series of stunning views of not one, but two lakes, the Zurichsee...

...and then the Wallensee.

...can both be seen from the left of the train.

The best of the views as the train travels through the Arlberg pass will be over on the right, but the train will reverse direction on departure from Buchs.

Between Buchs and Feldkirch the train will travel through Liechtenstein, then after departure from Bludenz, the train threads through the stunning Arlberg Pass - though in summer the trees can get in the way.

In the pass, the best and most spectacular views of the entire journey are over on the right; even on a grey day.

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