I will be travelling from Lugano to Tirano in late May in order to take the Bernina Express up to St. Moritz. I already have the Swiss Pass and seat reservations on the Bernina Express, but I don't know how to book a seat reservation on the bus from Lugano to Tirano (if possible). The day I'm going is a national holiday and there's only one bus, so I think a reservation would be a good idea!

Rail Europe directed me to Swiss Post Bus and Swiss Post Bus directed me to www.Rail.ch. I sent Rail.ch an email two days ago, but haven't heard back yet. The bus number shown at www.Rail.ch (SBB) is 5500, and it shows "seat reservations compulsory." Does anyone know how to book this bus in advance (I'm in USA), or is there a good email address for www.Rail.ch that I could email? I'm leaving in two weeks, so there's probably not time to have paper documents delivered (but I already have the pass, just need the reservations). Thanks!

Update: I just received an email back from SBB - seat reservations are 12CHF each, and they provided me with a number to fax over the reservation request. Moral of the story is to be patient when emailing SBB! :)

hi,
to be patient is one thing, the other is not to forget the time difference between the us and euorpe...

anyway wherever you made the reservations for the bernina express can issue the reservation for the bus, both are in the same reservation system. technicaly its just like reserving a seat on a train.

an alternative is to make the reservation once you are in switzerland, normaly it isn't a big problem to reserve the bus if you are a few days in advance, just go to any railway station and make the reservation.

greetings from the SBB (wich is not know for delays....)
mabü

Maybe it's true in Switzerland that the train and bus can be reserved from the same place, but I must say that things work differently here in the U.S. Eurail passes must be purchased from ticket agencies in this country before leaving for Europe, and I bought mine from RailEurope. Although RailEurope sells almost any European train ticket and seat reservations, they have nothing to do with bus reservations - or at least that's what they told me.

Figuring out who to buy the bus tickets from was the hardest part, as RailEurope didn't know, the Italian and Swiss Tourism Bureaus in New York didn't know, but Swiss Post Bus was able to direct me to SBB.

I believe that the response time from SBB was about 48 hours, taking into account the time difference. Much better actually than my email to Bahn.de two weeks ago (I am still waiting for an answer)! :0)

I very much look forward to visiting Switzerland. Everyone I know who has been there tells me that I must go, so I have decided to take their advice! :) I also appreciate the help of all the other VT members here - this a great place!

All the best,

Don

its true that raileurope hasn't got anything to do with bus reservations, normaly its called rail europe and not bus europe....
but rail europe can reserve that bus. the reservation (and ticketing) is handled like the reservation of a train. so they need to reserve it like they reserve any other train.
but for that you need to know your job, i know mine and thats selling tickets for public transport in switzerland and europe.

as you will find out here in switzerland bus, rail and ship are fully integrated to be one system, a ticket can be bought to use train, bus, ship all one one ticket!

greetings from bern
mabü