HIGH SPEED train UNDER the Alps via Gotthard Base Tunnel! Zurich to Milan first class trip @ 250km/h

hello and welcome to another video and welcome to a really sunny zurich main station here in switzerland i'm taking an international train journey today a eurocity that's going to be about three and a half hours long in first class from here in zurich down to milan in italy and as part of that journey we'll be going under the alps in what was once europe's longest tunnel it's going to be a fantastic trip it is a wonderful day for traveling and i'm glad you're here to join me let's go and check it out ah zurich not the capital but still the largest city of switzerland and the main hub for swiss railway services the main station was opened in 1847 and the main buildings are from 1871 although they were under renovation when i travelled [Music] switzerland is a transport fans paradise and their railway stations are wonderfully efficient in common with lots of large modern european railway stations there's an underground mall which serves as a great place to pick up something to eat or drink if you don't plan on using the great restaurant cars you find attached to swiss intercity trains [Music] there are also hundreds of lockers for left luggage here in zurich making long stopovers here way more pleasant and here's something a bit more unusual you're familiar with prayer rooms in airports well this is the bahnhof carica the station church with its cute stained glass window the main hall of the station lies mostly empty these days with passengers circulating in the downstairs mall instead but the barrier-free open design of the terminus is great trains from all over switzerland and internationally start and finish here and a great many are actually through trains too which reverse in the station as part of their journey [Music] the swiss railway system is complex there are lots of things here which you don't usually see in britain like locomotive hall trains on intercity and regional services to turn a train around here just uncouple the locomotive attach another one onto the other end drive away and the first now unattached locomotive goes to the sidings switzerland is a land of languages the name of the national railway company is swiss federal railways seen here initialized in german french and italian a fourth language romance is also a swiss official language which has a lesser status and doesn't appear on the trains here so today we're gonna be going from here in zurich down to uh zug then through earth golao here and then if we get the camera to focus through this tunnel all the way under the alps here we got our tunnel goes under the alps we come up here and balanzona and then head on down into italy which is not shown because this is a map of the swiss federal railways network milan somewhere down here should be about three and a half hours there are currently six trains a day between zurich and milan many are operated by sbb but ours is an italian trinitalia pendulino model etr-610 this is a high-speed tilting train capable of 250 kilometers per hour our train is formed of two seven car units each with standard class first class and a restaurant car okay so trains just arrived i'm in first class um looks like they've got a one-way system going on here [Music] let's take our chances down here don't think it's going to be busy now this is first class just gonna find myself in my seat don't think most of them are reserved if you look here they say free fly libra rivero that means there's no one reserved in them and i can just sit wherever i like where to choose where would you choose one of the disadvantages of the interior is that there are only a handful of solo seats like this for lone travelers one of the two train sets that make up our train terminates at kyaso on the italian border i figured it would be quieter in this unit and sat here on purpose and all i have to do is walk to the other unit when we get to kyaso in a few hours [Music] next stop this part of the train is running only as far as kyasu you should stay focused as you leave zurich keep a lookout for the distinctive control center which dates from 1966. the journey to the first stop zug involves diving under much of the zurich area's urban sprawl in a series of tunnels we pop up into the open alongside lake zurich and our first glimpse of some superb swiss scenery which will define this journey [Music] on the table is a qr code which leads to a website explaining trinitalia's covered mitigation measures i really love the simple functionality of these trains there are fold away tables meaning it's easy to get in and out of the seats plus well-positioned reading lamps and a decent recline function make this train a solid option for a journey of over three hours if you want to work well there are charging points and don't forget to bring a swiss adapter with you there are big fold down tables as seen here in the single seats which you'll have no problem fitting most laptop computers on while filming yourself pretending to work our first stop the town of zug which is the capital town for the swiss canton of the same name zug is the german word for train although the town has had this name for much longer than trains have existed so somebody's gonna have to fill me in on the history in the comments below it's here i decide to visit the excellent restaurant car which is open to all passengers regardless of ticket type and is just a couple of coaches away there are only 18 seats in this restaurant car but i was able to find a table no problem and look at the menu which is pretty extensive be warned though it's not cheap although as a fan of on train restaurants as the epitome of civilized travel i'll pretty much pay anything to eat on a train is [Music] how much would you pay to eat your lunch with an ever-changing view like this the section between article dao and altdorf is the most beautiful on the whole route [Music] do [Music] [Music] do do [Music] we now approach the major engineering feat on the line the gottard based tunnel by the way if you like this sort of stuff and want to read about all my trips follow me on social media you can find me under the handle paul underscore winging it on both twitter and instagram welcome to the gothard based tunnel where we ride the 57 kilometers under the alps at a maximum speed of 230 kilometers per hour it's the world's longest railway tunnel saving a considerable 35 minutes on this trip the original gothard tunnel an engineering marvel from 1882 runs to the east at a higher elevation and is 15 kilometers long this route is much slower due in part to the hilly terrain to reach the tunnel in the first place requiring a number of slow railway spirals to cover the elevation this route is still in use for regional trains but the modern gothard base tunnel is for fast intercity services and is very direct [Music] the trip through the tunnel takes about 15 minutes and now is a good time to show you standard class which normally starts from about 43 euro one way on this trip first class normally costs from 70 euros upwards as you can see there's pretty good luggage provision throughout the train and despite it being full there isn't too much of a mess [Music] just next to us here is the brand new geruno type train operating for sbv which runs some of the trains on the milan zurich route these have low floors for easy disabled access and carry 403 seated passengers across 11 carriages [Music] we now pass down through lagano in the heart of italian speaking switzerland and on to kiaso the border town with italy itself [Music] mr here i change units as i mentioned in the video earlier and yes it was quite a lot busier in the set that was going all the way through to milan so there you have it three hours and 37 minutes between zurich and milan this is one railway journey where i've actually flown the alternative before you might remember my video on it if you've been around here for a while the plane only takes 35 minutes flying time but is overall much less convenient and far more expensive and to be honest is operated mostly for passengers from further afield to connect seamlessly at zurich airport to milan the train is definitely preferable as i hope you'll agree we arrive on time in milan right in the city centre [Music] uh [Music] well here we are we're in milan central station one of the finest railway stations in europe hope you really enjoyed the video and i hope you'll subscribe for more content just like this but until next time i'll see you around [Music] you

Channel: Wingin’ It! Paul Lucas

Views: 224,017

Rating: 4.9209113 out of 5

Keywords: trenitalia, trenitalia first class, trenitalia business class, trenitalia premium, sbb, zurich to milan train, gotthard tunnel, gotthard base tunnel, frecciargento, etr 610, etr 610 frecciargento, paul lucas, paul lucas, paul lucas train, train through alps, swiss trains, italian trains, italian trains high speed, high speed train, carbon friendly travel, cheap train tickets, trains in europe, zürich (city/town/village), gotthard base tunnel train, review, high speed rail

Id: aG3211IfNpk

Length: 19min 20sec (1160 seconds)

Published: Fri Aug 13 2021