The view over Lake Thun between Thun and Spiez #1

Bern to Milano / Milan / Mailand by train

How to take the rail journey from Bern to Milano

Two of the longest railway tunnels in Europe enable travellers to speed through the Alps on a thrilling journey to northern Italy

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Routes

From Bern to Milano Centrale

Travel Information

Final Destination: Milano

All trains also call at: Domodossola (connect for the 'Centovali Railway) and Stresa for Lake Maggiore

There are no trains from Bern to destinations in Italy south of Milano, so connecting in Milano when heading to multiple Italian cities including Bologna, Firenze/Florence, Genova, Roma, Venezia, Verona and Torino

4 x trains per day

These trains are typically scheduled to depart from Bern at 07:34; 11:34; 13:34 and 18:34

Tickets

Book early and save: Yes

Online bookings open: 4 months ahead of the travel date

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.

Check that you're booking for the direct trains; using the journey time to guide you.

Reservations will automatically be assigned when booking tickets - but rail pass users will either need to make reservations prior to boarding; paying the rail pass reservation fees, or avoid the direct trains.

Where to book
Ticket Provider Approximate Cost
Trenitalia from €39

Trenitalia Guide

Trenitlalia is the national rail operator in Italy and in addition to its cheaper types of ticket; it also typically offers other discounts available to non-Italians, which include:

  • Group Offers, provides for a discount of up to 50% when 3-5 Adults travel together.
  • Family Offer for when groups of 2 - 5 people are travelling together and at least one of the party is a aged 11 and under.
  • The Children Free Offer is available for journeys by Frecce trains, when groups of 2 - 5 people are travelling together and at least one of the party is a aged 15 and under.
    Those aged 15 and under travel for free, but the Adults will need to purchase full price 'Base' tickets.
SBB from €39

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 €39

Trainline Guide

Rail Europe from €39
Omio from €39

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.

On this journey

Journey Features

Scenic - YesLake viewsLandscape (Hills / Mountains)

Good to Know

Up to four additional connections per day are available by taking an IC train from Bern to Brig and connecting there for an EC train on to Milano, which will have taken a route from Geneve.

If your reserved seat is on the left of the train (when facing the direction of travel) there are some fabulous views over the beautiful 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!

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.

Then for much of the journey between there and Arona the railway line is beside Lake Maggiore; and again the views of the lake are on the left*.

As can be seen the view over the lake can be worth seeing even on a grey day.

The beautiful islands in the video are just to the north of Stresa station.

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