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WILLIAM TELL EXPRESS
Scenic Rail and Lake Cruise from Lucerne to Locarno

Gliding across the lake through high mountain slopes reaching to the water, long and sleek, wide in the beam, paddle wheels in nearly silent in hushed swoosh as the red and chrome steam pistons whirl in mechanical precision amidships.. You’re on one of Switzerland’s scenic rail routes. But wait, I thought rail meant two shiny tracks and scenery passing out the windows. Well, for the Swiss rail scenic route called the Wilhelm Tell Express, almost half of the journey is by boat. The William Tell Express connects two of Switzerland’s most beautiful regions, from Lucerne in Central Switzerland, first by historic paddle steamer, through the Bernese Oberland, the length of Lake Lucerne and Lake Uri to Fleulen, then by rail through the Gotthard Tunnel to Ticino (Italian Switzerland) ending in Lucarno or Lugano.

The route takes its name from Switzerland’s legendary national hero William Tell, the marksman who shot an apple from the head of his son with a crossbow. The legend tells that the new Austrian Habsburg governor of the Uri region put up a pole in the village of Altdorf, to which subjects were supposed to bow. William Tell (Wilhelm Tell) refused to bow to the foreign ruler and was made to shoot an apple from his child’s head. He performed the deed, but when discovered he had a second arrow bolt intended for the governor if he had missed, he was arrested. But William Tell escaped when his prison boat crashed on the lake and climbed from the water to fnd his way to the Imperial Austrian and kill him. Many of the sights related to the legend of William Tell are seen on the lake journey. Wilhelm Tell Rock where the bowman pulled himself from the waters, and the Schiller Stone, a narrow rock rising from the deep lake edge standing almost impossibly on edge inscribed to Frederich Schiller whose 1804 play solidified the legend as a gloried hero who inspired Switzerland’s independence from the Habsburg empire.

The boat trip of the William Tell Express begins in Lucerne taking a leisurely three hours to traverse Lake Lucerne passing through some of the most beautiful scenery of Switzerland which inspired the likes of past visitors like Mark Twain, the poet Percy Shelley and Mary Godwin (see Seehotel Waldstatterhof Brunnen). The journey on steam ships dating from the turn of the last century, like the Uri built in 1901, passes several stops along the lakeshore where cable cars and cog trains lead up to the peaks like Mt Rigi with the oldest cog train in Switzerland (Mt Rigi Scenic Train). The lake waters set against the steep mountains can be hauntingly mysterious in the morning mist or stunning against a crisp blue sky. A seat is reserved in the elegant first class dining room lined with filigree of carved wood around the windows looking out on the passing scenery. A lunch or meal is included with a ticket price along with a souvenir – a Swiss Army Knife from Victorinox with the William Tell Express logo, along with a guidebook of the sights and towns along the route. The reserved seat can be maintained as you wander about the ship to take photos or just ogle the scenery. Kids along might stare with fascination at the churning engine pistons or ferry ships passing in the opposite direction.

At the southern end of Lake Uri the boat journey ends at Fleulen with the train station a few steps from the boat dock. The scenic train route with panoramic windowed cars carries on over the Gotthard Pass, through the Gotthard Tunnel, the first rail tunnel through the high Alps ridge which separates Italy from Switzerland completed in 1882. The route travels through the engineering marvels of spiral tunnels, through solid rock where the tracks pass over themselves to gain altitude, though from inside the train you’ll hardly notice this, except that at one point you’ll notice the little church of the village of Wassen passing first on one side of the train, then after a tunnel you’ll see the same church passing again except on the other side. After passing through the Alps Gotthard range the train stops in Bellinzona, the capital of Ticino with its famous three castles (see Three Castles of Bellinzona). You have a choice, stay on the train and continue to Locarno on the Swiss shore of Lago Maggiore (see Locarno Castle Visconti), or change trains to continue to Lugano, where you can connect to continue into Italy toward Milan. The north-south William Tell Express Route crosses the east-west route of the Glacier Express which runs from Zermatt to St Moritz.

The William Tell Express runs twice a day from the 1st of May to the middle of October, and can be taken in either direction.The William Tell Express can be taken with a first class Swiss Pass (see Swiss Pass) or a Eurail Rail Pass including Switzerland (see Eurail Passes) with seat reservation required for the full route, or an obligatory 1st class supplement charge for a seat reservation with a second class pass, though both the steamer cruise boat and the rail line can be taken separately with a pass or standard ticket without the included lunch or souvenir. © Bargain Travel Europe

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Other Switzerland Scenic Train Routes

GLACIER EXPRESS
BERNINA EXPRESS
GOLDEN PASS ROUTE
JUNGFRAUJOCH

SEE ALSO:

MT. TITLUS ROTAIR - ENGELBERG

STEAMER CRUISING LAKE GENEVA

SWISS TRANSPORT MUSEUM - LUCERN

ASCONA ON LAKE MAGGIORE

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