Hi All
I am coming to Basel for work purposes for one week in July. However I have a weekend free from 20 July evening until the evening of 22 July (Sunday). I am going to fly out my wife to Basel and show her some Switzerland!

I have investigated that there is a ticket you can buy (outside of Switzerland) called the Swiss Transfer Ticket which is cheaper (I have checked the SBB site) than a return railway ticket within Switzerland. What I intend to do is to use this ticket (a once-only return ticket) on the Saturday to take the train with her from Basel to Luzern – a boat to Weggis – and cable car to Rigi! and back to Basel the same way. The ticket is only available outside Switzerland.

Anyone done this before using the Swiss Transfer Ticket to get a cheaper (realtively speaking) day out in Switzerland? Is it possible?

I have looked at this ticket before when I've had visitors coming, and always concluded that it was more expensive than buying regular tickets for whatever journey my visitors would be doing. Maybe that is not true if you fly into Basel and stay in the Graubünden, say.

Out of interest though (well, to procrastinate packing) I looked up the price for Basel --> Rigi Kulm via Weggis, and it seems to be 88 CHF return. Isn't that cheaper than the Swiss Transfer Ticket?

Something worth doing is checking the SBB website to see if there are any "Supersaver" tickets between Basel and Luzern the day you want to go.

88CHF is for the Reduced (Half-Fare, etc.)

I've used such tickets before, but without any idea of how much they would cost or if cheaper options are available. There's no reason you couldn't use it as you suggest, nor is there any requirement that the inward and outward journeys are made to the same arrival/departure point. You need to show ID when it's first used, and it's recorded on the ticket, to ensure that the same person is using it both ways, but that's it. As simple as you like.

You seem to imply that you've checked validity for the boat and cable-car, which if so surprises me. If you haven't checked then do so, as the basis for the ticket is for a holiday transfer by rail, not the tourist attractions themselves, so I would have though it only valid on mainline services.

Looking at the map of valid routes
http://www.swisspasses.com/railpass/overviewmap_en.pdf

Boat and Cable-car/mountain railway is covered...

Oops, and yikes! Switzerland's 100% tax on visitors strikes again!

Another option if you have an accomplice with a Swiss address, and some time to for research, is to buy a couple of Gemeinde Tageskarten (Municipal Daycards). These are one-day, dated tickets valid for everywhere on the map you linked. Each Gemeinde in Switzerland has a certain number to sell. The exact conditions of sale and price vary but some places will sell them to non-residents of the Gemeinde and also offer delivery by post. Once you have the ticket, it is dated but not personalized so anyone, including visitors, can use it. The cards are usually 40-50 CHF.

You need to look here to see where there are cards available on the date you want.

http://www.tageskarte-gemeinde.ch/

Interesting. Yes, it does look like both the cog-railway and the cablecar on Rigi are included, which is a pretty good deal. I note that most tourist mountain railways/cablecars only give a 50% (or 25% in some places) reduction with the pass. Not surprising, when places like Titlis ask upwards of 86chf just for the return trip up the mountain. Who'd subsidise my taxes if you could get it for free ?

You assume that everyone living here has a halbtax card? Not so. Some people live in places where they can get to or from work without ever using the railways... thank god.

After years of commuting into and around London I've developed a real phobia for rail transport. Sure, it's fine, I know it is, and on those odd occasions when I've needed to get a train connection to Zurich airport or on the trip to Frankfurt I did the other week I can now cope with them in a relatively stress-free way. But I'd still always choose to drive if at all practicable.

Great! are you free on the 21st? You can pick me and my wife up and drive us to Rigi!

Seems that the STT is the cheaper ticket so far. I will wait until 1st July and check the SBB site for any July offers....

Sure, we'll be going that way at some point that weekend anyway.

You want to know the price in advance, or do you just have a high daily ATM withdrawal limit?