Are 5 minutes enough to switch trains at the Basel SBB train station?

I am going from Interlaken to Paris, and need to transfer trains at the Basel SBB station. Train numbers are IC 1058 to TGV 9206. I only have 5 minutes between them. Do you think one can do the transfer in 5 minutes? I don't have much luggage on me.

Best Answer

Tomorrow the trains will use tracks 9 and 10 respectively, which are on the same platform, so it would be pretty quick.

You can check your itinerary for your date of travel, in Switzerland (contrary to France) tracks are assigned well in advance. There’s a good chance they will be the same.

Note however that a TGV can be 500 meters long if it involves two coupled units, and you can’t go from unit to the other, so you could have to walk 250 meters in the very worst case (if you end up at one end of the train and your seat is in the other unit). But that should take way less than 5 minutes for most people.

Also, make sure to book both trains as a single booking. Swiss trains are notoriously reliable, but delays do happen once in a while, and if your train is delayed and both trains are booked together you will be able to take the next available train.