Tips and Tricks: Getting around by bus, tram and train

Bus and tram

Want to get from Zentrum to Hönggerberg as fast as possible? Then your best option is taking the ETH eLink, the comfy electric shuttle bus that connects both campuses. The bus runs every 20 minutes from Monday to Friday. To link up with train connections, the shuttle takes off from Zurich's main station a few times in the morning and stops there again a few times in the evening. You can find the bus schedule here.

Just missed the shuttle? Then you can take tram number 9 or 10 from ETH/Universitätsspital and get out at Milchbuck. From there, change to bus number 69. If conditions are ideal, the journey will take 21 minutes – just seven minutes longer than using the shuttle. However, you will need a ticket to use public transportation in Zurich – ETH identification cards unfortunately don't count.

Train

You can also use the train, of course: sometimes it's faster to take the S-Bahn from the main station to Oerlikon than to go by tram via Milchbuck. To take this connection or use trams and buses in the Zurich area, you'll need a ZVV ticket, a ZVV travel card or a GA travel card from SBB. ETH provides subsidies as follows:

ETH employees from the doctoral level onwards with at least a 50 percent workload for a minimum of six months receive a free SBB half-fare travel card or a coupon for an SBB GA travel card. You can apply for the travel cards here. The half-fare card is automatically transferred to your SwissPass and remains valid for one year. The aforementioned requirements have to be met by the starting date of your travel card. Please note that you need to order half-fare cards and GA travel card coupons from the ETH travel office, not from SBB!

You can find more information here.

And for shorter distances, there's of course always the option of going by foot – which also happens to be the most environmentally friendly way of getting around. It's healthy, keeps you in shape and doesn't produce any carbon emissions.