Driving to Zermatt: where the road ends
Can you drive to Zermatt, and do you need a Swiss vignette to get there?
You cannot drive into Zermatt. The public road ends at Täsch, about five kilometres short of the village, and a shuttle train covers the rest. You do need a vignette for the A9 up the Rhone valley, which is the motorway part of the approach, and the annual is the only length Switzerland puts on sale.
The road ends at Täsch
No public road reaches Zermatt. Private cars go as far as Täsch and no further, and the ban treats an electric car exactly as it treats a combustion one.
Driving on past Täsch without authorisation risks a significant fine. The village enforces its own rule, and being a guest of a hotel further up is not a permission.
Set the satnav for Täsch. Everyone in the car should know before you leave that the last stage is by rail.
Parking at the Matterhorn Terminal
The Matterhorn Terminal in Täsch is where the car stays. The Matterhorn Gotthard Bahn puts its own covered parking there at 2,100 spaces, with taxi firms and hotels running more than a thousand more between them.
Zermatt Tourismus gives the shuttle as a departure every 20 minutes and a 12 minute run into the centre of the village. Both of those are the operators' figures and a timetable is theirs to change.
Allow for the transfer when you book the first night. Arriving late at Täsch means waiting for the next departure.
Where the vignette actually applies
The A9 is the Rhone valley motorway, and the federal roads office publishes maintenance notices for its Visp to Brig section, so that stretch of the approach is charged road.
Above Visp, the road up the Matter valley to Täsch is described as a cantonal road outside the A9, which would leave the final climb free of the charge. We could not confirm that classification at a federal source, so we put it to you as an open question rather than as a fact.
Coming down from Basel or Bern you pass a staffed customs post at the border, and that counter sells the sticker form of the annual Swiss vignette at the official amount. Take it if it is on your way: we charge the same official amount plus a service fee for arranging the purchase, so the counter is the cheaper of the two for anyone who drives past one.
The Lötschberg car train from Kandersteg
Coming down from Bern or the Bernese Oberland, the BLS car train carries the car through the Lötschberg from Kandersteg to Goppenstein and puts you in the Valais without a pass road.
BLS sells the crossing as rail travel and takes its fare at the terminal. Whether a wagon through the Lötschberg falls outside the motorway charge is written down by nobody, at BLS or at BAZG; it follows from the charge being drafted for motorways, and no further than that.
Check the loading times before you set off. You are catching a departure.