Dr. Rox,
The current baseline shown earlier in the Timeline above is a 3:41 for the 1042 to 1423 Locarno/Domodossola/Spiez/Interlaken West run.
If you access
http://www.myswissalps.com/swisstimetable.asp?lang=EN you will get the information I indicate below. When you put in Locarno to Luzern starting at 1030, the choices you get are:
Details Station/Stop Date Time Duration Chg. Travel with
1 Locarno 08.02.09 dep 10:45 3:09 1 IR, S3
Luzern arr 13:54
Locarno 08.02.09 dep 10:45 1
IR 2280 InterRegio,
Arth-Goldau arr 13:06 4
Arth-Goldau dep 13:21 6
S3 21350 Urban railway, line 3
Luzern arr 13:54 5
Duration: 3:09; runs daily
2 Locarno 08.02.09 dep 11:03 2:38 1 S20, ICN
Luzern arr 13:41
Details - Connection 2
Station/Stop Date Time Platform Travel with Comments
Locarno 08.02.09 dep 11:03 3
S2014238 Urban railway, line 20
Bellinzona arr 11:27 1
Bellinzona dep 11:36 1
ICN 666 InterCity tilting t, BZ RZ
Luzern arr 13:41 7
Duration: 2:38; runs daily
3 Locarno 08.02.09 dep 11:45 2:56 0 IR
Luzern arr 14:41
Details - Connection 3
Station/Stop Date Time Platform Travel with Comments
4 Locarno 08.02.09 dep 12:03 2:38 2 S20, CIS, IR
Details - Connection 4
Station/Stop Date Time Platform Travel with Comments
Locarno 08.02.09 dep 12:03 3
S2014242 Urban railway, line 20
Bellinzona arr 12:27 1
Bellinzona dep 12:36 1
CIS10016 Cisalpino,
Arth-Goldau arr 14:09 4
Arth-Goldau dep 14:14 5
IR 2178 InterRegio,
Luzern arr 14:41 7
Duration: 2:38; runs 8. Feb until 13. Jun 2009 daily
Then we must connect in Luzern:
Details Station/Stop Date Time Duration Chg. Travel with
1 Luzern 08.02.09 dep 13:55 2:09 1 IR, IC
Interlaken West arr 16:04
2 Luzern 08.02.09 dep 13:55 2:21 1 IR, BUS
Interlaken West, Bahnhof arr 16:13
3 Luzern 08.02.09 dep 13:57 2:26 2 RE, IC, R
Interlaken West arr 16:23
4 Luzern 08.02.09 dep 14:55 12
IR 2228 InterRegio,
Interlaken Ost arr 16:55 4
Interlaken Ost dep 17:01 5
IC 986 InterCity, BZ RZ
Interlaken West arr 17:04 1
Duration: 2:09; runs daily
When you combine the two, you get :
Lorano 1045 Luzern 1354 5 hours 9 minutes
Locarono 1103 Luzern 1354 4 hours 51 minutes
Locarno 1145 Luzern 1704 7 hours 19 minutes
Locarno 1203 Luzern 1704 7 hours 1 minute
I believe that you are using non-Sunday timetables, which is not permissible when the date in question is Sunday Nov. 2. If you use Sundays, you will duplicate my results. The only possible conclusion is that the St. Gotthard route via connection in Luzern is NOT competitive by 1 hour 24 minutes longer or more.
EDITOR's NOTE - I discovered I had made an assumption about all such trains going through Bellinzona, but that it not correct. So I redid the entire analysis.