Swiss Transport Museum – More Than Just A Collection Of Cars

The 20,000 square meters interesting Swiss Transport Museum is located in the city of Lucerne. It features transportation exhibits, communication technology, a large planetarium and Switzerland’s only IMAX theatre.

The main themes are the past, present and future of transport and mobility on land, air and on sea. The museum unfolds the story of the development of all forms of traffic and communication.

IMAX Theatre

Most interesting is the IMAX theatre at the Swiss Transport Museum. While there, you see some of the world's most breathtaking sights in needle-sharp focus on a gigantic 19x25m screen. During 40 minutes, you will discover a strange world. You can see the very small in close up and the very large in its true size and experience a completely new film dimension.

The IMAX theatre offers different films, which has a seating capacity of 400. Some of the films shown are African Adventure, Fly Me to the Moon, Wolfs, Wild Ocean, Animalopolis or the Alps. However, the cinema films are not presented in the IMAX format, they are shown in the latest 3D-digital technology.

Planetarium

At the Swiss Transport Museum and Communication, you will be taking a quantum leap into the future. The Planetarium always fascinated the young and old since the beginning in 1969. The projection area is a huge 508m2 beneath the 18 m dome. It is the perfect place to experience a breathtaking sky and discover the principles and the latest research from the world of astronomy.

Spending a day at the museum is a very interesting and enjoyable activity. This is not just true when you have children or teenagers but also for parents and adults in general. Therefore, if you have a special interest in transport, you certainly will love this place. Just make sure you go early because it is really a number of museums and it will take you all day to discover. The halls to see are…

Aviation & Space Travel

Very interesting to discover is the Aviation and Space Travel Hall, which was opened in 1972. Since then, pioneers of the world of aviation from the past, present and future have donated to the museum.

The aviation and Space center has expanded over decades and gained a worldwide reputation. Milestones along the path of this development were the space travel exhibition "Cosmorama" in 1999. All aviation sectors and areas such as airports, air rescue, civil and military flight, flight safety and flying weather are presented in an attractive fashion.

Railway Transport

What would Switzerland be without rail transport? The Swiss Transport Museum is probably one of the best railway museums to discover. Maybe it’s because Switzerland has indeed so many railway tunnels. In fact, it has so many different tunnels like a Swiss Emmental cheese has holes.

You will find an interesting and comprehensive collection of the theme of Swiss rail transport and a large display of trains. The museum displays everything from the beginning of the horse-drawn tram via steam railways to rack railways and on to today’s modern electric railway.

Road Transport

The two-storey hall of the museum has an exhibition area of about 2,000 m2 and futures a display store and an interactive car theatre.

It also has individually designed theme islands covering topics such as safety, commercial traffic, car & work, changing visions and a display workshop. Especially interesting is the section on the Gotthard road tunnel project. The tunnel was opened in 1980.

Other Interesting Discoveries

The Swiss Transport Museum also has a unique permanent cableway exhibition. It shows you how to get to the top of the highest peaks via cable cars, funicular railways and cogwheel railways.

The oldest means of transport at the museum is a dugout canoe from Lake Biel dating back to the Neolithic period. In the Nautirama, you will be taken on an audio-visual tour through the early days in the history of steam navigation. Original boats, marine engines and some interesting historic models complement the exhibition.

As all the museums in Switzerland, the Swiss Transport Museum has all information about the exhibits in various languages. There are many more activities outside too if the weather is good. A miniature train gives rides around the site or you may also try the radio-controlled boats.

The Opening Hours are from Apr – Oct daily from 10:00 – 18:00 and from Nov – Mar daily from 10:00 – 17:00. The Swiss Transport Museum is located on Lidostrasse 5, in Lucerne – Phone 041 370 44 44. If you are using public transportation, take bus No. 6 or 8 from the downtown centre and the bus will take you directly in front of the museum.

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