Hi Linda,
A common minimum connection time is 7 to 10 minutes for changing trains at the typical station in Europe; however, I would recommend allowing yourself something more like 15 minutes at the
station in Zurich.
In any case, tickets for trains operating within
Switzerland are issued as 'open tickets'. An 'open ticket' would be valid for you to take a later train, should you miss the specific departure you choose when you place your order on our site. Specifically, 'open tickets' for trains in
Switzerland are valid for any single train operating between the cities listed on the ticket within a 15 day time period (which begins on the date you searched for the route when you placed your order). As such, 'open tickets' do not reflect actual departure and arrival times, even though you would still be selecting a specific train on our website. Since the tickets from Zurich Airport/Zurich to Locarno are valid for a time period of 15 days, you would be able to use them to take a later train if need be.
You would purchase tickets by doing a search under 'Find Train Tickets' on our homepage,
www.raileurope.com. If you ever do wish to arrange for a transfer time of your choosing, you would just do a separate search each segment of a connection when you go to purchase tickets (i.e. one search for trains from
'Zurich Airport' to 'Zurich' and another search for connecting trains from
'Zurich' to 'Locarno').
I'm sorry, as we do not have platform information or information regarding how long it would take to walk from one train to another.