The train followed the Gotthard railway and was named for the line, using the Italian spelling for it, Ferrovia del Gottardo.

The Gottardo provided a high-speed, first-class train service between Zürich Hauptbahnhof and Milano Centrale station, starting in 1961.

[2] The train reached Genoa with "just enough turnaround time for the same trainset to make the return journey"[5] back to Zurich the same day.

[11] By 1990, the southbound route had been extended by 9 km to start in Winterthur, with northbound trips still terminating at Zurich HB, but was cut back again to Zürich Flughafen in June 1991.

The electric multiple unit (EMU) trainsets that were used by the Gottardo from 1961 to 1994, or most of its life, were very unusual in their ability to operate at four different overhead line voltages.

The multi-voltage RAe-TEE-type EMUs allowed the two Trans Europ Express trains to cross the Swiss-Italian border at Chiasso without having to stop.

After the Ticino was discontinued (in 1971), the Gottardo was the only scheduled passenger train on the Lugano–Como line that did not have to stop at the border station, Chiasso.