The ''GoldenPass Express'' is a luxury railway service that operates between

Montreux Montreux (, , ; frp, Montrolx) is a Swiss municipality and town on the shoreline of Lake Geneva at the foot of the Alps. It belongs to the district of Riviera-Pays-d'Enhaut in the canton of Vaud in Switzerland, and has a population of approxima ...

, on

Lake Geneva , image = Lake Geneva by Sentinel-2.jpg , caption = Satellite image , image_bathymetry = , caption_bathymetry = , location = Switzerland, France , coords = , lake_type = Glacial la ...

, and

Interlaken Interlaken (; lit.: ''between lakes'') is a Swiss town and municipality in the Interlaken-Oberhasli administrative district in the canton of Bern. It is an important and well-known tourist destination in the Bernese Oberland region of the Swiss A ...

, in the

Bernese Oberland The Bernese Oberland ( en, Bernese Highlands, german: Berner Oberland; gsw, Bärner Oberland; french: Oberland bernois), the highest and southernmost part of the canton of Bern, is one of the canton's five administrative regions (in which context ...

, in Switzerland. The train is owned and operated jointly by the Montreux Oberland Bernois Railway (MOB) and BLS AG (BLS). As such, it uses the MOB's gauge line between Montreux and Zweisimmen. In , the train cars change gauges in order to operate on BLS' gauge lines from Zweisimmen to Spiez and then from Spiez to Interlaken. The automated gauge conversion, which adjusts both the

track gauge In rail transport, track gauge (in American English, alternatively track gage) is the distance between the two rails of a railway track. All vehicles on a rail network must have wheelsets that are compatible with the track gauge. Since many ...

and the height of the car body (to account for differences in platform heights), is believed to the first of its kind in the world.

Route

The western terminus of the train is , on the shore of

Lake Geneva , image = Lake Geneva by Sentinel-2.jpg , caption = Satellite image , image_bathymetry = , caption_bathymetry = , location = Switzerland, France , coords = , lake_type = Glacial la ...

in the

canton of Vaud Vaud ( ; french: (Canton de) Vaud, ; german: (Kanton) Waadt, or ), more formally the canton of Vaud, is one of the 26 cantons forming the Swiss Confederation. It is composed of ten districts and its capital city is Lausanne. Its coat of arms ...

. Montreux is the terminus of the Montreux Oberland Bernois Railway's gauge Montreux–Lenk im Simmental railway line and is shared with the gauge

Simplon line The Simplon Railway is a line that links Lausanne in Switzerland and Domodossola in Italy, via Brig. The -long Simplon Tunnel (opened in 1906) is a major part of it. The line between Lausanne and Vallorbe is sometimes considered to form part of th ...

of Swiss Federal Railways. The train then climbs into the

Bernese Alps , topo_map= Swiss Federal Office of Topography swisstopo , photo=BerneseAlps.jpg , photo_caption=The Eiger, Mönch, and Jungfrau , country= Switzerland , subdivision1_type= Cantons , subdivision1= , parent= Western Alps , borders_on= , ...

, facing a maximum grade of before arriving at the first intermediate stop of

Montbovon Haut-Intyamon ( frp, Hôt-Enque-amont) is a Municipalities of Switzerland, municipality in the district of Gruyère (district), Gruyère in the Cantons of Switzerland, Canton of Canton of Fribourg, Fribourg in Switzerland. The municipalities of Al ...

, and 48 minutes from Montreux. From Montbovon the train continues through the Alps, following the course of the river

Saane/Sarine The Sarine (; frp, Sarena ) or Saane () is a major river of Switzerland.6th longest, 7th largest basin, see List of rivers of Switzerland It is long and has a drainage area of . It is a tributary of the Aare. The Sarine rises in the Bernese A ...

Château-d'Œx Château-d'Œx () is a municipality in the canton of Vaud in Switzerland. It is in the district of Riviera-Pays-d'Enhaut. History Château-d'Œx is first mentioned in 1115 as ''Oit'', ''Oyz'', ''Oix'' and ''Oyez''. Prehistoric settlements Du ...

and

Gstaad Gstaad ( ; ) is a town in the German-speaking section of the Canton of Bern in southwestern Switzerland. It is part of the municipality of Saanen and is known as a major ski resort and a popular destination amongst high society and the internati ...

, the latter a famous holiday destination. The train encounters a maximum grade of as it continues climbing while traveling east. The train continues climbing, rising more than above sea level near Saanenmöser before arriving in , two hours and four minutes and from Montreux. In Zweisimmen, the train goes through the gauge-changing operation and a locomotive swap, with a BLS AG locomotive handling the train between Zweisimmen and . In addition to converting between standard gauge and metre gauge, the platform height rises from to . The BLS line from Zweisimmen to Spiez through the

Simmental The Simmental ( en, Simme Valley) is an alpine valley in the Bernese Oberland of Switzerland. It expands from Lenk to Boltigen, in a more or less south-north direction (Obersimmental), and from there to the valley exit at Wimmis near Spiez it ta ...

is comparatively flat, and the train covers the to Spiez in 44 minutes. From Spiez, the train uses the

Lake Thun railway line The Lake Thun railway line is a railway line in the Swiss canton of Bern. It links the towns of Thun, Spiez and Interlaken, running principally along the southern shore of Lake Thun. The line was opened in 1893 by the Lake Thun Railway (german: ...

, which rounds the southern edge of

Lake Thun Lake Thun (german: Thunersee) is an Alpine lake in the Bernese Oberland in Switzerland named after the city of Thun, on its northern shore. At in surface area, it is the largest Swiss lake entirely within a single canton. The lake was created af ...

to Interlaken Ost, where a planned connection with the

Zentralbahn The Zentralbahn is a Switzerland, Swiss railway company that owns and operates two connecting railway lines in Central Switzerland and the Bernese Oberland. It was created on January 1, 2005, with the acquisition of the independently owned Luze ...

's ''Luzern-Interlaken Express'' to is available.

History

The ''GoldenPass Express'' began operation on 11 December 2022, the date of the timetable change, with a single daily round-trip between Montreux and Interlaken. The two operators MOB and BLS plan to increase the frequency to four round-trips on 11 June 2023. This gradual increase is to match the lower demand caused by the global pandemic. From 20 March 2023, The Goldenpass Express will be limited to the line between Zweisimmen and Montreux, due to increased wear on railway infrastructure caused by the gauge changing train.

References

External links

* * {{Official site Railway services in Switzerland Railway services introduced in 2022