Zermatt railway station is a

metre gauge Metre-gauge railways are narrow-gauge railways with track gauge of or 1 metre. The metre gauge is used in around of tracks around the world. It was used by European colonial powers, such as the French, British and German Empires. In Europe, la ...

railway station Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a pre ...

serving the car-free

mountaineering Mountaineering or alpinism, is a set of outdoor activities that involves ascending tall mountains. Mountaineering-related activities include traditional outdoor climbing, skiing, and traversing via ferratas. Indoor climbing, sport climbing, a ...

and

ski resort A ski resort is a resort developed for skiing, snowboarding, and other winter sports. In Europe, most ski resorts are towns or villages in or adjacent to a ski area – a mountainous area with pistes (ski trails) and a ski lift system. In North ...

Zermatt Zermatt () is a municipality in the district of Visp in the German-speaking section of the canton of Valais in Switzerland. It has a year-round population of about 5,800 and is classified as a town by the Swiss Federal Statistical Office (FSO). ...

, in the Canton of

Valais Valais ( , , ; frp, Valês; german: Wallis ), more formally the Canton of Valais,; german: Kanton Wallis; in other official Swiss languages outside Valais: it, (Canton) Vallese ; rm, (Chantun) Vallais. is one of the cantons of Switzerland, 26 ...

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

. It is the southern terminus of the BVZ Zermatt-Bahn (BVZ), which connects Zermatt with

standard gauge A standard-gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge of . The standard gauge is also called Stephenson gauge (after George Stephenson), International gauge, UIC gauge, uniform gauge, normal gauge and European gauge in Europe, and SGR in Ea ...

lines at

Visp Visp (french: Viège) is the capital of the district of Visp in the canton of Valais in Switzerland. Geography Visp lies in the Rhône valley, at the confluence of the Vispa and the Rhône, west of Brig-Glis. Visp has an area, , of . Of ...

(served by

SBB-CFF-FFS Swiss Federal Railways (german: link=no, Schweizerische Bundesbahnen, ''SBB''; french: link=no, Chemins de fer fédéraux suisses, ''CFF''; it, Ferrovie federali svizzere, ''FFS'') is the national railway company of Switzerland. It is usuall ...

) and

Brig A brig is a type of sailing vessel defined by its rig: two masts which are both square rig, square-rigged. Brigs originated in the second half of the 18th century and were a common type of smaller merchant vessel or warship from then until the ...

(served by

and BLS AG). Since , the BVZ has been owned and operated by the

Matterhorn Gotthard Bahn The Matterhorn Gotthard Bahn is a narrow gauge railway line and a railway company (Matterhorn Gotthard Bahn AG, MGB) in Switzerland. The track width is . It was created in 2003 through an amalgamation of Furka Oberalp Bahn (FO) and BVZ Zermatt- ...

(MGB), following a merger between the BVZ and the

Furka Oberalp Bahn The Furka Oberalp Railway (german: link=no, Furka Oberalp Bahn) is a narrow gauge mountain railway in Switzerland with a gauge of . It runs in the Graubünden, Uri and Canton of Valais. Since January 1, 2003, it is part of the Matterhorn G ...

(FO). The station is across the street from

Zermatt GGB railway station Zermatt GGB railway station (french: Gare de Zermatt GGB, german: Bahnhof Zermatt GGB) is a railway station in the municipality of Zermatt, in the Swiss canton of Valais. It is the northern terminus of Gornergrat Railway and is served by local t ...

, the valley terminus of the

Gornergrat Railway The Gornergrat Railway (german: Gornergrat Bahn; GGB) is a mountain rack railway, located in the Swiss canton of Valais. It links the resort village of Zermatt, situated at above mean sea level, to the summit of the Gornergrat. The Gornergr ...

Overview

Every day, several

Glacier Express The Glacier Express (GEX) is a direct train connecting railway stations of the two major mountain resorts of Zermatt and St. Moritz via Andermatt in the central Swiss Alps. The train is not an "express" in the sense of being a high-speed train ...

trains, which are operated at this point by the MGB, either originate from, or terminate at, Zermatt station. The MGB also operates regional services to Brig at hourly intervals. Additionally, due to Zermatt's car-free status, the MGB has a frequent special

shuttle train A shuttle train is a train that runs back and forth between two points, especially if it offers a frequent service over a short route. Shuttle trains are used in various ways, in various parts of the world. They commonly operate as a fixed consi ...

service between Zermatt and nearby

Täsch Täsch is a municipality in the district of Visp in the canton of Valais in Switzerland. It is located about north of Zermatt. The local language is Swiss German. History Täsch is first mentioned in 1302 as ''Tech''. In Latin it was known as ...

, where people travelling to and from Zermatt by combustion-engined vehicles are required to park their machines. For the better part of most days, this service operates at 20-minute intervals; it takes 12 minutes.

Services

The following services stop at Zermatt: * ''

'': one or more trains per day, depending on the season, to or . * Regio: ** half-hourly service to , with every other train continuing to . ** shuttle service every twenty minutes to .

Gallery

File:Bahnhof Zermatt 1900.jpg, Zermatt railway station, ca 1900. File:Glacier-Express-label.JPG, Glacier Express welcome sign. File:Bahnhof Zermatt 2005.jpg, The station concourse. File:MGB HGe 44 102 Zermatt 02.08.2006.JPG, HGe 4/4 II No. 102 and Tm 74.

References

Notes

External links

* {{SBB web
Matterhorn Gotthard Bahn
Matterhorn Gotthard Bahn stations Railway stations in the canton of Valais Transport in Zermatt Railway stations in Switzerland opened in 1891