The Martigny–Châtelard Railway, abbreviated MC, French ''Chemins de fer Martigny–Châtelard'', is a

rack railway A rack railway (also rack-and-pinion railway, cog railway, or cogwheel railway) is a steep grade railway with a toothed rack rail, usually between the running rails. The trains are fitted with one or more cog wheels or pinions that mesh with th ...

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 ...

. The transport company "Chemin de fer de Martigny–Châtelard" merged in 2001, the resulting

Transports de Martigny et Régions The Transports de Martigny et Régions (TMR) company in the Valais canton of Switzerland operates bus and coach services and two electric railway lines: * Martigny–Châtelard Railway (MC), , with the ''Mont-Blanc Express'' * Martigny–Orsières ...

now markets this line and the connecting

Saint-Gervais–Vallorcine railway The Saint-Gervais–Vallorcine railway ( French: ''Ligne de Saint-Gervais-les-Bains-Le Fayet à Vallorcine''), also known as the Saint-Gervais–Vallorcine Line, is a single-track long metre gauge railway in France connecting the SNCF's Sain ...

as ''Mont-Blanc Express''.

Contact with the other networks

* At

Martigny Martigny (; german: Martinach, ; la, Octodurum) is the capital city of the district of Martigny, canton of Valais, Switzerland. It lies at an elevation of , and its population is approximately 15000 inhabitants (''Martignerains'' or "Octodurie ...

it connects with the Lausanne–Brig line of the Swiss Federal Railways * At Le Châtelard (

Finhaut Finhaut is a municipality in the district of Saint-Maurice in the canton of Valais in Switzerland. History Finhaut is first mentioned in 1293 as ''Finyaux''. Geography Finhaut has an area, , of . Of this area, 3.2% is used for agricultural ...

) it connects with the

which in turn joins the standard gauge

SNCF The Société nationale des chemins de fer français (; abbreviated as SNCF ; French for "National society of French railroads") is France's national state-owned railway company. Founded in 1938, it operates the country's national rail traffi ...

at Le Fayet station of

Saint-Gervais-les-Bains Saint-Gervais-les-Bains () is a commune in the Haute-Savoie department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region, southeastern France. The village is best known for tourism and has been a popular holiday destination since the early 1900s. It has of ...

. However the between Le Châtelard and Vallorcine is operated by the Chemin de Fer de Martigny au Châtelard.

Rolling stock

* 2 Z 800 105-seater electric multiple units, delivered in 1997 (???) by ADTranz and Vevey Technologies, in the context of a joint purchase with the Ligne de Saint Gervais - Vallorcine. This 1000 kW stock, composed of two motorcars, could run at ; it is equipped with a rack and pinion system and pantographs (in addition to the third rail collector shoe), so that it could perform direct runs to Vallorcine and beyond without the need to change trains.

Merger with MO

This transport company merged 2001 with the Martigny–Orsières Railway and is now known as "Transports de Martigny et Régions".

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Martigny-Chatelard Railway Metre gauge railways in Switzerland Railway lines in Switzerland Mountain railways Rack railways in Switzerland Transports de Martigny et Régions

Contact with the other networks

Rolling stock

Merger with MO

See also

References