Lauterbrunnen-St.Moritz - Glacier Express or not ?
Apr 22nd, 2005, 11:58 AM
#21
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Carl: a couple of other points for you:
When you take the train from Spiez into Brig, try to sit on the <b> right side of the train facing forward </b>. This will give you a spectacular view of the Rhone Valley as the train comes down the very steep grade into Brig.
In Brig you will have to go to <b> a different station </b> to catch the GE.
The station belongs to the Matterhorn-Gotthard Bahn and it is easy to find: go out of the front door of the main SBB station (where you arrived). Directly across the street is the M-GB station...you'll see the covered/open platforms.
The GE reverses direction when it leaves Brig. A few kms outside of Brig the train enters the first of several spiral tunnels which are used to gain height. Last April when we took the trip there was no snow in Brig but once we got up into the area east of Brig commonly known as "The Goms" the scenery becomes stereotypically "alpine." Last year the snow banks along the right of way were higher in some portions than the train iyself!
There will be a long pause in Andermatt..long enough for you to get out and look around the station area. The train then immediately enters another spiral tunnel and proceeds through several switchbacks to gain height again. At the top the village of Andermatt below looks like some sort of miniature.
There will be another "pause" at Disentis for a locomotive change and then at Chur the train reverses direction once again. You'll eventually proceed through the Rhine Gorge and across the spectacular Lanwasser Viaduct before St. Moritz.
I wish I were going with you!!!
When you take the train from Spiez into Brig, try to sit on the <b> right side of the train facing forward </b>. This will give you a spectacular view of the Rhone Valley as the train comes down the very steep grade into Brig.
In Brig you will have to go to <b> a different station </b> to catch the GE.
The station belongs to the Matterhorn-Gotthard Bahn and it is easy to find: go out of the front door of the main SBB station (where you arrived). Directly across the street is the M-GB station...you'll see the covered/open platforms.
The GE reverses direction when it leaves Brig. A few kms outside of Brig the train enters the first of several spiral tunnels which are used to gain height. Last April when we took the trip there was no snow in Brig but once we got up into the area east of Brig commonly known as "The Goms" the scenery becomes stereotypically "alpine." Last year the snow banks along the right of way were higher in some portions than the train iyself!
There will be a long pause in Andermatt..long enough for you to get out and look around the station area. The train then immediately enters another spiral tunnel and proceeds through several switchbacks to gain height again. At the top the village of Andermatt below looks like some sort of miniature.
There will be another "pause" at Disentis for a locomotive change and then at Chur the train reverses direction once again. You'll eventually proceed through the Rhine Gorge and across the spectacular Lanwasser Viaduct before St. Moritz.
I wish I were going with you!!!
Apr 23rd, 2005, 07:27 AM
#22
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Thanks all to for all the detailed information ! This forums has helped me enormously !
Ingo, I have started another thread to talk about the Half Fare Card - maybe you can help me with some of my confusion there.
About the Glacier Express the following site (http://www.glacierexpress.ch/pages_e...ketprices.html) has a line at the bottom of the page that says:
"Railpass (GA) and day tickets are valid on the whole line of the Glacier Express."
Does Railpass include Eurail Flexipasses ? If so, then it appears that there is no extra cost for the Disentis segment ? I think Intrepid1 was suggesting the same - I will follow his advice and call up the Eurail guys to confirm for sure. But I thought this was interesting enough to mention it here for others who may be interested.
Thanks all again !
Ingo, I have started another thread to talk about the Half Fare Card - maybe you can help me with some of my confusion there.
About the Glacier Express the following site (http://www.glacierexpress.ch/pages_e...ketprices.html) has a line at the bottom of the page that says:
"Railpass (GA) and day tickets are valid on the whole line of the Glacier Express."
Does Railpass include Eurail Flexipasses ? If so, then it appears that there is no extra cost for the Disentis segment ? I think Intrepid1 was suggesting the same - I will follow his advice and call up the Eurail guys to confirm for sure. But I thought this was interesting enough to mention it here for others who may be interested.
Thanks all again !
Apr 23rd, 2005, 07:35 AM
#23
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As I posted earlier, at one time the route was run by three railroad companies, the Brig-Visp-Zermatt (BVZ) ran the segment from Zermatt to Brig; the Furka-Oberalp (FO) ran the segment from Brig to Disentis; the Rhaetian Bahn ran, and still does run, the segment from Disentis to St. Moritz.
The Furka-Oberalp was the company which would not accept anything but a SwissPass for their segment without charging a supplement.
A couple of years ago the BVZ and the FO railroads merged to form the present Matterhorn-Gotthard Bahn and they may very well accept all pass forms..hopefully they do and also, hopefully, RailEurope (or similar) can give you that information.
The Furka-Oberalp was the company which would not accept anything but a SwissPass for their segment without charging a supplement.
A couple of years ago the BVZ and the FO railroads merged to form the present Matterhorn-Gotthard Bahn and they may very well accept all pass forms..hopefully they do and also, hopefully, RailEurope (or similar) can give you that information.
Apr 23rd, 2005, 08:05 AM
#24
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Hi Again carlposter05,
Notice the "(GA)" after the word "Railpass." GA stands for General Abonnement, an annual subscription of 2,990 chf for totally free travel on Swiss rails (http://mct.sbb.ch/mct/en/reisemarkt/abonnemente/ga.htm). The day ticket is a day-type pass you can buy if you have the Half Fare Card. I don't think they're referring to the regular tourist passes. If I were you, I'd email the Swiss rail folks to be sure; I've emailed them a few times and always receive prompt and thorough replies.
s
Notice the "(GA)" after the word "Railpass." GA stands for General Abonnement, an annual subscription of 2,990 chf for totally free travel on Swiss rails (http://mct.sbb.ch/mct/en/reisemarkt/abonnemente/ga.htm). The day ticket is a day-type pass you can buy if you have the Half Fare Card. I don't think they're referring to the regular tourist passes. If I were you, I'd email the Swiss rail folks to be sure; I've emailed them a few times and always receive prompt and thorough replies.
s
Apr 23rd, 2005, 01:48 PM
#26
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I've taken the Glacier Express several times usually with Swiss Pass. We had a very embarrassing moment one year when we were traveling on Eurail Passes. We had stopped in the Swiss House in London and reserved our seats on the Glacier Express for our trip, and showed her our Eurail Passes. We had to pay a small fee for the seat reservations. So we were shocked when seated on the train when the conductor said our Eurail passes didn't cover the Glacier Express. We were in First Class and he wanted something like a couple hundred dollars for our fares! He admitted our seat reservations were fine, but they weren't tickets -- and none of us could figure out why the people at the Swiss House reserved those seats when we didn't have tickets! We paid them a lot of money, but moved to second class. So the Swiss Pass covers the Glacier Express, but apparently not the Eurail Passes, at least the parts to Zermatt.
Meanwhile to answer your other question -- I really don't see much special about the Glacier Express from other trains which take the same route. We've been in the first class observation cars which have huge windows angling into the ceilings, but it was increibly hot in those cars in the summer with the sun beating down through the glass -- the AC couldn't handle it.
Meanwhile to answer your other question -- I really don't see much special about the Glacier Express from other trains which take the same route. We've been in the first class observation cars which have huge windows angling into the ceilings, but it was increibly hot in those cars in the summer with the sun beating down through the glass -- the AC couldn't handle it.
Apr 25th, 2005, 03:40 PM
#27
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Here is the response I got from the Glacier Express folks. In short, the Eurail passes DO NOT cover the Brig-Disentis segment.
"The Eurail Flexi Pass is valid between St. Moritz and Disentis.
Disentis-Brig comes for an adult CHF 45.00 in the 2nd class and CHF 75.00 in the 1st class. The Glacier Express supplement is to pay in each case. It is between CHF 9.00 and CHF 17.00 per person, it depends on the travel month and day."
"The Eurail Flexi Pass is valid between St. Moritz and Disentis.
Disentis-Brig comes for an adult CHF 45.00 in the 2nd class and CHF 75.00 in the 1st class. The Glacier Express supplement is to pay in each case. It is between CHF 9.00 and CHF 17.00 per person, it depends on the travel month and day."
Sep 16th, 2005, 07:07 PM
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We will be going from Lauterbrunnen to Salzburg by train and I was assuming that we would go via Zurich. I don't have a good map to answer this right now and since there seem to be a lot of experts here...
Is the GE something that could be incorporated into our route or would that be totally out of the way/impossible? If it is possible, would it be overkill since we will be going up the Jungfrau the day before? I can't imagine seeing any more awesome scenery than that trip. Thanks.
Is the GE something that could be incorporated into our route or would that be totally out of the way/impossible? If it is possible, would it be overkill since we will be going up the Jungfrau the day before? I can't imagine seeing any more awesome scenery than that trip. Thanks.
