Fodor's Travel Talk Forums - Transportation to Murren

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Transportation to Murren

I`ve decided to spend three days at Murren in my visit to Switzerland. Where can I get information of the transportation timetable to the town? Do they offer trips late in the night? I`m asking this because I don`t want to make day trips from there, and later found there is no way to the get to town. Thanks for any help.

Gil, You can find a timetable for trains to Murren at "http://mercurio.iet.unipi.it/misc/timetabl.html". Just go to the Swiss site (SBB) and put in your departure and distination cities. That will give you various travel alternatives. If you are traveling within Switterland, you may be able to get a fare quote as well. If the link doesn't work, let me know and I will e-mail it to you. Happy planning. Greg

Gilberto, Hi. I went directly to the Swiss rail site at www.rail.ch, and it looks like the last train from Lauterbrunnen(your hub into/out of Murren) is at 23.05 going through Stechelberg. The last connection via BLM (mountain railway) is at 21.00. There are no connections between 23.05 and 6.35. s

Ahem, folks. But trains don't go to Stechelberg. You ride the post bus down there and then get to Mürren via Luftseilbahn -- a big cabin that dangles on a cable. The latest you can get back to Mürren without having to walk is 23:35. That means leaving Interlaken Ost on the 22:35 train. And that means the bus ride. It is nice, however. The bus stop is right behind the train station, and it goes to the Luftseilbahn valley station. Usually the bus is timed to the Luftseilbahn. Actually the valley station is before you get to the main part of Stechelberg, which is something of a joke. I presume the main part is where the hotel is. But you get off of the bus before the bus goes on the short distance to Stechelberg. The listing in the web site is peculiar. I have ridden the bus a couple of times, and that is how it goes.

Gilberto & Bob, Thanks, Bob, for clarifying. I haven't ever made this trip (only skied through or walked through Muerren from the Schilthorn), so I was only reading the SBB website. And reading it poorly, as it happens. Personal experience surely does make the difference! s

After you said what you did, I looked at the schedule to Mürren from Interlaken Ost via Stechelberg. The listing I saw on the SBB web site for taking the bus from Lauterbrunnen to Stechelberg did not make much sense. When I last made the trip in 2000, the Post Bus left for Stechelberg after the train from Interlaken Ost pulled into Lauterbrunnen. Some people transferred to the WAB to Wengen and some walked to the lift that takes passengers to Grutschalp where they board the little train for Mürren. A few of them got on the Post Bus and rode farther up valley. The Post Bus stops at Trummelbachfälle before reaching the valley station of the cable car lift between Stechelberg, Gimmelwald, and Mürren. The only walking you do is from where the train to the bus, and from the bus to the cable car. The bus from Lauterbrunnen pulls right under the deck or platform where you board the cable car. If you don't have your ticket, you buy it, and then walk up a short flight of stairs to the loading deck and wait your turn. The cable car goes first to Gimmelwald and then it makes a sharp turn to the right and continues on to Mürren. From there, it continues on to the Schilthorn, depending on the time and the weather.

So which of the two options is better? The lift/train combo via Grutschalp or the bus/cablecar route via Stechelberg? Now I'll really demonstrate my ignorance; is a lift and a cablecar the same thing? Are we talking dangling high above the ground in each case? or is the luftseilbahn on a track? and the Grutschalp 'lift' a chairlift? I'm muddying the waters I'm afraid, but there are some of us who don't speak mountain talk. J.

It is hard to find the right American word for those cable lifts in the Swiss mountains because there are quite a few variations. The cable car that goes up to Mürren from Stechelberg is a Luftseilbahn. Luft meaning air, seil meaning cable, and bahn means route or the way or path, or the course, such as an Autobahn is a way for cars to go. Most of the time the term Luftseilbahn applies to a large car suspended on a cable that will hold perhaps 80 people. A Gondalbahn is a smaller, but enclosed, car that also hangs freely from a cable. Usually the cars on a gondola line will hold about 6 people maximum, and the cars are spaced about 30 yards apart on the cable, depending on demand for transportation. A Sesselbahn is an open air conveyence much like a ski lift. You have no enclosure to protect you. A Drehtseilbahn is usually a car on rails that is raised and lowered up and down the mountain with a cable. Drehtseil is a term for cable. The verb drehen means to revolve or turn. The cable turns on a big wheel and pulls and lowers the car up and down the hillside. There are variations in the uses of these term, and these meanings are ones I have seen applied in Switzerland. High German usage may be different, and there are local variations in Austria as well. In addition to the cable-attached means of conveyence, the trains are different too. In the Lauterbrunnen area, a normal narrow guage electrically powered train commutes between Interlaken Ost and Lauterbrunnen and Grindelwald. At Lauterbrunnen, the gradient of the roadbed to Wengen increases drastically, and a cog type of third rail is employed to provide traction. (The design of the locomotives is such that on the downward journey the motor acts a generator and feeds power back into the electrical grid.) This type of train is sometimes called a Zahnradbahn, with Zahn being the German rord for tooth. The design of the locomotive depends on the gradient of the road bed as I said. On the Jungfrau run from Interlaken Ost, passengers change 2 times: Once in Lauterbrunnen for the trip to Kleine Scheidegg and again in Kleine Scheidegg for the trip to the Jungfraujoch itself. Track conditions are different and they require different designs of equipment. Answering the question which is better cable conveyence is like asking which is the better flavor of tea: English Breakfast or Darjeeling? Or do you like chocolate or vanilla ice cream the best? How can that question be answered other than on a personal basis which is different for person to person? Personally, I don't care for Sesselbahnen particularly when it is raining!!! In the end, I pose this question: What difference does it make? You get there if the equipment is functioning and you don't if it breaks down. The Luftseilbahn does "dangle" freely. The Drehtseilbahn is on rails, but it is still dangling because the gradient of the roadbed is like 60° from horizontal. I don't think a free fall in either case would slow up much before it hit the bottom. I like the Luftseilbahn; it sort of sways as you go. Sort of like a porch swing. The Drehtseilbahn looks like you are going down an outdooor elevator shaft. On the Stechelberg - Schilthorn run, even on the section to Mürren, you get a beautiful view of the Jungfrau and friends. Even the Swiss dogs like the view. We rode up to Mürren once with this gorgeous Bernese Mountain Dog. He was unhappy until his mistress asked the other passengers if the dog could look out the window. People let him move to where he could see out and he started making these sounds of delight. (Dog lovers know that sound very well.) When the Jungfrau suddenly came into view, he let out a louder little yelp and trembled in sheer ecstasy. He could see his mountains!! I felt the same way.

If I remember correctly the lift from Lauterbrunnen to the train that takes you to Murren is a funicular. The cable car at Stechelberg if indeed a "dangling" gondola, albeit a large one. Unless you're afraid of heights, nothing beats the view from the very front of the Stechelberg gondola as it descends from Gimmelwald to the valley floor.

wow. Thank you both.

Bob, wow too. I am simply amazed at your attention to detail as well as your memory!! Even though I've been to the area about four times, all I could say for certain is that one can get to Muerren either by train or by cable car. Pretty vague. I wonder if your training is in engineering? Don't want to get too personal, but I am curious about how you've acquired these exacting skills! Love reading your detailed, descriptive posts! s

What a fantastic description of cable cars, gondolas and lifts! And what a funny story about the dog! I had similar experiences. Do you know the world’s oldest cog-wheel train is in the USA (Mt. Washington in the White Mountains/New Hampshire)? The 2nd oldest is the Vitznau-Rigi cog-wheel train in Central Switzerland. The Lauterbrunnen-Gruetschalp lift is indeed a funicular. Bob, you mentioned there is no difference between a cable car and a funicular in case of free fall. This is, as far as I know, not true. Funiculars have a brake system which stops the car immediately in case the rope/cable is bursting. It is too difficult for me to explain the details in English. There is still another difference: It happened a couple of years ago in Italy that a military jet cut a cable into two pieces – the people in the car died. This would probably not happen in a funicular I think. Of course this does not mean cable cars would be dangerous. I like to use them. The route via Stechelberg by cable car to Muerren is not included in the Jungfraubahnen Pass. So it is not reasonable for Gilberto to use this route. You have an additional change in Gimmelwald from the 1st to the 2nd section of the cable car. Ingo

Believe it or not, I was a history major in graduate school. Then somebody found out I could teach computer languages. I ended up in an MIS department. At times I taught PL/I, Fortran, Cobol, Basic, C with Unix, SQL, and other courses. My favorite was relational databases. I loved dealing with the theory underlying the creation of relational data bases. Another dog story if you can stand one. We were boarding the train in Grindelwald and there was a very big Bernese Mountain Dog sitting in the doorway of the baggage car with his person. (Owner I presume). The dog was a most gregarious fellow. As people would pass by on their way to the passenger cars, he would whimper and reach his big paw out and touch them lightly on the shoulder. He could not quite understand why no one would stop and really pet him, but he had more friends than anybody. I shook hands with him, and rubbed his huge head, and got slirped by that huge tongue, but knew I had to get on the train before the doors shut. What a gorgeous animal, and so polite. I would like to asked him over for dinner.

Bob, o no o no o no o no no a a two-sides-of-the-brain person! The bane of my ego. What's an id to do?? I took one of those personality tests some years ago and realized that my comprehension tends to come in "big-picture" size; since then I've given myself permission not to sweat the details. But now I may re-think what I re-thunk then. Look forward to more, especially on Switzerland. s s

Well, I am in some respects a half wit. I have problems learning foreign languages. German is a particular pain. And I don't read music.

Bob, loved your dog stories, however, since I am an amateur student of dog behavior and participate in dog obedience training, I must point out that dogs are not human and don't speak "human" but speak DOG. What you thought was a warm touch of kindness on the shoulder from the dog, which it would be if he were human, is actually how a dog shows dominance. Ever see a dog pile? The one on top wins! Putting the dog's paw on your shoulder makes him on top of you! The dominant one, the big boss, the big kahuana! So, can't speak German either? Boy, you are just striking out in the language department! Course, could also be a learned behavior - paw on shoulder, maybe cookie in mouth or pat on head. lol