GSTAAD, Switzerland — I believe I may have had the single finest train-riding experience of my life today.
I have only one significant criticism: it wasn’t nearly long enough.
The experience in question was on the GoldenPass Express, the gauge-changing passenger train that runs between Interlaken and Montreux. As part of our Swiss Tourism group tour today, we rode in Prestige Class from Interlaken to Gstaad, the alpine haven for the well-to-do on the edge of the dividing line between the German and French-speaking portions of Switzerland.
Our European correspondent, Keith Fender, has previously written about GoldenPass Express, a technological marvel with its ability to change, while in motion, from standard- to meter-gauge track [see “Swiss gauge-changing Panoramic Express debuts …,” Trains News Wire, Dec. 17, 2022.] And I will be writing much more about it, and the company behind it, the Montreux Oberland Bernois Railway Co., in a future issue of Trains. Tomorrow, in fact, I’ll be leaving our tour group for much of the day to conduct some additional interviews on MOB.
For now, let me just say what sets this ride apart in my mind is two things. First, Prestige Class is a luxury experience — with wide, adjustable, heated leather seats, elevated to provide the best possible view; a compartment that seats just nine people (there are two of them, one at each end of the train); a very nice aperitif plate with champagne; and various other perks, not least of which is spectacular scenery. Second, and perhaps even more remarkably, it is not really priced like one. Currently, the surcharge over the regular ticket price for Prestige class is just 36 francs ($40.38 at the current exchange rate). It will be going up to 45 francs ($50.47) soon. I think no one would bat an eye if the company charged twice as much, but marketing director Frederic Delachaux says the company does not want to treat it as a premium product, but as one that remains within reach of most people.
There is so much more to tell, but these Swiss Tourism trips are packed with other activities (today we had a local tour conducted by a former downhill skiing world champion and Olympic medalist, and visited a Cheese Cathedral — at some point, I hope to tell you about these things) that the days are quite long and the nights are quite short.
So for tonight, I will just say: the GoldenPass Express is a bucket-list trip, and I look forward to telling you more about it in the future.
We took the Bernina Express from Chur to Tirano at the end of June, part of a brief visit to Switzerland that was in turn part of a longer visit to Italy, our first European trip and motivated by a family wedding. I had considered the Golden Pass Express while we were planning the trip, but had read that it would be out of service when we were there.
Novelty of the trip aside, the few hours we spent on the Bernina were an absolutely fascinating showcase of the precision engineering and efficiency of the Rhaetian Railways and the Swiss transportation system in general. We were not in the luxurious accommodations described by the article (we rode second class), but that mattered little to our experience. And that’s not to mention the Swiss Alps themselves. This should be a bucket-list trip for any rail enthusiast.