Wanderings: Die Zentralbahn

March 18, 2022

When checking out this morning, I noticed a large picture of the town behind the front desk depicting soaring Alpine peaks glistening in the sun. I commented how nice Leysin looks when it's not cloudy. With an ironic smile, the clerk agreed, but said it was often cloudy.

Basel was the destination today. I could get there in a few hours with 2 train changes, but it was almost the same price to get an all-day pass to the whole Swiss Rail network, so I took the scenic route.

The MOB (Montreux Oberland Bernois) railway (1) is a narrow guage line running up the hill from Montreux on Lake Geneva. They happened to be running their special "La Belle Epoque" reproduction 1890s coaches this morning (2). This line is a steep adhesion railway (i.e. normal, non-rack railway), climbing away from the lake on a series of long switchbacks. The summit tunnel crosses the watershed between the Rhone (flowing to the Mediteranean) and Rhine (flowing to the North Sea), and the Cantonal/linguistic boundary between Francophone Vaud and German-speaking Fribourg (3). While a pleasant journey, the Alps were obscured by clouds.

The Central Railway (Die Zentralbahn) follows a series of steep-sided lakes from Spiesz to Lucern. While still cloudy, this was the highlight of the rail journey. In Meringen, there was a good view of Reichenbach Falls (4). A watershed is crossed at Brünig Pass east of Meringen. The normal train becomes a cog railway to effect the crossing, before descening to Lucerne (5).

Arriving at Lucerne, there were ferry boats just across from the train station. My rail pass worked on these also, so I hopped aboard for an hour to see the lake.

The day ended at a hotel near the train station (Bahnhoff SBB) In Basel. The No. 1 Tram was right outside the door; No. 1 must go someplace interesting, so I hopped on and went to the end and connected with a tram that goes to Germany (6). I walked through Germany to the pedestrian bridge to France, then back on a bike & pedestriation path beside the Rhine to Switzerland, then grabbed the No. 12 train back to Bahnhoff SBB. About 4.5 mile walk; just the thing after sitting on trains all day.

(1) There are a wide array of different organizations running trains in Switzerland, including Federal, Cantonal, Regional, and private companies. I think MOB is private. Most (but not all) of the lines accept the all-access pass. Thankfully, every line I took today accepted my pass (although I was never quite sure until they scanned my ticket).

(2) Thankfully, the suspension system on the coaches was modern.

(3) In a very Swiss sense of politeness, when in Vaud, the French for next stop: "Prochaine Arret" came first in the station announcement, while the German: "Nächster Halt" came second. Crossing into Fribourg, German came first, French second. We recrossed into Vaud, French first, then into Bern Canton, German first again.

(4) Where Sherlock Holmes was pushed to his death by Professor Moriarty (or so we thought). I had thought the location was fictitious until I looked at the map.

(5) The whole journey from Montreux to Lucerne is known as the Golden Pass Line, although at least four different trains are necessary to cover the distance. From west to east: Narrow guage MOB to Zwiesiman, standard guage Bern Cantonal train to Spiez, standard guage SBB train to Interlaken, narrow guage Zentralbahn to Lucerne.

(6) While the tram line continues into Germany, I got off at the last Swiss stop to walk across.