Dubbed the slowest express train in the world, the Glacier Express takes the journey from St. Moritz to Zermatt (291km) in just under 8 hours, going over 291 bridges, 91 tunnels, and traversing the Oberalp Pass (2033m ASL). A good chunk of this is ascending and descending the Swiss Alps, so the train makes good use of its cogwheel, and employs a rack-and-pinion system for the steep grades over the Alps (just like the Bernina Express).
This was actually the train-ride that I was looking forward to the most, as I like snow, and getting the chance to see some glaciers in the Alps would be quite exciting. Of course, this was before I realized that the Bernina Express has similar views, as the Bernina Pass is also pretty snowy.
Anyways, the Glacier Express started off in St. Moritz and heads north to Chur first before turning west and going up into the mountains. Once again, we go over the Landwasser Viaduct and through the Albula tunnel before reaching Chur. At this point a german tour group joins the train and all hell breaks loose. Picture me, another asian couple, a drunk grandpa, and an Indian family surrounded by 40+ old german people.
It was nuts.
After they managed to settle down a bit, lunch was starting to get served. The waitress went around and got everyone’s drink order before running to the back to make sure they had enough beer. As you can imagine, old german people on a train and none of them are driving…well, let’s just say they weren’t ordering lemonade. I joined in as well (again, beer’s cheaper than water here), and was brought a bottle of the local stuff – Feldschlösschen, which reminded me of many other european pilsners (like Stella and Heineken). It went pretty well with the lunch.
Lunch was a three-course meal beginning with a mixed greens salad for the starter. The entrée, from what I could tell, was steamed veggies, some kind of grain (with more veggies), and pork with gravy. It was then capped off with a Swiss chocolate cake for dessert. It was decent for train/plane food, and was served in stages.
As lunch was coming to an end, we were approaching the Oberalp pass, which is the high point of the train journey. The train, at this point, was running on its cogwheel, and you can hear the grinding as the cog was keeping us going up at a 12-15% grade. As we got to the pass, it was an amazing sight. The pictures can’t do it justice as there’s always glare.
After the pass, we reached the town of Andermatt, at which point the german tour group disembarked. The train settled down again, and we were able to continue on in peace to Zermatt. At this point during the train ride, the glaciers and snow have now been replaced by green pastures and cows, which was a pleasant surprise. We were still deep in the Alps, but it’s nice to see greenery here.
When we reached Brig and Visp, the train had basically gotten down to ~5-600m ASL. However, in order to reach Zermatt, the train would once again need to rise to 1600m. The cogwheel kicked in again as we started to ascend the mountain toward Zermatt. It’s amazing to see random farmhouses and cabins up in the mountains, and there were even entire villages along the way, some on the edge of cliffs.
By the time we neared Zermatt, we were ducking in an out of tunnels. We first reached a small town of Täsch, which is the end of the road for cars. Zermatt is a car-free village, and cars must park at the avalanche-proof parking garage in Täsch and take the train in to Zermatt like everyone else. After the near-eight hour journey, we finally reached the Zermatt station, also avalanche-proofed (just in case).
Aside from the Beijing-Shanghai train-ride (which was in a sleeper cabin), this was definitely the longest I’ve ever spent on a train. It got tiring after a while just sitting there, and any chance I got I would either walk around a bit or, if the train was in station, step down for a few minutes to stretch my legs. It was definitely quite an experience though, and one I’m glad I took.
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