Switzerland’s brilliant new train route: direct from Montreux to Interlaken

The GoldenPass line has long been known for incredible views, but now a pioneering engineering feat has made it even more attractive

As the train winds up the hillside above Lac Léman’s north shore, leaving Montreux behind, I know exactly where we’re heading because I’ve done this journey before. The bustle of the so-called Swiss Riviera will give way to the tranquil farming country of the Pays d’Enhaut, followed by the upmarket resort of Gstaad, before a gentle descent to Interlaken, between the twin lakes of Thun and Brienz in the Bernese Oberland. This 70-mile route, which crosses the röstigraben (the French-Swiss German language border) and links some of Switzerland’s most famous tourist centres, has existed for more than 100 years. But there’s one big difference today: thanks to a world first in rail technology, I don’t have to change trains halfway through.

The GoldenPass line, as it’s called, opened in stages between 1901 and 1916, the realisation of a decades-old dream to connect Lake Geneva, Gstaad and the Bernese Oberland by rail. But the journey wasn’t seamless. Because of the mountainous terrain, the railway from Montreux to Zweisimmen required metric gauge rails (one-metre wide), while the stretch from Zweisimmen to Interlaken was built with standard gauge (1.435 metres wide). Given no train could travel on both, passengers had to change at Zweisimmen.