RAILWAYS ABROAD
ANEW daily service is now running over the 115km (71 miles) between Montreux and Interlaken in Switzerland – despite the through-trains having to change gauge, voltage and even height en route! Regular services began on June 11, with one train pair, building up to a planned four each way by the end of August.
The new trains use two existing railways: the standard gauge line from Interlaken Ost to Zweisimmen via Spiez (which opened between Interlaken and Spiez in 1893, and in stages from Spiez to Zweisimmen in the Simmen Valley by 1902); and the 62.4km (38.5 miles) metre-gauge Montreux Berner Oberland Bahn (MOB), which opened from Montreux over the mountains via Gstaad to Zweisimmen between 1901 to 1904.
The MOB line was built as an electrified route using a relatively unusual 900V DC supply. From 1916, thanks to completion of the Brünigbahn between Interlaken and Luzern, it was possible to travel by train from Montreux to Luzern with two changes (at Zweisimmen and Interlaken), and the route became known as the ‘Golden Pass Line’.
In 1913, the Bern-Lötschberg-Simplon-Bahn (BLS) took over the Thunerseebahn, which owned the Spiez to Interlaken line, and by 1920 had electrified it at 15kV AC. The Spiez to Zweisimmen line, also electrified by 1920, was operated by two separate companies that merged into the Spiez-Erlenbach-Zweisimmen-Bahn
