Glacier Express

Also known as the world’s slowest express train, the Glacier Express is Switzerland’s premier express train. Its main route goes all the way from St. Moritz through Chur and Andermatt to end in Zermatt. Although travel passes are valid on this route in first and second class, there is a supplement to be paid in the form of a mandatory reservation fee.

When booking trips on the train, make sure to book a seat facing south in the direction of travel. If you take a look at the seating plan of the train, it goes from Excellence Class, to first class, then to second class from east to west. With that information, you should be able to work out which direction is in the direction of travel depending on where you begin your journey.

The Glacier Express is run by the Rhätische Bahn, which is also the only railway in Switzerland to also use Romansh regularly in their announcements. It is powered with hydroelectric power at a minimum of 90%, and on good days it can even reach up to 100%. The entire route takes nearly 8 hours to complete, but it does overlap with two other panorama routes.

My suggestion for the ideal route is to travel from Tirano to Chur via St. Moritz with the Bernina Express and stay the night before taking the Glacier Express to Zermatt. From there, you can take the Gornergrat Gotthard Bahn up to see the Toblerone mountain – the Matterhorn. The route between Brig and Zermatt is overlapped with the Matterhorn-Gotthard Bahn, a panorama journey that doesn’t require a reservation surcharge.

Is Excellence Class worth it? I really don’t know, I haven’t been on it. The CHF420 reservation fee (in addition to the actual ticket price) costs a lot more than the CHF33 reservation fee for “regular” first class. I have seen that the food is gourmet in Excellence Class, but the four-course menu in first class is actually quite good for railway gastronomy standards. Hiking and cross-country skiing is hard work, so the biggest logistical problem you’ll have to solve on the Glacier Express is whether you’d like your chocolate cake or your cheese platter first while you enjoy the same view.

The two highlights of the ride are the Oberalppass and Grengiols. At the Oberalppass, the train passes its highest section of track at over 2000m above sea level, where the road is usually close to cars for winter you can see people cross-country skiing on it. At Grengiols, the train goes through a tunnel loop to accommodate the sudden change in elevation and it makes your ears pop!

It was such a nice day when I went during winter that the train captain decided to make a surprise stop at Nätschen to allow us to take photos of the mountains outside for 10 minutes. The conductor blew the whistle promptly after the 10 minute break and ushered delighted passengers back onto the train.

Whether summer or winter, the route is quite spectacular and you can meet Swiss and foreigners on the train making for great conversation. Sometimes, I just want to hang out on a train with like-minded strangers to enjoy the view and mediocre food.