About this journey

Andermatt station sits at the crossroads of two historic Alpine corridors: the Furka Pass route toward Brig and Visp, and the Oberalp Pass route toward Disentis/Mustér. The line is metre-gauge, and since 2003 it has been owned and operated by the Matterhorn Gotthard Bahn (MGB). Andermatt is also a stop on the Glacier Express, which runs between Zermatt and St. Moritz or Chur, and during the winter closure of the Oberalp Pass road the station handles car-shuttle trains through to Sedrun. A short branch, the Schöllenenbahn, connects Andermatt to Göschenen at the northern portal of the Gotthard Rail Tunnel, though that line lies outside this journey.

The route heads west toward Brig, a terminus shaped by successive layers of railway history. Service to Brig began on 18 June 1878 as the eastern end of the Simplon Railway, and the opening of the Simplon Tunnel in 1906 extended that line southeast to Domodossola in Italy. The Lötschberg railway line followed in 1913, linking Bern with Brig via the Lötschberg Tunnel, and in 2007 the Lötschberg Base Tunnel largely supplanted the mountain line. Today Brig brings together standard-gauge international services and two metre-gauge lines at the adjacent Brig Bahnhofplatz station — a compact junction that belies its reach across borders and passes.