About this journey

The journey begins at Leysin and follows the Aigle–Leysin railway — line A of the Transports Publics du Chablais — on its descent toward the Rhône valley. Opened on 5 May 1900 by the Chemin de fer Aigle–Leysin, the line was the first metre-gauge Abt rack railway in the Chablais region. It runs 6.5 km and drops 1,047 m from Leysin to Aigle, with the steepest gradient reaching 23%. The operating voltage has changed four times over the decades, rising from 600 V DC at opening to the present 1,500 V DC. In 1975, the company merged with three neighbouring railways to form Transports Publics du Chablais.

Below the summit stations the line descends through vineyards before reaching the valley floor. The final kilometre into Aigle runs through the town's streets against car traffic, a tramway-style approach that gives the journey a markedly different character from the open mountain sections above. Aigle station itself sits on the standard-gauge SBB Simplon line and serves as the terminus for three TPC metre-gauge routes, making it a notable interchange between national and regional networks. The contrast between the rack-assisted mountain descent and the street-level arrival in Aigle captures the range of engineering that has kept this line in continuous service for well over a century.