About this journey

Montreux station is among a handful of stations in the world served by three different track gauges — standard gauge at 1,435 mm, the MOB's own metre gauge at 1,000 mm, and MVR narrow gauge at 800 mm — and it is from the metre-gauge platforms that this journey departs. The line belongs to the Montreux Oberland Bernois Railway, one of the oldest electrically operated railways in Switzerland, with services running from 1901 and the final 16.6 km to Zweisimmen opening on 6 July 1905. Electrification runs on 900 V DC overhead contact, and the 62.4 km route climbs gradients of up to 7.3%.

Leaving Montreux, the line winds up through vineyards above Lake Geneva, passes through the crown tunnel under the Col de Jaman, and descends into the Saane Valley. From Montbovon it follows the Saane river upstream through Château-d'Oex, then continues toward Gstaad — a routing chosen deliberately, since a direct ascent of the Saanenmöser Pass was impossible without rack-and-pinion. The line loops instead around Gstaad before reaching the pass summit at 1,270 m, the highest point on the route. Near Rougemont the journey crosses from the French-speaking canton of Vaud into the German-speaking canton of Bern. Zweisimmen is the metre-gauge terminus, where the GoldenPass Express undergoes a gauge change to continue beyond toward Interlaken Ost.