About this journey

Zermatt station sits at the upper end of the Mattertal, the car-free resort accessible only by rail or on foot. The metre-gauge line that connects it to Brig stretches 44 km down through the valley, operated today by the Matterhorn Gotthard Bahn — a company formed in 2003 when the BVZ and the Furka Oberalp Bahn merged.

The line's origins lie in the rapid growth of Zermatt tourism that followed Edward Whymper's 1865 first ascent of the Matterhorn, which drew as many as 12,000 visitors a year by the 1880s. A concession granted in 1886 set the railway in motion, and the route as filmed — running the full length from Zermatt to Brig — only became possible on 5 June 1930, when the extension from Visp to Brig was completed. The line climbs and descends across six rack sections totalling 7,450 m, using the Abt system to manage gradients of up to 12.5%. Between 1958 and 1989 the major bridges were rebuilt in reinforced concrete to carry heavier rolling stock. Brig station, opened on 18 June 1878, receives the train at the foot of the valley, where metre-gauge and standard-gauge services meet beside the northern portal of the Simplon Tunnel.