About this journey

Zermatt station sits at the heart of a car-free mountain village, reachable by rail alone. The line descending from here to Brig traces the route of the old Visp-Zermatt-Bahn, whose origins date to 1890–1891, when alpine tourism was expanding rapidly in the decades after the first ascent of the Matterhorn in 1865. Electric operations replaced steam traction from 1 October 1929, and the extension north from Visp to Brig followed on 5 June 1930, allowing through running to the Furka Oberalp Bahn. That connection made possible the first Glacier Express departure, which left Zermatt on 25 June 1930. The line is electrified at 11,000 volts AC at 16⅔ Hz, a system shared with the former Furka Oberalp Bahn and now operated under a single company, the Matterhorn Gotthard Bahn, formed on 1 January 2003.

Brig station, the northern terminus, opened in 1878 and sits beside the northern portal of the Simplon Tunnel, where the MGB's metre-gauge infrastructure gives way to the standard-gauge network connecting Switzerland with Italy and the broader European rail system. The journey moves from a traffic-free high-alpine resort through the Mattertal valley to one of Switzerland's most important rail junctions, a contrast that defines the character of the route.