About this journey

The GGB station in Zermatt sits directly across the street from the main MGB station, its metre-gauge tracks beginning what becomes one of the most technically demanding climbs in European railways. Zermatt itself is a car-free resort, and the Gornergratbahn extends that quiet into the mountains: no combustion engines, only the steady engagement of the Abt rack system that grips the rail from the very first metres out of the valley.

The Gornergratbahn opened on 20 August 1898 as the first electric rack railway built in Switzerland, and its engineering choices still set it apart today. The line is one of only four in the world powered by three-phase electricity, with two overhead conductors and the track itself forming the third. Over its 9,339 m length it climbs 1,469 m, arriving at Gornergrat station at 3,089 m — the highest open-air railway terminus on the continent. That distinction belonged to the GGB alone from 1898 until the Jungfrau Railway opened in 1912. At the summit, 29 peaks above 4,000 m form the horizon, with the Matterhorn among the most prominent on a clear day.