Glacier Express:
Take care with the hyped-up marketing of the Glacier Express. It is not always the best way to ‘see Switzerland’
As I have stated in response to previous forum threads it is not logical or practical to travel on the Glacier Express from a base further north (such as Interlaken or Luzern) ‘just to be on the Glacier Express’.
The Glacier Express runs roughly on an East – West axis in the southern part of Switzerland, so trying to access it from further north is falling into the trap of being lured by the hyperbolic marketing of the Glacier Express. In practice the Glacier Express is just an ‘exclusive’ train on a normal railway route with plenty of other normal – non supplement , reservation-free trains on it.
Many people make the mistake (having heard of or seen publicity for the Glacier Express) that it is the only scenic train in Switzerland. This is to underestimate the scenery of the rest of Switzerland. If it doesn’t fit your itinerary it is not really necessary to do it. Ordinary trains runs on all the same lines. Just about every railway line in Switzerland is scenic to some degree. And in fact some sections of the Glacier Express route are less scenic than many other lines in Switzerland.
If you are already holidaying in the Swiss Alps you won’t necessarily see anything more spectacular from the Glacier Express that you would not have already seen on other jaunts.
rushing’ to Zermatt to get to the Glacier Express western start point completely misses the point of visiting Zermatt which is to travel above Zermatt village, enjoy the local scenery (far more glaciers visible than from the Glacier Express…) and view the Matterhorn.
To understand the above, it is worth taking a moment to understand the Glacier Express and its history:
It was created (as one train each way daily) with the notion that well-healed travellers taking long holidays in Switzerland in the ‘Belle Epoque’ era (1930s) would stay in Zermatt and then also go and stay in the other fashionable resort of the time, St Moritz. The train was named (mainly) after the Rhone Glacier which has now melted so much that you don’t see it from the train and in any case the train runs under the Rhone Glacier in a base tunnel which replaced the Furka mountain section in 1982.
Points to bear in mind about the Glacier Express:
Although the whole journey is in the mountains, a lot of it is in valleys – where you get some good views of bubbling rivers but not all the time – there are some mundane sections.
in truth there are only 4 really spectacular sections – in order West to East: the loops around Grengiols and Fiesch; Andermatt – Oberalppass – Disentis; Ruinaulta (Rheinschucht aka Rhein gorge); Albula north ramp loops and spirals Tiefencastel – Filisur – Preda
The trip is a long one – tourists can frequently be seen sleeping rather than watching the view and missing the spectacular bits anyway!
the same railway lines can be travelled using ordinary local trains which are no slower in practice due to the single track infrastructure