Montreux–Oberland Bernois railway

The railway Montreux- Lenk im Simmental is a narrow gauge narrow gauge railway in Switzerland. It is operated by the Montreux-Bernese Oberland Railway ( MOB) and connects Montreux on Lake Geneva via Les Avants, Montbovon, Rossinière, Château d'Oex, Rougemont, Saanen, Gstaad and Zweisimmen with steering. Guides you through the cantons of Vaud, Fribourg and Bern. At the Montreux -Zweisimmen section operates the Gold Line.

History

In the 1890s efforts were initiated for a rail link along the Alpentraversale from Montreux to Lucerne. The first step was the Canton of Bern with the building of a distance from Spiez to Erlenbach, which opened in August 1897. In contrast to the Vaudois planning, it was decided to Bernese side for a standard gauge track. The Simmentalbahn 1902 extended to Zweisimmen where the railway line treated here was to establish the connection from Lake Geneva.

On April 16, 1898 by the Federal Assembly the concession for the route from Montreux to Montbovon granted, building work began in 1900. As a first portion of the mountain route from Montreux in 1901, up over Chamby to Les Avants opened. There follows a summit tunnel and down to Montbovon, which opened in 1903. On 22 December 1899 the concession of Montbovon to Zweisimmen was granted, but without the Montbovon station. From there, the MOB follows the course of the Sarine up to Saanen and Gstaad (opening 1904), then over the Saanenmöser down to Zweisimmen, which was achieved in 1905. On March 30, 1906, the MOB won the concession for the line Zweisimmen steering, but had to seek to the end of 1910 due to funding problems an extension of time for the start of construction. In April 1910, work began and on June 8, 1912, the line was opened. Direct trains are possible only by means of hairpin in Zweisimmen station, but were offered in different schedule periods.

The route via Gstaad was not originally planned by the MOB, as Gstaad should be connected to the railway line from Aigle via Les Diablerets and Pillon to Saanen. Since the construction was delayed, Gstaad requested in the MOB to the inclusion in the route. The railway from Aigle was later also not completely finished, but ended up as Chemin de fer Aigle- Sépey - Diablerets (ASD ) in Les Diablerets. Was also never realized the planned continuation of the route Zweisimmen steering through the Rawil to Sion.

Connection lines

In Chamby the former route of the Chemins de fer électriques Veveysans (CEV ) branches off to Blonay. Since 1966, resulted setting of the passenger traffic of the CEV Blonay -Chamby operates a timetabled nostalgia traffic on summer weekends. The track still belongs to the Transports Montreux- Vevey- Riviera, the successor company of the CEV.

In Montbovon station is connected to the network of the Transports publics fribourgeois (TPF ), formerly Chemins de fer Fribourgeois Gruyère - Fribourg- Morat ( GFM ), nor previously Chemins de fer Electriques de la Gruyère (CEG ), which owns the depot workshop in Montbovon and the occasional rolling stock exchanges with the MOB. In the construction of both lines is a tangible dispute between the Fribourgese initiators of this car and the waadtländisch - bernisch dominated MOB began to emerge. The Freiburg ranged themselves one a license application for the construction of a railway to Zweisimmen; they wanted to stop trains from Bulle ago, possibly Vevey, lead on to Montbovon Two Simmen and thereby take continuous car from Montreux from Montbovon. Therefore, the Swiss Federal Railway Department led on June 23, 1899 by an agreement negotiated with the two initiative committee and the concerned State Governments. Since the Bernese and Vaud government supported the committee from Montreux, agreed the Freiburger one to give up the concession, but were given the right to build the Montbovon station (which is still one of the TPF ). Still open left the federal representative, who should be awarded title to the short distance of Montbovon to the cantonal border before La Tine .. The concession application of Fribourg's founders saw a tram, that of the Vaudois initiators of a train on their own roadbed before. The Bundesrat requested the Federal Parliament to grant the concession " of Montbovon or of the cantonal border " to Zweisimmen, so that the two companies would be contractually agree whether the will built one or the other route. In any case, the concession MOB undertook to build a track so that the vehicles of Gruyere lanes could operate on her. The two companies were obliged to apply the same standard parts. Finally, it was held on the regulation of the concentration of the lines of the MOB and the CEG in a contract of March 12, 1907, that the property boundary 117 m outside the Einfahrweiche of Château d'Oex lies and the CEG waive its license for the subsequent route.

From the train station Zweisimmen operated by BLS AG Simmentalbahn leads to Spiez and provides connections to Interlaken, Lucerne, Bern and Brig.

Structures

The original 298 long moss creek tunnel in 1984 replaced by an adjacent 458 -meter long new tunnel. This new stretch was opened on 14 November 1984. This has an extended profile, so that geschemmelte standard gauge cars could be transported by him. [Note 1]

The completely remodeled and renovated railway station Gstaad was put into operation on June 12, 2009.