Scenic route
Lötschberger
Bern → Brig · Switzerland
Lötschberger in pictures
Photographs by their authors, hosted on Wikimedia Commons · tap through for the licence
- Distance
- 110 km
- Fastest time
- 1 h 55 min
- Average speed
- 57 km/h
- Top speed
- 160 km/h
- Operator
- BLS
- Train
- BLS RABe 535 Lötschberger
- Countries
- Switzerland
- In service since
- 1913
- Runs
- hourly
- Highest point
- 1,240 m
Figures are published values, not live data · corrections log
The 1913 mountain line the base tunnel made optional. Felsenburg spirals, a 14.6 km summit tunnel, then the Bietschtal bridge on a ledge above the Rhône.
When the Lötschberg Base Tunnel opened in 2007, the 1913 mountain line above it was kept alive for the slow and the curious. BLS’s green Lötschberger units leave Bern hourly, spiral past the Felsenburg ruin above Kandersteg and thread the 14.6 km summit tunnel before emerging onto the südrampe: a ledge high above the Rhône where the line tiptoes across the Bietschtal bridge. Walkers use it like a funicular: every little station on the ramp opens onto a marked trail.
How this line was checked
- Line drawn from 2 OpenStreetMap relations, their own nodes end to end: relation 2354183 (51 km), relation 1843687 (65 km) — 116 km of the route between them
- Checked against OpenStreetMap: 98.3% of this line lies within 250 m of real track (median 3 m); the longest stretch away from it is 2 km
- Checked against the running timetable via ÖBB Scotty: our line sits 0.1 km from the shape of RE 1 (Zug-Nr. 4161)
- Wikipedia has an article for this line
Along the way
- Thun castle & lake
- Kander viaduct at Frutigen
- Felsenburg loops
- Kandersteg (Blüemlisalp views)
- Lötschberg summit tunnel (14.6 km)
- Südrampe & Bietschtal bridge
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