Wednesday 6 September - The Sierre Funicular
The first objective today was to ride the Sierre Funicular which is the longest in Europe. To save a little time we took a stopping train as far as Aigle where there was plenty of action in the narrow gauge terminus including testing of a heritage rail car and trailer.
From Aigle we took a train directly to Sierre. The line took us along side the Rhone river which we followed quite closely including the right hand turn close to Martigny The bottom part of the valley is heavily into vineyards but as we approached Martigny the valley floor was almost exclusively fruit trees and fruit bushes, with the vines on the hillside. By the time we reached Sierre it was almost exclusively vineyards again. We quickly found our way to the base station of the funicular railway. The line has been completely renovated and was not reopened until last year. It is 4.2 km long and the ride up is an ear popping experience.
The funicular rose up through the vineyards into higher scrubland at the top. There wasn't a great deal to see at Montana so we came straight back on the funicular, the down seating being in the form of theater style with a large window in the front, very entertaining.
From Sierre we took the first train up to Visp and then transferred to a through train to Spiez. The first part of the journey is through the upper Lotchburg tunnel. After the tunnel there are a serious of curves in the Kandersteg area.
At Spiez we quickly found the Micros restaurant and had an excellent lunch with a wonderful view over the town and Lake Thun. We watched a parasailer come down round and around and landed in a field just below us.
From Spiez we took a train to Bern and there was a cross platform transfer to the train for Geneva stopping at Palezieux. It was here that things began to go pie shaped. The connecting train to Montbovon left before we had a chance to reach it - it was in the narrow gauge yard. To make a long story short we went as far as Gruyeres to cover a line over which we had not travelled before. We then decided to return to Palezieux and returned to Montreux via Lausanne. Even this had its moments because the return to Palezieux was filled with school children.
The line to Montbovon, narrow gauge under the TPN (Fribourg) banner, seems to be poorly thought out. The train we missed by a narrow margin has four minutes recovery time built into the schedule only a couple of stations down the line. What I found absolutely amazing was that at one station the train makes its station stop across a public highway with the gates down. It was scheduled to stand there four minutes. The time was up when a train arrived in the opposite direction to make a meet. It, too, stopped across the public highway. The end effect is that at least once an hour the public highway is blocked by trains for periods of over five minutes. I am amazed that they can get away with this.
The up side is that we were able to get good pictures of Gruyeres while waiting at that station.
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