A historic event! The GoldenPass Express, which will connect Montreux and Interlaken Ost without change, was officially inaugurated on Friday in Gstaad. Named by Shania Twain, the new train will make its first official trips on Sunday 11 December. Two networks, two languages, two cultures, two platform heights, two track gauges, two electrical voltages, two railway companies... With the GoldenPass Express, everything comes in pairs. It was only natural that two trains joined at Gstaad station for the official inauguration. One of the trains was named by the world-famous music star Shania Twain. The Canadian singer is the godmother of the Shania Train. A resident of Tour-de-Peilz, Shania Twain was in Los Angeles last Tuesday to receive the music icon award at the People’s Choice Awards 2022. She also recently announced the release of her next album on February 3, followed by an international tour.
This inauguration is historic: it marks the end of a wait of more than a hundred years for a direct link between the two regions. The end of a long wait, certainly, and now the beginning of a great adventure.
Shania Twain inaugurates the Montreux-Interlaken train in her name
The two towns are now linked directly and without change by two trains, one of which was named in a nod to the Canadian singer.
By Michael Pralong | Le Matin | December 11, 2022
This Sunday, December 11, at 9:08 a.m., a new GoldenPass Express (GPX) train left Interlaken West station (BE) in the direction of Montreux (VD). At 9:35 a.m., 115 km away, a second similar train left to make the reverse journey. From now on, it is therefore possible to connect the two municipalities without having to change trains by making the Montreux - Gstaad - Zweisimmen - Interlaken journey in 3 hours and 15 minutes.
But these two new trains were inaugurated on Friday in Gstaad, where the two met. On board the one coming from Montreux, the Canadian singer Shania Twain, who has lived for years in "La Tour-de-Peilz", as indicated by 20minutes.ch . And her train was named in her honor, “Shania Train”. In the one coming in the opposite direction, called “Gstaad”, it was the skier Michael von Grünigen who was the godfather.
The GPX will only make one trip in each direction until June 10, 2023 as tourism demand has not yet fully recovered from the pandemic in the war in Ukraine, the Bernese Oberland Montreux Railway said ( MOB). From June 11, 2023, the company will increase the service to four daily round trips.
Much like his compatriot Neil Young, Canadian singing star Shania Twain's dog wears the lumberjack shirt like an old throwback grunge. But his has fur, enough to calmly face the adventure of the prestige class, its caviar from Frutigen (a village in the Bernese Alps) and its 360-degree swivel seats, alongside Georges Oberson, the general manager of the Montreux-Bernese Oberland.
This Sunday, December 11, the GoldenPass Express made its first direct rail connection between Montreux and Interlaken, a 150-year-old dream. This has hitherto come up against the fact that the Montreux-Oberland Bernois (MOB) and the BLS, the two companies operating the line, were each running on different track gauges, one being wider by 40 centimeters than the other.
To remedy this, the French company Alstom has designed a world first: a variable gauge bogie, which allows trains to pass from one track to another without even stopping.
To celebrate this achievement, Canadian singing star Shania Twain made the inaugural trip, along with ex-Swiss giant Mike Von Grüningen. If the singer was in Los Angeles this Tuesday, December 6 to receive the Icon People Choice Awards 2022, her presence at the MOB had good reasons. She is indeed a resident of La Tour-de-Peilz, near Montreux. Which helps to have people known worldwide, while the line also wants to attract tourists from all over the world.