Glacier Express (Switzerland)

All of the core information you will need about taking The Glacier Express train is on its website - but ShowMeTheJourney thought a summary of the LESS OBVIOUS aspects of taking this train will hopefully be useful.

Top 10 Things Worth Knowing About The Glacier Express:

(1) The two largest independent mountain railway networks in southern Switzerland are the Matterhorn-Gotthard-Bahn (MGB) and the Rhätische Bahn/ Rhaetian Railway (RhB) - and what makes the Glacier Express train unique is that it is the only service that travels between BOTH networks.

(2) Therefore the Glacier Express is the only DIRECT train in either direction between Zermatt/Visp and Chur/Davos/St Moritz.

(3) The longest journey possible on the Glacier Express is that between St Moritz and Zermatt, which takes around 8hrs and 10 mins – it’s not a fast train (speed isn’t the point of making a journey).

(4) In contrast, making the journey between St Moritz and Zermatt by a combination of regular MGB and RhB trains requires at least 4 x changes of train.

(5) The cost of purchasing separate tickets for a journey by regular trains between Zermatt and St Moritz is similar to the cost of a Glacier Express ticket - those Glacier Express ticket prices are actually good value.

(6) For journeys by The Glacier express the total price is the journey price + the reservation fee, so the 'journey price' is not the total cost.
The journey price varies according to distance travelled, but the reservation fee is a fixed price, irrespective of distance.

(7) The reservation fees/supplementary charge is cheaper in the winter compared to the summer.

(8) You don’t have to travel the length of the whole route to experience a ride on The Glacier Express – short section tickets are now available.

(9) Booking a minimum of a couple of weeks ahead is highly recommended – many departures sell out completely in advance.

(10) When making a booking, you will select seats on a seating plan, so can see if window tickets are available etc.

The 'Excellence Class' service is available when travelling the entire route in either direction between St Moritz and Zermatt.
For a reservation fee of CHF 470, which is payable in addition to the ticket costs, first class ticket holders will be able to benefit from a luxurious on board service, which will comprise:

• access to an exclusive bar
• an at seat lunch with complimentary wine
• afternoon tea with canapés
• a welcome drink
• snacks throughout the journey
• guaranteed window seats in an observation car with gold-leaf tinted windows
• luggage transport in dedicated lockable sections aboard.

Catering:

• Coffee, juice, soft drinks
• Starter plate with Champagne
• Regional 5-course menu incl. wine accompaniment
• Tea Time in the afternoon with goodies
• Snacks throughout the day available

Optional quality meals are served from to passenger’s seats in both 1st and 2nd class.
However, meals are only served to passengers who have booked them in advance - meals can be added to a booking on the website
The ticket prices therefore do not include the meals.

A snack bar is available to passengers who do not want a hot meal or have not reserved prior to boarding.

Connections to Swiss mainline SBB trains are available at Brig, Visp and Chur.

SBB trains from Basel and Zurich operate to Chur, while both Brig and Visp are served by trains from many Swiss cities including Basel, Bern, Geneva, Lausanne and Zurich.

EC trains also provide a direct service between both Brig and Visp and Milan.

(The videos were taken along the route, but not from a Glacier Express train)

The journey between St Moritz and Zermatt has six distinct sections:

On the Albula Railway, including the famous Landwasser Viaduct, but it is not the only viaduct on this twisting part of the route – sit on the left facing backwards for the best views of the viaduct - when travelling in this direction.
(The image wasn't taken on a Glacier Express train)

For most of this part of the journey the railway runs through a gorge, the river is on the right when heading towards Visp and Brig.

As the train approaches Andermatt it climbs to the highest part of the route at Oberalp.
After Oberalp there are spectacular views over the Oberalpsee and down into the valley towards Andermatt, particularly from the left of the train
(the train will have reversed direction in Chur).

This section of the route used to take a spectacular path across the Furka Pass, but the line was blocked by snow too often so a tunnel had to be constructed
Though on other either side of the tunnel the views are fantastic!
(Note that the videos weren't taken from a Glacier Express train)

Between these stations the route runs parallel to a mainline operated by SBB and there is a more urban, less spectacular flavour here - though the views from the right of the train of the valley walls towering above, have their moments.

The railway line follows a valley up to Zermatt and towards journey's end, the river is over to the right, but best of the views are on the left.

Seat reservations and tickets can be booked on the Glacier Express website.
Three types of accommodation are available:

• Glacier Express 1st class - larger seats, arranged 2 + 1 across the aisle
• Glacier Express 2nd class
• Excellence Class features a swathe of exclusive benefits including a 5 course meal - the Excellence Class charge is the cost of making a reservation, but a 1st class ticket is also required, which is an additional cost
  Excellence Class is also only available on journeys over the full route between St Moritz and Zermatt.

The booking process is unconventional, because seat reservations can only be booked from 93 days ahead of the travel date, but tickets can now be booked from 6 months ahead; Though journey tickets can only be booked more than 93 days ahead on other outlets such as the SBB, Swiss railways website.

Though the logic behind this is somewhat perplexing, as a journey requires a reservation + a ticket (or valid rail pass), but the reservations per departure, typically sell out completely at least a couple of weeks ahead of travel.
At peak travel times, such as June to August and December to February, it's not unknown for 1st and 2nd Class seats to be fully booked on certain departures more than two months ahead; And window seats inevitably sell particularly quickly.

If you book a journey ticket on the SBB booking service, but the subsequently discover that seat reservations are sold out on the Glacier Express departure that you want to take, you won't be able to refund the ticket purchase!

Booking the tickets ahead enables the costs to be split across two bookings, but you'll then need to come back to book a reservation ideally ASAP.
Though if you'll be booking less than 93 days ahead, the only option that you should see on the Glacier Express website should be booking a ticket - With the reservation automatically included as you proceed down the booking path.

The notes below each of the screen shots point out the aspects of the booking path that are particularly worth paying attention to - as will be seen, the steps to take are unconventional.
Though don't be put off by the number of images that you'll see below, it only take a couple of minutes to make a successful booking,

On the Glacier Express home page home,

1. Before you head off down the booking path, you can see the costs of making a journey, by clicking on 'Travel Planning' and then on the drop down menu that will appear, you can select 'Prices'
2. Note that you can switch between different languages.

Click on that 'Prices' option and you will see...

There are two elements to the price of tickets;

1. The cost of the seat reservation
2. The cost of the journey, which...
3. Creates a total price

If when on the booking path you want to buy a ticket, but only see an option to book a reservation, you can try navigating back to here and then clicking the Book Now button in the Total price box.

Click on the red 'Book now' buttons and you will see the options for booking tickets and/or reservations;

1. in 1st or 2nd class, the options to choose one class or the other comes further down the booking path
2. in Excellence Class
3. You can buy a ticket without a reservation - the link will take you to the website of Switzerland's national rail ticket booking service provided by SBB.
   Note that you don't need to have a reservation before you buy a ticket, but you won't be ale to travel with a ticket unless you have made a reservation.

Note that if you'll be booking less than 93 days ahead and set off down the option 1 booking path, but are only given the opportunity to book a reservation - You can return to this page and follow Option 3 towards a ticket booking.

When you choose a 'From' location, all of the station calls made the by train will appear as a drop down menu.

St Moritz is at the far western end of the route and Zermatt is at the far eastern end,
Though as can be seen it's possible to book shorter journeys - and in the 'To' box you will see all of the journeys that can be booked from the 'From' location.

What's been pointed out is the calendar will have a cut off date - which tends to be around 93 days ahead, which is the maximum time ahead that reservations can be booked.
So journey tickets can only be booked from 93 days to 6 months ahead on outlets other than the Glacier Express website, such as the website of SBB, the national rail operator.

Having clicked on 'Find a Connection' you will be given the opportunity to choose the train you'll want to travel by.

Though as can be seen, because the enhanced views from the windows are core to taking the Glacier Express, this stage of the booking gives an an opportunity to assess how likely it will be that you can experience them.

Hence what has been pointed out is:

1. The number of green circles indicates how many seats are still available on each departure; No circles = sold out, one = very limited availability, four = excellent choice of seats etc. As can be seen you can easily switch the booking to a different day / time if there is more availability on alternative days to your first choice.
   What the top arrow indicates is that the info you'll see below, correlates to that departure day

2. This is particularly crucial info, as it is showing how many seats are still available for selection in 1st and 2nd class.
   Not that the journey was being looked up around 3 months / 90 days in advance, but despite that, only 2 seats were still available in 1st class on this train.
   Also despite the three green lights indicating good availability, there are actually less than 40 seats available for selection on this entire train.

This 'Show Details' link gives access to more info about the route taken by the train, it doesn't give additional info about the reservations.

However, what may not be obvious is that there is more than one Glacier Express train on most dates, so the bottom arrow that's been added to the screenshot, is indicating that you will typically be able to scroll down to see this other departure...

...yes this other departure

1. ...has more seats available
2. as can be seen, what was shown to me when I first looked was 'Buy a seat reservation'

However, I didn't want that, I wanted to buy a ticket + the reservation, but the booking service wasn't letting me do that - I followed the booking path to see if I could add a ticket at a later step, but that wasn't possible.
There seemingly wasn't any logic to this, the journey was less than 93 days ahead, but I didn't already have a ticket and the info had told me that they were available.
You may not see this, the website may have 'dropped a cookie' when I'd previously looked up a reservation.

So I started over in a separate window and this time I saw...

...the 'Buy a ticket' button, so having clicked on it

...the next stage of the booking, which isn't payment, but is the first stage of the seat selection process.

What has been pointed out above is;

1. You need to choose your seats, before
2. Adding the passenger details.

You don't add other passengers to the booking before you choose the seats for all members of the party.
Additional travellers are added to the booking by selecting more than one seat on the plan.

This is the stage of the booking when you can opt to book 1st or 2nd class tickets / reservations.

1. 1st class will be the default and the seating plan that will be initially shown will be for a 1st class coach.
2. However, if you want to travel in 2nd class, you will need to click here, so that you can then access a seating plan for 2nd class coaches.

What the arrow that's been added to the screenshot is indicating is that you can scroll down to access more seats.

On this example of a 1st class seating plan, what has been pointed out is;

1. There is more than 1st class coach in which seats can be selected on this example, so I could have clicked on the other coach, if I hadn't been able to select my first choice of seats in this coach.
2. This group of 4 seats is facing each other, ads indicated by the seat backs.
3. If you will be travelling solo or in a pair, these single seats are the ultimate travel experience, they're all by the windows and nobody will be sat beside you. Though note despite this journey being looked up around 3 months / 90 days ahead, all but a few of these types of seats have already been claimed!
4. Note that there is no direction of travel arrow, so it isn't possible to book seats on the left or right-hand sides of the train.
5. This is solely the price of the seat reservation, per seat.

An at-seat dining service is available in 1st class and 2nd class on the Glacier Express, but it isn't included in either the cost of the reservation, or the ticket.
So if you want to have a meal during a 1st class journey, you can click this button to access the catering menu.

You will have been asked to add the name(s) and other details for each traveller when you clicked 'Passengers' on the previous screen,
Then after that step, you will be at this stage when a discount - including whether you will be travelling with a rail pass can be added to the booking.

1. As will be seen below, if you won't be travelling with a pass and don't meet the criteria* for a discount, you still need to make a selection here - Note that can different discounts can be applied to each traveller.
2. If you're on a 'Buy a ticket' path, but already have a ticket, this is the box you need to tick if you only want to book and pay for a reservation. Don't click this if you only need a reservation because you will be travelling with a rail pass - instead you will need to select a discount.
3. The name etc have been erased for privacy purposes, but you will see the details you have entered per traveller here.

*= Discounts include the prices for children.

1. If you don't qualify for a discount, or won't be travelling with a rail pass or Half Fare Card etc, you still need to proactively select 'No Discount'.
2. Children aged 5 and under are free, but you still need to add them so that they have a 'ticket'
3. Children aged 6 to 15 at the time of travel can travel at a discounted rate; But there is no special price for Seniors.
   The arrow is showing that you can scroll down to access other options including Interrail.

If you will be travelling with a valid Eurail, Interrail or Swiss Travel Pass, you will still need to take these 'Buy A Ticket' steps, despite the fact that you won't be.
By using the options on here you will in effect be removing the ticket from your booking, so that you will then only be charged for the seat reservation.

This is the opportunity to check what you have selected pre-payment and to check its price!

1. Note that the price of making the journey is being shown here - Prior to this stage the price shown has solely been the price of the seat reservation(s)!
   However, if you will be travelling with a rail pass, all you will see here is the price of the reservation, because you don't need a ticket.
2. Check that you have made the correct selection per traveller before you proceed to payment.
3. This is the cost of the ticket (per traveller)
4. You can add other tickets / journeys pre-payment.
5. This is the opportunity to check what you have booked, but note that you cannot access the terms and conditions on these booking pages - Instead you can find them in the FAQ section, though more info is available here.