The Federal Office of Transport has approved a CHF400 million ($405 million) mountain railway project that will carry tourists faster up to the Jungfraujoch in the Bernese Alps. The project has been modified to appease local opponents who had raised environmental and aesthetic concerns.
At the heart of the controversial plan is a V-shaped cable car route that would allow more tourists to swiftly reach the Eiger Glacier station from where they can take the mountain railways to the Jungfraujoch “Top of Europe” tourist station.
Local authorities and residents of the Bernese Alps feared the “Eiger express” line, which would start from the village of Grindelwald, would disfigure the landscape. Seventeen objections were made but advocates gave up the fight in February accepting in exchange a donation for a good cause.
The Federal Office of Transport introduced measures and requirements to allay these concerns. The gondola will have shorter masts than originally planned and the colour scheme of the cabins will be more discrete to blend in with the landscape.
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Jungfrau Railway is still on top
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In its first full year in operation, 1913, the Jungfraujoch attracted 42,880 tourists; last year 765,000 made the unique rail trek to “The Top of Europe”. On a midweek summer’s day swissinfo.ch joined the throngs of passengers expertly herded up and down the route every half an hour, 48 minutes each way. The pace of…
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‘Beast from the East’ brings record low temperatures
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The so-called ‘Beast from the East’ weather front has hit Switzerland and temperatures dropped to as low as -28.9 degrees.
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