Visp railway station

Visp

The new station building from the street.
Location Bahnhofplatz 2
3930 Visp
Visp, Valais
Switzerland
Coordinates 46°17′38″N 07°52′53″E / 46.29389°N 7.88139°E / 46.29389; 7.88139Coordinates: 46°17′38″N 07°52′53″E / 46.29389°N 7.88139°E / 46.29389; 7.88139
Elevation 650.2 m (2,133 ft)
Operated by SBB-CFF-FFS
Matterhorn Gotthard Bahn
Line(s) Lausanne–Brig
Spiez–Lötschberg Base Tunnel–Brig
Brig–Visp–Zermatt (BVZ)
Distance 35.08 km (21.80 mi)
from Zermatt
Platforms 2 (standard gauge)
1 (metre gauge)
Connections Postauto and local buses
Electrified 1 October 1929 (1929-10-01) (BVZ)
Location
Visp
Location within Switzerland

Visp railway station is a junction station at Visp (French: Viège), in the Canton of Valais, Switzerland. It has a modern station building completed in 2007, and is served by two standard gauge lines and a metre gauge line.

Visp station is now the busiest railway station in Valais, and is one of the ten busiest railway stations in Switzerland.

Every day, about 340 trains stop at Visp, and approximately 60,000 passengers use the station, mostly for changing to and from trains calling at Sion.

Rail services to Visp

Standard gauge

The older of the two standard gauge lines serving Visp is the Simplon railway,[1] which links (Genève-Aéroport, Genève and) Lausanne on Lake Geneva with Brig, at the northern portal of the Simplon Tunnel, via Sion and Visp.

In 2007, Visp became a standard gauge junction station, upon the opening of the Neue Eisenbahn-Alpentransversale or NEAT (pronounced neh-aht; literally: New Alpine Railway Crossing) railway,[2] connecting (Bern and) Spiez with Brig and the Simplon Tunnel, via the Lötschberg Base Tunnel and Visp.

All of the standard gauge passenger trains stopping at Visp are operated by SBB-CFF-FFS, even though the Lötschberg Base Tunnel is owned by another railway company, BLS AG.

Metre gauge

Visp is also served by the metre gauge Brig-Visp-Zermatt railway (BVZ). Since 1 January 2003, the BVZ has been owned and operated by the Matterhorn Gotthard Bahn (MGB), following a merger between the BVZ and the Furka Oberalp Bahn (FO).

Every day, several Glacier Express trains, which are operated at this point by the MGB, call at Visp, on their journey between Zermatt and either St.Moritz or Davos.[3] The MGB also operates metre gauge regional services from Zermatt to Visp,[4] and from Visp to Brig and beyond,[5] at hourly intervals.

The Lötschberg Base Tunnel renovations

Following an architecture competition, a new station building was constructed at Visp to coincide with the opening of the Lötschberg Base Tunnel. The new station building is four storeys high, and features blue mirror glass cladding. In 2007, Visp station won the inaugural FLUX Prize, which is awarded to particularly well designed Swiss transport hubs.

Upon the opening of the Lötschberg Base Tunnel, Visp station became a major exchange station for surrounding towns such as Sion, and Martigny and wintersport areas like Saas Fee, Saas Grund und Zermatt, partly because the Base Tunnel emerges shortly before Visp, and bypasses the larger towns.

In the aftermath of the station's reconstruction, the population of Visp grew significantly. Whereas the town had had 6,100 residents in 2006, the population grew by 2008 to 7,100 inhabitants. That is an increase of nearly 10% in only two years. The reason for the increase is the new residential area of Visp-West, which is also a consequence of the station's rebuilding. In only three years, Visp-West should accommodate a further 3,000 residents.

Since the rebuild, there has also been a change in international traffic flows, with trains between Basel and Milan now passing through Visp and Brig via the Lötschberg Base Tunnel, instead of bypassing the town via the Lötschberg railway line (including the old Lötschberg Tunnel) and Brig.

Mountains reflected in the station building

Matterhorn Gotthard Bahn services

Preceding station   Matterhorn Gotthard Bahn   Following station
Terminus
Glacier Express
Swiss timetable 144
Stalden-Saas
toward Zermatt
Regional services
Swiss timetable 140
Terminus
TerminusRegional services
Swiss timetable 142
toward Göschenen

See also

References

Notes

  1. ↑ Swiss timetable 100.
  2. ↑ Swiss timetable 300.
  3. ↑ Swiss timetable 144.
  4. ↑ Swiss timetable 140.
  5. ↑ Swiss timetables 140 and 142.

Sources

Template:Lötschberg Base Tunnel Template:BVZ Zermatt-Bahn Template:Matterhorn Gotthard Bahn

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