Metre gauge railways in Switzerland

Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 85. Chapters: Aigle-Leysin Railway, Aigle-Ollon-Monthey-Champéry Railway, Aigle-Sépey-Diablerets, Albula Railway, Allmendhubelbahn, Bergbahn Lauterbrunnen-Mürren, Berner Oberland Bahn, Bernina Railway, Bex-Villars-Bretaye Railway, Bière-Apples-Morges Railway, Blonay-Chamby Museum Railway, Bremgarten-Dietikon-Bahn, Brünigbahn, BVZ Zermatt-Bahn, Chemins de fer du Jura, Chemins de fer électriques de la Gruyère, Chemins de fer électriques Veveysans, Chemins de fer Fribourgeois Gruyère-Fribourg-Morat, Chemin de fer Châtel-St-Denis-Palézieux, Chemin de fer Monthey-Champéry-Morgins, Chemin de fer Nyon-St-Cergue-Morez, Chemin de fer Yverdon-Ste-Croix, Dolderbahn, Domodossola-Locarno railway, Forchbahn, Furka Cogwheel Steam Railway, Furka-Oberalp-Bahn, Giessbachbahn, Gornergratbahn, Grafenort - Engelberg Tunnel, Harderbahn, Jungfraubahn, La Traction, Les Avants-Sonloup railway, Lugano-Ponte Tresa railway, Luzern-Stans-Engelberg-Bahn, Martigny-Châtelard Railway, Matterhorn Gotthard Bahn, Meiringen-Innertkirchen Bahn, Montreux-Oberland Bernois, Regionalverkehr Bern-Solothurn, Reichenbachfall railway, Rhaetian Railway, Sernftalbahn, Territet-Glion funicular railway, Transports de Martigny et Régions, Transports Montreux-Vevey-Riviera, Transports Publics du Chablais, Transports Publics Fribourgeois, Vevey-Chardonne-Mont Pèlerin funicular railway, Wyna Valley and Suhre Valley Railway, Zentralbahn. Excerpt: The Brig-Visp-Zermatt-Bahn (BVZ) - officially known between 1991 and 2002 as the BVZ Zermatt-Bahn - is a metre gauge railway in the Canton of Valais, Switzerland. Its 44 kilometre long line links the communities of Brig and Visp in the Rhone Valley with Täsch and the car free holiday resort of Zermatt in the Mattertal. The BVZ also forms part of the much travelled and admired route of the Glacier Express between St. Moritz and Zermatt. Opened in 1891 as the Visp-Zermatt-Bahn (VZ), the BVZ merged on 1 January 2003 with the Furka-Oberalp-Bahn (FO) to form the Matterhorn-Gotthard-Bahn (MGB). The Gornergratbahn (which was opened in 1898) is connected with the BVZ (and therefore the MGB) at Zermatt. Steam loco No. 2The mountain village of Zermatt first gained major recognition in Europe in light of the inaugural ascent of the Matterhorn by Edward Whymper in 1865. From then onwards, the number of overnight visitors rose steadily, even though the village itself was only reachable by a lengthy march on foot through the barren valley of Zermatt. Even the simple mule ride as far as St. Niklaus took a long time. Nevertheless, by the 1880s there were already as many as 12,000 tourist visits to Zermatt each year. To promote tourism in the valley, and especially in Zermatt itself, plans soon emerged to build a railway line intended to connect the emerging spa with the Rhone Valley. On 21 September 1886, the Swiss Federal Council granted the banking house Masson, Chavannes & Co. in Lausanne and the Basler Handelsbank an initial concession. The original request was for a ( in) narrow gauge railway from Visp to Zermatt, using a mixture of adhesion and rack railway line. At the insistence of the Bundesrat, the gauge was finally altered to metre gauge. The railway was at the outset to be operated from the start of June to the end of September, as the promoters did not wish to take on the risks of operating the line in an alpine winter. Additionally, it was only in summer that there we