page_title: BVZ Zermatt-Bahn
section_title: Visp–Stalden
hierarchical_section_title: BVZ Zermatt-Bahn / Description of the line / Visp–Stalden
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: HGe 4/4 I Nr. 12 im Depot Visp, Sommer 2002. Fotografiert und hochgeladen durch Philipp Groß. English: HGe 4/4 I No. 12 at Visp Depot, Summer 2002. Created and uploaded by Philipp Groß.
context_page_description: The Brig-Visp-Zermatt-Bahn – 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, the BVZ merged on 1 January 2003 with the Furka Oberalp Bahn to form the Matterhorn Gotthard Bahn.
  The Gornergratbahn is connected with the BVZ at Zermatt.
context_section_description: The metre gauge station at Visp was originally located, as at Brig, in the forecourt of the SBB station building. South of the two metre gauge platform tracks there used to be a connection to the extensive depot and workshop facilities of the BVZ. For passenger traffic, the VZ had already erected a wooden shelter by the start of operations in 1890, and, even at that point, all of the other necessary facilities, such as toilets or a waiting hall, were provided within the standard gauge station building of the Jura-Simplon (until 1889, the Suisse Occidentale-Simplon).
  A fundamental renovation of the station complex began in 2006. As it had been foreseen that, following the completion of the Lötschberg Base Tunnel, the majority of the passengers would change in Visp for trains to Zermatt, the narrow gauge and standard gauge tracks were relocated closer together. Ever since then, three platforms have been available to MGB trains. Narrow gauge track 3 is located immediately adjacent to the new standard gauge track 4. The station building and the entire BVZ depot area were demolished in parallel.  All subsequent maintenance of railway vehicles has been carried out exclusively in the Glisergrund workshop. The ceremonial opening of the new junction station took place on 16 and 17 May 2008.
  The track exits Visp station in a tight left hand curve, and the formation also passes into a steep decline, to pass under main road no 9. The underpass, erected between 1972 and 1975, also represents the lowest point of the entire line. The track then soon leaves the Rhone valley, and enters the Mattertal, leading through to the terminus at Zermatt. Here, the formation rises only slightly, in parallel to the valley road on the eastern side of the valley, as far as the village of Ackersand. The local stop there no longer serves the public, but is still required for rail traffic as a passing point. For a long time, a neighbouring hydroelectric station was served by a siding from this local stop.
  Immediately afterwards, the railway crosses the Vispa by means of a concrete bridge erected in 1974. Shortly thereafter, the first rack section begins.  This soon leads the formation along the western flank of the valley at the maximum gradient of 12.5 percent, and the line quickly reaches the station at Stalden-Saas.
caption: The Crocodile HGe 4/4 Nr. 12 in the Visp engine shed (demolished in 2005).
exif: {}