page_title: Swiss Alps
section_title: Transport
hierarchical_section_title: Swiss Alps / Travel and tourism / Transport
caption_attribution_description: English: Lötschberg mountain line. The Bietschtal viaduct on the BLS line between Brig and Goppenstein.
context_page_description: The Alpine region of Switzerland, conventionally referred to as the Swiss Alps, represents a major natural feature of the country and is, along with the Swiss Plateau and the Swiss portion of the Jura Mountains, one of its three main physiographic regions. The Swiss Alps extend over both the Western Alps and the Eastern Alps, encompassing an area sometimes called Central Alps. While the northern ranges from the Bernese Alps to the Appenzell Alps are entirely in Switzerland, the southern ranges from the Mont Blanc massif to the Bernina massif are shared with other countries such as France, Italy, Austria and Liechtenstein.
  The Swiss Alps comprise almost all the highest mountains of the Alps, such as Dufourspitze, the Dom, the Liskamm, the Weisshorn and the Matterhorn. The other following major summits can be found in this list of mountains of Switzerland.
  Since the Middle Ages, transit across the Alps played an important role in history. The region north of St Gotthard Pass became the nucleus of the Swiss Confederacy in the early 14th century.
context_section_description: The Swiss Alps and Switzerland enjoy an extensive transport network. Virtually every mountain village can be reached by public transport, either by rail, bus, funicular, cable car, or usually a combination of them. The main companies of the coherently integrated public transport system are:
  Swiss Federal Railways (SBB CFF FFS)
  Rhaetian Railway (RhB)
  Matterhorn Gotthard Bahn (MGB)
  GoldenPass Line
  PostBus (PostAuto / CarPostal / AutoPostale / Auto da Posta)
  Most of the mountain regions are within 1 to 3 hours travel of Switzerland's main cities and their respective airport. The Engadine in Graubünden is between 3 and 6 hours away from the large cities; the train journey itself, with the panoramic Glacier Express or Bernina Express, is popular with tourists.
  The Engadin Airport near St. Moritz at an altitude of 1,704 meters is the highest in Europe.
  The crossing of the Alps is a key issue at national and international levels, as the European continent is at places divided by the range. Since the beginning of industrialisation Switzerland has improved its transalpine network; it began in 1882, by building the Gotthard Rail Tunnel, followed in 1906 by the Simplon Tunnel and 1913 by the Lötschberg Tunnel, and more recently, in 2007, by the Lötschberg Base Tunnel. The 57.1-km long Gotthard Base Tunnel, the longest railway tunnel of the world, opened in 2016 and provides a direct flat rail link through the Alps.
caption: Lötschberg railway line
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