What would Switzerland be without its railways? Without the SBB, whose punctuality is raved about all over the world. (The sinking of Swissair was a disaster for Switzerland; the sinking of SBB would be even worse!)

The BLS is the little sister of the federal railways (SBB). In Kandersteg we live near the BLS mountain route, which winds its way up from Frutigen to Kandersteg. Trains run from here, transporting cars, motorcycles, mobile homes, trailers and their occupants to Valais or further to Italy.

Driving up the Kandertal, the elegant viaduct and the railway line catch your eye. During a two-hour hike led by a retired BLS civil engineer along the rails built between 1906 and 1913, we learned a lot of interesting facts about this imposing structure and the new 34-kilometer base tunnel that begins in Frutigen and relieves the mountain line.

On July 5th, 1999 the first blasting for the profile of the new base tunnel took place. Since its completion on June 15, 2007, freight trains travel through the tunnel at 100 km/h; while the passenger trains roar through at 240 km/h. (Since the completion of the base tunnel, the mountain route is used for regional traffic, car transport and a few freight trains in south-north traffic when the base tunnel runs out of capacity.)

PS. If you want to know more about the BLS, read here.
And if you want to know more about the «Rolling Highway», do the same here.