Valais, more formally, the Canton of Valais, is one of the 26 cantons forming the Swiss Confederation. It is composed of thirteen districts and its capital and largest city is Sion.
The Swiss rail network is noteworthy for its density, its coordination between services, its integration with other modes of transport, timeliness and a thriving domestic and trans-Alp freight system. It is made necessary by strong regulations on truck transport, and is enabled by properly coordinated intermodal logistics.
Visp is the capital of the district of Visp in the canton of Valais in Switzerland.
The Brig–Zermatt railway line is a metre gauge railway line in the canton of Valais in Switzerland. Its 44-kilometre-long (27 mi) 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 line also forms part of the much travelled and admired route of the Glacier Express between St. Moritz and Zermatt. The Gornergratbahn is connected with the line at Zermatt.
The Lötschberg Tunnel is a 14.612 km (9.079 mi) long railway tunnel on the Lötschberg Line, which connects Spiez and Brig at the northern end of the Simplon Tunnel cutting through the Bernese Alps of Switzerland. Its ends are at the towns of Kandersteg in the canton of Bern and Goppenstein in the canton of Valais. The top elevation of the tunnel is 1,240 m (4,070 ft) above sea level, this is the highest point of the main Swiss railway network.
The Simplon Tunnel is a railway tunnel on the Simplon railway that connects Brig, Switzerland and Domodossola, Italy, through the Alps, providing a shortcut under the Simplon Pass route. It is straight except for short curves at either end. It consists of two single-track tunnels built nearly 15 years apart. The first to be opened is 19,803 m (64,970 ft) long; the second is 19,824 m (65,039 ft) long, making it the longest railway tunnel in the world for most of the twentieth century, from 1906 until 1982, when the Daishimizu Tunnel opened.
St. Niklaus is a village and a municipality in the Mattertal, part of the district of Visp in the canton of Valais in Switzerland.
BLS AG is a Swiss railway company created by the 2006 merger of BLS Lötschbergbahn and Regionalverkehr Mittelland AG. Its ownership is divided, with 55.8% of it owned by the canton of Berne, and 21.7% by the Swiss Confederation. It has two main business fields: passenger traffic and infrastructure.
The Lötschberg line is a railway in Switzerland, connecting Spiez in the canton of Bern with Brig in the canton of Valais. It crosses the Bernese Alps, from the Bernese Oberland to Upper Valais, through the Lötschberg Tunnel in the middle of the line. Together with the Simplon Tunnel south of Brig, it constitutes one of the major railways through the Alps and an important north-south axis in Europe. The Lötschberg axis is backed by the lower and longer Lötschberg Base Tunnel, part of the New Railway Links through the Alps project.
The Jura–Simplon Railways (JS), was a railway company that was formed in 1890. It was nationalised in 1903 as the largest railway company in Switzerland and integrated into the Swiss Federal Railways (SBB).
Göschenen railway station is a railway station in the Swiss canton of Uri and municipality of Göschenen. Situated on the original line of the Gotthard railway, at the northern mouth of the Gotthard Tunnel, the station is also the junction point with the Schöllenenbahn. Most trains on the Gotthard route now use the Gotthard Base Tunnel and do not pass through Göschenen station.
Visp railway station is a junction station at Visp, 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.
Brig railway station is an important railway junction in the municipality of Brig-Glis, in the Canton of Valais, Switzerland. Opened in 1878, it is adjacent to the northern portal of the Simplon Tunnel and is served by two standard gauge lines. Another two metre gauge lines serve the physically adjacent Brig Bahnhofplatz railway station.
Spiez is a railway station in the town of Spiez, in the Swiss canton of Bern. It is on the Thunersee line of the BLS AG, which connects Thun and Interlaken, and is the junction for the same company's busy Lötschberg line, as well as the Spiez-Erlenbach-Zweisimmen line.
The Simplon Railway is a line that links Lausanne in Switzerland and Domodossola in Italy, via Brig. The 20 km (12 mi)-long Simplon Tunnel is a major part of it. The line between Lausanne and Vallorbe is sometimes considered to form part of the line, making it 233 km (145 mi) long.
The Bern–Thun railway line is a double-tracked, electrified railway line that runs through the Aare valley in the Swiss canton of Bern. It is part of the Lötschberg-Simplon axis between Germany and Italy. It was opened in 1859 by the Swiss Central Railway.
The Bern–Schwarzenburg railway line is a railway line in Switzerland. It was built by the Bern-Schwarzenburg-Bahn. It was opened on 1 June 1907 between Bern and Schwarzenburg.
The Eyholztunnel is a 4.25 kilometre long tunnel of the Swiss highway A9, serving as a bypass of the town of Visp in the canton of Valais. The design of the tunnel began in 2005, the traffic handover took place on 13 April 2018.
The Simplon Hospice is a large building where travellers and merchants can get food, accommodation and shelter from the harsh climate. In a decree of 21 February 1801 Napoleon Bonaparte commissioned the building of a hospice on top of the Simplon Pass. The hospice has always been run by the Canons of Saint Augustine.
The Gondo Gold Mine was the largest gold mine in Switzerland. The mine is located in the south of the canton of Valais near the Italian border at over 1200 m above sea level. In its heyday up to 500 men worked here, while the municipality of Gondo itself had only 100 inhabitants.
