Mon, Jan 1st 2024
BVZ railroad companies hits a new record this year: the Matterhorn Gotthard Railway and the Gornergrat Bahn are expected to carry more passengers than ever before in 2023.
Record passenger numbers are also expected for the Glacier Express, which is operated jointly with the Rhaetian Railway.
The Matterhorn Gotthard Railway (MGBahn), which operates regional services from Zermatt via Visp and Brig in Valais to Andermatt in the canton of Uri, transported 7.72 million passengers in the first eleven months of the year, the BVZ Group announced on Monday. This corresponds to an increase of 6.1 percent compared to the period from January to November 2022.
The MGBahn is thus heading for a new all-time high, it added. Final figures for 2023 will be available to BVZ for regional passenger transport in mid-January.
The trips to the Gornergrat excursion point in Zermatt were also well booked last year. The GGB transported 841,400 guests in its anniversary year 2023, more than ever before in its history. Compared to the previous year, this represents an increase of 27 percent.
According to the statement, GGB recorded strong growth, particularly with guests from North America. However, demand from Germany, the UK and France as well as Taiwan and the Southeast Asian countries was also strong as usual, according to the press release. The railroad company celebrated its 125th anniversary.
The Glacier Express, which runs between Zermatt and St. Moritz, also enjoyed a boom in tourism. In terms of passenger numbers, it exceeded the pre-coronavirus pandemic level, with the luxury Excellence Class offering once again proving its worth, wrote BVZ. The 20 seats per journey were fully booked for weeks.
“Whether in Zermatt with the Matterhorn, in the Mattertal and Goms, in the Ursern Valley around the tourist destination of Andermatt or in the Surselva – we welcomed more guests everywhere than ever before,” BVZ CEO Fernando Lehner is quoted as saying in the press release.
Lehner is convinced that the high number of guests will also be reflected in the business result: “Based on everything we can see today, I assume that we will match, if not exceed, the record result of 2019,” he said.
©Keystone/SDA
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