Treno Gottardo, the Voralpen Express, and SOB
Distinctive copper-colored trains are symbolic of regional company’s larger role
THE COPPER-COLORED Stadler FLIRT Traverso trainsets that provide the only year-round passenger rail service on Gotthard Pass belong to Südostbahn, better known by the initials SOB, and are part of a somewhat groundbreaking agreement between that company and SBB, the Swiss Federal Railways.
In 2017, SBB and SOB agreed to cooperative operation of two routes, the Treno Gottardo route and one between Chur, capital of the Swiss canton of Graubünden, and the national capital, Bern, via Zurich. The latter operates as the Aare Linth, named for two rivers along the route. Under the agreement, SOB provides the equipment for, operates, and markets the routes; SBB provides a flat-rate compensation. Treno Gottardo operation began in December 2020; the Aare Linth began in December 2021.
SOB had previously operated in a relatively small portion of northeastern and central Switzerland, operating over 440 routekilometers (about 273 miles). Adding the two long-distance routes expanded its service to some 1,006 route-kilometers, or 625 miles.
“The small SOB had to expand in the long term to have an independent future,” spokesman Conradin Knabenhans explains in an email. “The Südostbahn can offer regional passenger services more cost efficiently thanks to the income from long-distance services. Savings are possible because SOB can make better use of its own service centers for maintenance, for example.”
The copper-colored FLIRT (short for Fast Light Intercity and Regional Train) Traverso is also standard on another SOB train, the Voralpen Express. Likely little known to North Americans, although it is one of the eight trains that make up Switzerland Tourism’s “Grand Train Tour of Switzerland,” the Voralpen Express runs between the tourist hub of Lucerne and St. Gallen, SOB’s headquarters city. It’s a fairly short trip — 2 hours, 15 minutes — and, as Switzerland Tourism’s website puts it, shows “a different kind of Switzerland — undulating hills, picturesque villages, and lovely orchards.”
I followed a trip across Gotthard Pass with a ride on this route thanks to a comment from Martin Oëster, North America sales and marketing manager of the Swiss Travel System. When one of the feature ideas for my trip fell through and I was casting about for a new plan, he mentioned the Voralpen Express and said simply, “My favorite. No crowds ever.”
That was enough of a recommendation for me, particularly since it took me to a corner of Switzerland I had not previously visited. It was indeed a scenic trip, although in a more low-key way than the usual towering-Alp images that define the view most have of Switzerland. For me, this was an opportunity to recharge. This is not to say it should top your Switzerland-by-rail bucket list, but it is certainly worthwhile if you want a trip off the usual tourist path.
Unlike the Treno Gottardo and Aare Linth, the Voralpen Express in its current form — which dates to 2013 — has always been an SOB operation. Traverso trainsets took over for locomotive-hauled equipment in 2019; SOB now has 24 of those eight-car trains, with six more on order. There are also 33 four-car FLIRTs, including 10 of the same generation as the Traverso equipment. These are used elsewhere or added to the long-distance trains to increase capacity.
The eight-car trains seat 359, including 68 in a two-plus-one seating first-class section. I rode them on a half-dozen occasions on various routes and found them to be quiet and comfortable. Onboard video displays make it easy to track your location and be prepared for your stop; baggage is mostly accommodated on overhead racks, although there is some other storage space.
The addition of the two long-distance trains appears to be paying dividends. SOB’s annual report for fiscal 2022 said Treno Gottardo ridership increased over the previous year, the Aare Linth exceeded expectations, and the services showed a profit, after two years of losses resulting from startup costs. Overall, the move into long-distance service helped the company boost ridership from 13.66 million passengers in pre-COVID 2019, as a regional operation, to 27.19 million in fiscal 2022.
SOB does not release route-specific ridership data, but Knabenhans says Treno Gottardo “is once again successfully operating [in 2023] and has recorded even more passengers so far.” From about 600 people per day passing through the Gotthard summit tunnel in 2017, when SBB operated the service, daily ridership with Treno Gottardo is now about 1,200 on the section through the tunnel.
Like the Voralpen Express, SOB may not be well-known in North America, but the Treno Gottardo may help to change that. As company chairman Thomas Küchler notes in that annual report, “The Gotthard route and its tourist attractions attract domestic and, increasingly, international guests. That’s why we continue to work with tourism partners to offer attractive travel experiences.” — David Lassen