To get from Badenweiler to Montreux we had quite the journey. We took five, yes 5, trains to make the roughly three hour trip between the two cities. Some of this was due to the reduced service on Sunday while others were due to schedule changes and cancellations with Deutsche Bahn.
Our first train was a regional service from Müllheim (Baden) to Basel Badischer Bahnhof. We arrived at Müllheim (Baden) station fifteen minutes before scheduled departure time. The station is currently under construction and with no station building available we hung out on the platform while we waited on our train to arrive.
This train was a local service and made numerous stops between Müllheim (Baden) and Basel Badischer Bahnhof. We were able to grab seats close to the doors that had space for our luggage and I was glad we didn’t have to drag our suitcases up the stairs.
At Basel Badischer Bahnhof we had to switch trains to a long distance ICE (Inter-City Express) train for the next leg of our trip. We had eight minutes to make our connection which was plenty of time as we only had to move over a couple of platforms.
Though this train was supposed to take us all the way to Bern, there was an issue or disagreement between Deutsche Bahn and Swiss Federal Railways and the train was now scheduled to terminate at Basel SBB, the main, long distance train station for Basel.
Instead of trying to find seats for the short, 5 minute trip, we just stood with our luggage in the area between cars. Though the view was blocked by some of the rail right of way, we still got some good views of Basel out the window.
Our inbound train was delayed a couple of minutes which gave us a very tight, 3 minute connection at Basel SBB. With the majority of the train needing to transfer over to this additional service, they at least had the platforms close together.
Safely on board our replacement train from Basel to Bern, we were met with a completely packed train. Since this was a last minute cancellation, we didn’t have any seats reserved for this train. There were no seats available in 2nd Class so I used the Swiss Federal Railways app to buy us upgrades to 1st Class for the remainder of our journey. First Class consisted of large, recliner style seats laid out on a 1-2 configuration.
Since first class was almost empty, we had some space to spread out and got some great scenery between Basel and Bern.
In Bern, we had to switch towards another train, this time bound for Geneva. This was our longest connection of the trip, at 15 minutes, so we stopped in to one of the stores in the station to buy some snacks. From there, we waited on the platform for our next train.
The trip between Bern and Lausanne was some of the most scenic on our trip. We passed through the countryside with the Swiss Alps in the distance before paralleling the north shore of Lake Geneva.
We disembarked in Lausanne to catch our final train of the trip. When we initially booked we were scheduled to be on a local service over to Montreux. There are a few high speed trains each day that stop in Montreux and, thanks to some delays, one of them was preparing to depart when we arrived.
We made the train and were able to cut our travel time from 45 minutes to 20. Mrs. ATX Jetsetter was very happy with this as we were both tired of trains for the day and wanted to get to our hotel. We virtually had the First Class cabin to ourselves for the remainder of this journey.
We arrived at the Montreux railway station four hours after leaving Müllheim (Baden) and made our way to the hotel to start our visit to Montreux.
Summary
Swiss and German railways are usually known for their efficiency. On this trip however, we encountered delays, cancellations, and packed full train cars. Our trip from Frankfurt to Müllheim (Baden) was also full of delays so we were hoping the efficiency would return during the remainder of our trip.
In This Trip Report
