European Railroad Discussion > At the Top of Europe

In my previous post, I travelled to the Top of Europe.  Now, let’s sample the views from this high-altitude vantage point. The date is September 28, 2025.

(1) The aerial photo on this advertisement presents the prime publicity scene for Top of Europe, looking south at the Sphinx observatory and public viewing gallery, which sits 115 metres above the railway station in the rock beneath.  Beyond is the Aletsch Glacier, the country’s largest.

The right side of the poster features the outdoor Glacier Plateau and the Ice Palace inside the rock. These are connected by a labyrinth of tunnels and elevators, forming part of a self-guided tour that takes 90 minutes to complete if one sticks to the suggested time for each stop on the itinerary.

I’d made my train reservations to allow for a two-hour stay, and I wanted to have some time for photography in the station at both ends of my visit. Now that I’ve been there, I’d recommend allowing three hours for a visit, and more if you wanted to sample one of the restaurants or indulge in some high-end shopping.

(2-3) These views of the Aletsch Glacier were taken outdoors from the Sphinx terrace, which opened in 1996. Photos within the Sphinx through glass were not as successful. The Aletsch stretches 22 km to the south, but it has receded by 3.2 km since 1870 and 1.3 km of that has been since 1980.

Photo 3 is with the focal length set at 160mm film equivalent, compared with 40mm for photo 2.  I like how it brings the far mountains into prominence.
 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/30/26 05:11 by railsmith.

---

---

---

(4)  The Jungfrau is seen looking south from Interlaken, some 18.3 km (11.4 miles) away as the crow flies, and 3600 metres lower. Focal length is 112mm.

(5)  Here’s how Interlaken looks from Jungfraujoch, with a focal length of 140mm. Interlaken is at upper centre, with neighbouring Wilderswil just below it to the south. Wilderswil is the base for the 800mm-gauge Schynige Platte Bahn, an all-rack 7.3-km line purely for recreation and tourism use.

(6)  There’s a train in this one, but it’s so tiny that I’ve drawn an arrow to it. This is the Wengernalpbahn (WAB) and the station to the right of the train is the line’s namesake, Wengernalp. There’s a passing track there and the stop mostly serves hikers and skiers. 



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 08/30/26 05:16 by railsmith.

---

---

---

(7)  No need for an arrow in this one, the yellow-and-green WAB train is plainly visible at lower right. This photo is not from Top of Europe – I took it from my JB train just three minutes after leaving Kleine Scheidegg.

This scene on the WAB is farther uphill from photo 6, with Wengernalp station out of sight, around the bend if you trace the line in mid-photo. The difference in elevation in the two shots is enough to have an early snowfall on the ground here on September 28, just a week into autumn.

The main reason for including this shot is the superb view looking west at the car-free resort village of Mürren, which sits atop a steep escarpment 775 metres above the Lauterbrunnen valley floor.

(8) Back at Top of Europe deep inside the rock beneath the Sphinx, this display models the scene as it existed in 1946. Note at upper right the forerunner of the Sphinx, distinctly quaint in appearance. There has been a research centre here since 1931. The cliff-hanging hotel at centre was not for the fainthearted!

(9) Measuring 1000 square metres, the Ice Palace cavern was carved out in the 1930s and requires constant re-cutting owing to the body heat of the endless visitors in this 365-day-a-year attraction. To combat melting, the temperature in the labyrinth of tunnels has to be kept at minus-3 Celsius. Here is just one of the superb ice sculptures. 
 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/30/26 05:16 by railsmith.

---

---

---

(10) Looking down from the Sphinx on to the saddle revealed a large gathering of people way down below, and at that point I had no idea of how to get down there. They’re standing on what is called the Glacier Plateau, which I eventually reached as the self-guided tour proceeds through underground passages. The plateau is actually reached by taking an elevator up from farther below.

The groomed area beyond the visitors is for snow activities, but none were in progress this day.

(11) Looming above when looking west from the plateau is the east face of the Jungfrau.

(12) Turning around and looking upward, here is the Sphinx. Off-limits to the public are the observatory and high-altitude research station. There has been a weather station here since 1922, with the site being on the meteorological divide of the Alps, providing extreme weather data. Jungfraujoch has the lowest average annual temperature in Switzerland, at minus-7.9 Celsius. The country’s highest recorded wind speed was measured here, at 267.5 km/h, on January 6, 1998.

Temperature at the time of my visit in early afternoon on a sunny late September day was minus-1.1.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/30/26 05:19 by railsmith.

---

---

---

(13)  Facilities beneath the Sphinx include these viewpoints that look out onto the Aletsch Glacier.

(14)  Looking northeast with the Mönch as the backdrop, as visitors queue up to take selfies with some branded icons of the Top of Europe. No selfies of me – you’ll just have to take my word that I was there and made it to the top.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 08/30/26 05:21 by railsmith.

---

---

(15) I’ll finish with a look at the Eiger Express gondola that the Jungfraubahnen holding company developed as an alternative to the all-rail way of reaching Top of Europe from Lauterbrunnen and Grindelwald by way of its own Wengernalpbahn to Kleine Scheidegg.

In fact, in 2008, company was prepared to ditch the Jungfraubahn itself, coming up with a scheme to use high-speed elevators or a funicular railway in a tunnel. This tunnel  would come all the way up from the Lauterbrunnen valley floor, which would have made the WAB also unnecessary for getting to Top of Europe. A complicating factor was the area’s designation as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Back then, with older rolling stock, JB trains took 52 minutes to make the full journey. With new trains arriving in 2016, this could be reduced to 35 minutes running time, excluding stops, thanks to the variable-speed capability of the new stock (the old trains ran at two speeds – 12.5 or 25 km/h). But even with that improvement, a faster over-all trip time was sought.

By 2018 the tunnel plan had been scrapped and work had begun on a gondola system, which would open in December 2020. An 18-minute gondola ride from Grindelwald connects with the Jungfraubahn at Eigergletscher station, just outside the tunnel. From there it’s a 28-minute ride on the JB to Top of Europe, for an overall trip time of 55 minutes, including a nine-minute transfer at Eigergletscher.

That avoids a 24-minute ride on the WAB from Grindelwald Grund (where tour buses park) to Kleine Scheidegg and eight minutes on the JB from Kleine Scheidegg to Eigergletscher. On top of that, there’s a minimum of 11 minutes transfer time at Kleine Scheidegg. Total time to Top of Europe on this all-rail route is 78 minutes, according to the reliable SBB website journey planner. (I would not cut the transfer at Kleine Scheidegg so fine – you’d be well back in the queue for the JB train and likely not get a window seat, worth it for the outdoor part of the ride. Coming in the other direction on the WAB from Wengen, I allowed 52 minutes.)

The company’s travel info puts the time saving at 47 minutes. This is a major factor for organized bus tour operators. I read of one such trip that started the day in Milan, Italy, and ended in Brussels, Belgium. The Top of Europe was the only stop in Switzerland on that very long travel day. Not my idea of fun!

The fare with either option is the same.

I’'ve repeated the map posted on my earlier thread. This will help to make sense of how the Eiger Express fits into the scheme of things.

(16)  Eiger Express gondolas as seen from my WAB train from Kleine Scheidegg to Grindelwald. There are 44 cars, each with 26 seats, for a capacity of 2,200 passengers per hour. The operation uses a tri-cable system, so only seven towers are needed for the 6.5-km distance. Elevation gain is about 1375 metres.

If you look down in the lower right, you'll get a glimpse of the WAB track, which my downhill train will pass in a minute or so. The grade here is 25%. At 19.1 km, the WAB is the world's longest continuous all-rack railway.

(17) Another scene from the train shows the new Grindelwald Terminal built for the Eiger Express. It also serves a pre-existing 10-seater gondola from here to Männlichen, used by skiers and hikers, which was rebuilt as part of the project. Within the terminal are a shopping centre, ski storage lockers, a sports equipment store, restaurants and 1,032 car parking spots.

Midway up the left side of the frame, a slender horizontal structure marks a new station on the Berner Oberland Bahn metre-gauge railway, which runs from the shared BOB/WAB terminus station in Grindelwald village to Interlaken Ost. When I came through there on a BOB train, the platform was packed with people transferring from the gondola.
 



Edited 6 time(s). Last edit at 09/01/26 02:50 by railsmith.

---

---

---

(18) I’ll conclude with a view of the Eiger Express terminal and cableway as seen from my BOB train. All very nice, but I think most Trainorders subscribers would prefer the classic all-train route to the Top of Europe.
 

---

Thanks for the interesting information and the great pictures.  Gerry

Excellent!    Thank you for the survey.

Greg Stadter
Phoenix, AZ