There are trains … and there are !!#%&! TRAINS!
When I boarded my train in Brig on the way to Lausanne, this was sitting on one of the other tracks. It was there when I arrived at the station and it was still there when I left on my train a half hour later. That restaurant/lounge car is in the middle of the train, so it’s fair to say that there were as many as 18 of those bi-level coaches in the consist.
In retrospect, I should have found a knowledgable official that morning and said, “What the hell is that thing doing here? Where is it going? And how is it that a train with that capacity originates in a town of 25,000 people?”
I have emailed a contact with the Swiss railroad that operates the Glacier Express and I’ll pass along whatever he tells me.
Yes, too bad CNL doesn’t offer a decent restaurant car, anymore. Too expensive, I presume. Still, every station a little bit more important than Wankdorf will probably have a baker shop, or a small cafeteria. So it’s enough to get you started. Even more of a shame they don’t pass through Belgium, anymore.
bartje
Understood … and agree … and thanks. And apropos of your last comment, see today’s post about my breakfast on the overnight train to Hamburg. Cheers.
It may be just Brig, but don’t forget, Brig is on one of the 2 main Swiss Alpine passages from Northern Europe to Italy, and a crosroads with the Rhone Valley. To the south, there’s Domodossola and Milan, to the west, you get to Lausanne, to the north, via the Lötschberg Base Tunnel, there is an hourly IC train to Bern, Zürich and Romanshorn at Lake Constance, and a second IC to Basel over Bern every second hour. A train, connecting the Swiss federal capital and the Swiss financial hub needs to be quite big, there will be a lot of people taking it, especially in the peak hours. And as SBB/CFF/FFS, the Swiss Federal Railways, thinks that IC trains have to have catering on board (unlike InterRegional trains and other more local trains), you will find a Bistro or Restaurant Car in every InterCity train…
bartje