Montreux railway station was opened in 1861, when the then Jura–Simplon Railway (JS) opened the Lausanne–Villeneuve section of its standard gauge Simplon railway line to Sion. This line is now owned and operated by SBB-CFF-FFS.
Access to and from Montreux's main street, Grand Rue, is by escalators, elevators and stairs. The Rue de la Gare provides access to and from the old town, which is divided from the lake shore by the standard gauge railway tracks.
Layout
The station complex is in many ways a rarity. Montreux is most distinctive for being one of the few stations in the world (and the only station in Switzerland) served by three different track gauges:[5] SBB-CFF-FFS 1,435 mm (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in), MOB 1,000 mm (3 ft 3+3⁄8 in) and MVR 800 mm (2 ft 7+1⁄2 in). Its having three gauges is something shared by Gare de Latour-de-Carol-Enveitg in the French Pyrénées.
Second, access from the station building to the railway platforms is from the second floor, not the ground floor, due to the slope of the city, while the service facilities are at ground floor level, and access to the underpass can be found on the first floor.
Apart from these unusual features, the station also lacks a track 2. In the past, the designation track 2 was allocated to a passing loop not equipped with a platform. However, in 2006, as part of work done to increase the height of the platforms to 55 centimetres (22 in), this track was provided with a platform and renamed track 1, and the former platform 1 was removed.[6]
The SBB-CFF-FFS serves the main platform with track 1, and also operates track 3, which, together with the MOB tracks 4 (east half) and 5 (western half), serves a centre platform. Track 4 partially divides that platform in two.
Tracks 6, 7 and 8 serve a further central platform, which is similarly partially divided in two by track 7. Track 8, operated by the MVR, is situated underneath both a hotel and the MOB/MVR headquarters, known as the GoldenPass Centre.
Whereas tracks 4 and 7 are used by regional traffic to and from Fontanivent, Sonzier and Les Avants, tracks 5 and 6 are for trains to and from Zweisimmen.
Services
As of the December 2023 timetable change,[update] the following services call at Montreux:[7]
hourly service between St-Maurice and Annemasse (on weekdays) or Geneva Airport (on weekends).
single daily round-trip between Renens VD and St-Maurice.
RER Vaud
RER VaudR3 / R4: half-hourly (hourly on weekends) service between Vallorbe and Aigle; hourly service to Le Brassus; hourly service to St-Maurice on weekdays.
