Covid: Switzerland, accounts in the red for Europe’s highest railway

GENEVA. Accounts in deep red for the highest railway in Europe. For the first time in its history, the Jungfrau cog railway announced a net loss at the end of fiscal 2020, the Swiss press reports today. The net loss in 2020 amounted to 9.7 million francs (approximately 8.8 million euros), against a profit of 53.3 million in the previous year, the Ats-Keystone news agency specifies. Due to the coronavirus and related restrictions, the mountain rail operator has lost international tourists mainly from Asia. Traveling aboard the Alpine train is one of Switzerland’s main tourist attractions. It crosses alpine landscapes of mountains and glaciers and reaches the highest railway station in Europe, 3,454 meters above sea level, in the heart of the Unesco world heritage site “Swiss Alps Jungfrau-Aletsch”. The 9 km route offers a view of the Eiger peaks and the Mönch, overcoming an altitude difference of almost 1,400 meters. However, in 2020 the pandemic drove foreign tourists away and domestic tourism was not enough to compensate for the loss: “only” 363 thousand visitors went up to the Jungfraujoch, compared to the one million registered in previous years. The leaders of the Bernese company that manages the Jungfrau railway believe that the pandemic crisis will continue to weigh “heavily” on the 2021 financial year.