Connectivity and infotainment solution to be delivered to Goldenpass Express

An engineering marvel. Goldenpass Express connects three of the most beautiful Swiss valleys

Goldenpass Express revives a 150-year-old idea of connecting three valleys in the Swiss Alps. Plans to link Lake Geneva, Gstaad and the lake of Thun and Brienz firstly emerged in 1873 but have never been brought to life. Not until December 2022. That’s when the brand new MOB Goldenpass Express launches. The railway intersects three major tourist regions, offering marvelous views along the way. With precisely engineered 23 cars by Stadler and Alstom, design by a famous studio Pininfarina, and digital solution by Passengera, Goldenpass Express is a new engineering marvel that one must admire.

About the project

Despite several challenges, the Swiss operator MOB decided to take up an old challenge and finish the formidable task. Along the way, there are two different types of rail widths (1.0m and 1.435m), and each section has stations not sharing the same platform height (20cm difference). As the line crosses narrow mountain valleys, there is no simple way to overcome numerous obstacles – replacing tracks is expensive, it’s impossible to change whole trains in the restricted terrain, etc. 

Luckily, Alstom has come up with the world's first train bogie design with variable gauge and height. The locomotive is changed in the middle of the journey, but passengers are spared inconvenient and lengthy transfers from one train to another, as the Goldenpass Express' cars modify gauge and height by passing a specifically designed spreading ramp.

What does that mean? The MOB locomotive will tow the train between Montreux and Zweisimmen and another, from the BLS, between Zweisimmen and Interlaken. This makes it very comfortable for the passengers who can remain seated in the comfortable carriages and enjoy the undisturbed views, especially in the lavish Prestige class with 18 swivel seats and spot-on catering.

The challenges that come with mountains

The new Swiss iconic railway aims high in all categories: engineering, design, and even digitization. Passengera was tasked to deliver a modern digital experience suitable for this historic yet modern project passing through the Swiss Alps. The client tasked Passengera to deliver internet for passengers, an infotainment system with a travel guide feature, and infotainment on onboard multimedia screens, including Content Management System (CMS).

The complicated terrain is incredibly demanding when it comes to smooth internet connection and uninterrupted passenger experience while using infotainment and other digital services. Luckily, the fine-tuning of connectivity in the Swiss mountains is nothing new to us.

Solution

For the MOB Goldenpass Express, we provided Passangera G7 multi-service gateways. Our hardware solution is capable of providing internet connectivity and onboard Wi-Fi while hosting the infotainment app and managing the content on the screens via CMS. Apart from these primary features, the client got our Management and Monitoring Suite (MMS) and tools for monetization.

Uninterrupted connection in the harsh mountain terrain ensures SIM-multiplexor technology with a geofencing feature that hosts several SIM cards and switches between them according to the regions that the train passes. We tweaked this setup to perfection on projects such as Vigezzina-Centovalli Railway or Glacier Express. 

The second part of our delivery was a full-fledged infotainment system, including integration with all built-in onboard displays. With our CMS, the operator can now better control content and information displayed on the multimedia screens and synchronize it with the current journey progress, including: 

• Real-time speed

• Altitude

• Position on the map 

• Points of interest 

• Tourist tips along the way

• Partner ads and promo of the local services  

The car's interior is the most outstanding aspect of the Goldenpass Express. Designed by Pininfarina and manufactured by Stadler, it truly brings passengers’ comfort to perfection, especially with the unmatched seats made by the Czech company Borcad. Passengera accompanies this comfort with our selection of digital services with custom adjustments to match the supreme quality.

Results

The Swiss Goldenpass Express will launch in December 2022, and we at Passengera are proud to add another iconic Swiss mountain train to our portfolio. Long 150 years of waiting were worth it – passengers will enjoy the utmost comfort accompanied by clever engineering and outstanding digital services.

If you love trains, mountains, and technologies, give Goldenpass Express a try as soon as possible. It has everything that an excellent ride needs.