Press Releases

More than 33,000 Top4 ski passes were purchased by winter sports enthusiasts in the advance sales period from 1 November 2022 to 15 December 2022. This figure is slightly lower than the advance sales of last winter season (around 36,000). The main reason for this, according to the participating ski resorts of Adelboden-Lenk, Gstaad, Jungfrau Ski Region and Meiringen-Hasliberg, is the higher advance booking price of 850 Swiss francs (compared to 777 Swiss francs last year).

The official ground-breaking ceremony for the new Bernese Oberland Railway BOB station with Park+Ride Matten was held on Thursday, 17 November 2022. The station includes a reception building, two outdoor platforms and a subway with ramps and stairs. The Park+Ride will offer space for around 200 cars and 36 coaches. It will open in December 2023.

In an Ad hoc announcement pursuant to Art. 53 of the Listing Rules, Jungfraubahn Holding AG states that Matthias Bütler, an Executive Board member, will be leaving the company at the end of April 2023 at his own request. The Head of Marketing and Sales has worked for the company since 1 October 2014. He has now accepted a new challenge outside of the company.

The Top4 ski pass for the four largest ski areas in the canton of Bern is back again: on 1 November 2022, advance sales will start for the pass, which is valid for the areas of Adelboden-Lenk, Gstaad, the Jungfrau Ski Region and Meiringen-Hasliberg. In the advance sale until 15 December 2022, the pass for adults can be bought for 850 Swiss francs; the price for children and young people has not changed compared to previous years.

In an Ad hoc announcement pursuant to Art. 53 of the Listing Rules, Jungfraubahn Holding AG states that the Jungfrau Railway Group can look back on a successful first half-year. After recording significant losses in 2020 and 2021 due to the pandemic, the Jungfrau Railway Group reported a profit of CHF 15.3 million in the first half of 2022. Thanks to favourable weather conditions, all segments contributed to this encouraging development. There is a noticeable desire among guests to make up for lost time after two years of pandemic: In the Winter Sports segment, the best season to date (2007/2008) was equalized. The Experience Mountains segment approached precrisis levels and the number of visitors to the Jungfraujoch - Top of Europe increased by almost 50% compared to the previous year, nevertheless, visitor numbers stay 57% below those of 2019. The recovery of the international group travel markets, especially in Asia, is making only slow progress due to the multifarious un-certainties regarding travel restrictions and flight capacities. The Jungfrau Railway Group is cautiously optimistic for the second half of the year and expects a further gradual normalisation.

The 23rd SnowpenAir was successfully held at the new location near the Grindelwald Terminal on 26 and 27 March 2022. However, there will not be another SnowpenAir at this location. “The uniqueness of the original location on Kleine Scheidegg cannot be topped”, says Jungfrau Railways director and festival founder Urs Kessler, explaining the decision.

Due to the continued coronavirus pandemic, Berner Oberland-Bahnen AG suffered a loss of 6.1 million francs in 2021. The Regional Passenger Transport division was particularly affected by this.

Berner Oberland-Bahnen AG is procuring six new ABeh 4/8 three-part trains. The new trains will further expand the services of the Bernese Oberland Railway and, together with the planned Matten Park&Ride, will create an even more attractive public transport connection to the two Lütschinen valleys. This is intended to further promote the shift from road to rail and ease congestion on the roads in the Lütschinen valleys. The new trains are scheduled to be in service from winter 2025/2026, which means that only rolling stock with low-floor entrances will be in service from that time onwards. The total cost is approximately 66 million Swiss francs.

He is one of the leading musicians in the classical music world: Chinese pianist Lang Lang. He already played at the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games 2008 in Beijing. Now he sat down at the grand piano for an exclusive showcase at Europe's highest railroad station, the Jungfraujoch - Top of Europe, at 3454 meters above sea level.

In an ad hoc announcement pursuant to Art. 53 of the Listing Rules, Jungfraubahn Holding AG states that in the financial year 2021, it almost reached break-even, with an annual loss of CHF 0.2 million. All in all, the Jungfrau Railway Group generated operating income of CHF 130.8 million, an improvement of CHF 5.1 million over 2020. The group was able to boost its EBTIDA by 29.1% to CHF 28.7 million even though the global pandemic continued to have a very negative impact on the financial year 2021. This was evident from the fact that interna-tional travel, which is so important for the Jungfrau Railway Group, was largely non-existent. Moreover, the war in Ukraine and its far-reaching consequences for the population have made the world situation very unstable. It remains to be seen to what extent this will affect intercontinental tourism.

Sun, snow and live music at its best: top acts Helene Fischer and Sunrise Avenue thrilled the good-humoured crowd at the 23rd SnowpenAir. Fittingly, the Swiss artists also wasted no time in making a lasting impression. Patent Ochsner and Stefanie Heinzmann gave their all in their singing and playing, while the Crazy Mofos energised the crowd on Saturday, as did Melissa Naschenweng and the Bermudas on Sunday.

On Saturday, 11,000 music fans rang and sung in the 23rd staging of SnowpenAir at its new venue alongside the Grindelwald Terminal. The Finns in Sunrise Avenue injected just as much spice and heat into the talent mix as Patent Ochsner and Stefanie Heinzmann.

The Jungfraubahn Holding AG issued an ad hoc announcement pursuant to Art. 53 LR to announce that there will be two personnel changes on the Board of Directors of Jungfrau-bahn Holding AG. These occur as part of the ordinary succession planning. The Board of Directors proposes Catherine Mühlemann and Thomas Ruoff to replace the members of the board stepping down, Thomas Bieger and Peter Baumann. As already communicated on 2 September 2020, member of the board Heinz Karrer is due to take over from Thomas Bieger as Chairman of the Board of Directors.

In an ad hoc announcement pursuant to article 53 LR the Jungfraubahn Holding AG informs that visitor numbers for the Jungfrau Railway Group were once again heavily affected by the Covid-19 pandemic in 2021. Guest numbers for Jungfraujoch – Top of Europe are slightly above the figures for the previous year and reflect the continued widespread absence of international guests. The start of the 2021/2022 winter season was the best in the last ten years. The long-term project V-Bahn has, as expected, had a positive effect on winter sports.

Close to 36,000 Top4 ski passes have been snapped up by winter sports enthusiasts during the advance sales period from 1 November 2021 to 15 December 2021. This has allowed the participating ski resorts of Adelboden-Lenk, Gstaad, Jungfrau Ski Region and Meiringen-Hasliberg to benefit from higher advance sales than in the preceding, challenging winter season.

Comfort, service quality and innovation – the V-Cableway experience has offered all these benefits to every visitor for a year now. Whether transferring from the Bernese Oberland Railway, spending time and shopping in the Grindelwald Terminal, travelling on the Männlichen gondola cableway or the Eiger Express with breathtaking views of the Eiger North Face, or transferring to the Jungfrau Railway at the Eiger Glacier: the new lifts and modern, purpose-built buildings have been extremely well received by visitors. On Saturday, 4 December 2021, the Jungfrau Railways wishes to celebrate the 1-year anniversary of the V-Cableway with the sounds of music.

The 2022 timetable will again offer locals and visitors using the Jungfrau Railways a more frequent offering of services. Against the backdrop of Covid-19, the situation will no doubt again remain challenging during 2022. All regional passenger services between Interlaken Ost, Grindelwald and Lauterbrunnen/Wengen will run at regular half-hourly intervals. What's more, on weekends the Lütschinen valleys will remain accessible from Bern for an extra half an hour than had previously been possible. The services on tourist routes will also become more frequent next year.

The advance sales of the Top4 ski pass for Adelboden-Lenk, Gstaad, the Jungfrau Ski Region and Meiringen-Hasliberg will start on 1 November 2021. The pass will be on sale for 777 francs until 15 December 2021. Regarding Covid-19, the same rules as for public transportation currently apply – the wearing of a face covering is mandatory in indoor spaces open to the public as well as in train cars, cable car cabins and gondolas.

The new Walk-in test center for Covid-19 tests in the Grindelwald Terminal became operational. Jungfrau Railways is making the premises available free of charge. The test center is run by employees of the Dr. Portmann pharmacy. The center functions in the same way as the one in Interlaken, offering PCR and antigen rapid tests.

Though the Jungfrau Railway Group saw some positive developments in the first half of 2021, the period was still overshadowed by the coronavirus pandemic and the associated restrictions. In the first half of the year, 137,400 visitors travelled to Jungfraujoch – Top of Europe. That is 36.6% more than in the corresponding period in the previous year, which had been affected by the lockdown and an almost three-month closure of all tourist railways. The loss amounts to CHF 9.8 million (2020: loss of CHF 11.5 million). Despite the challenges associated with the coronavirus pandemic, the Jungfrau Railway Group again generated positive EBITDA of CHF 10.5 million, a year-on-year increase of 77%. From the current perspective, the company expects again positive EBITDA for the year 2021 as a whole.

Jungfraubahn Holding AG held this year's Annual General Meeting (AGM) on Monday, 17 May 2021, once more without the physical attendance of its shareholders. It took place on the premises of the Jungfrau Railways management in Interlaken.

The slope conditions in the Jungfrau Ski Region around Kleine Scheidegg continue to be excellent. With the snowfall today, Monday, there was another layer of fresh snow. Jungfrau Railways has therefore decided that the winter sports facilities around Kleine Scheidegg will remain partly open until 25 April 2021.

For the first time in its history, the Jungfrau Railway Group suffered losses in 2020. Losses in the amount of CHF 9.7 million follow on from record profits in 2019 of CHF 53.3 million. On a positive note, despite everything in a year marred by Covid-19, positive EBITDA of CHF 22.3 million was achieved in 2020. The Board of Directors is proposing that, due to the cur-rent situation, no dividends should be distributed. The consequences of the coronavirus cri-sis are still more pronounced and enduring than previously anticipated and continue to be difficult to evaluate. It is to be expected that the 2021 result will again be heavily influenced by the coronavirus crisis.

In the winter sports area of Grindelwald-First, a summit meeting of two Olympic champions took place. The two Olympic snowboarding champions Iouri Podladtchikov and Gian Simmen teamed up for an extraordinary project: The 100-metre-long and five-and-a-half-metre-high halfpipe was illuminated with impressive projections after dark while the two snowboarders performed their spectacular tricks.

The Top4 ski pass for Adelboden-Lenk, Gstaad, the Jungfrau Ski Region and Meiringen-Hasliberg will also be available for purchase in the 2021/2022 winter season for CHF 777 (adults/advance booking). Those involved agreed this week to continue the offer at the same price as the current season.