Original article (in Serbian) was published on 25/2/2024; Author: Anđela Jovanović
A reader brought to the attention of Fake News Tragac a headline from the web portal N1, “Do you know where the slowest train in Europe is, whose average speed is 36 km/h?” This piece references the Swiss Glacier Express, that travels between St. Moritz and Zermatt. Among the various trains connecting these destinations, the Glacier Express stands out as the sole luxury tourist option, covering a distance of 291 kilometers.
However, the report is inaccurate: the Glacier Express does not have an average speed of 36 kilometers per hour, nor is it the slowest train in Europe.
How Did the Glacier Express Earn Its Nickname?
N1 sourced the descriptor of the “slowest train” in Europe from the Croatian blog Putni kofer, where it’s mentioned that “this self-proclaimed ‘slowest express train in the world’ connects the popular Swiss destinations of Zermatt and St. Moritz.” However, this statement isn’t entirely accurate.
The Glacier Express is not actually “the self-proclaimed slowest express train in the world,” nor is it the slowest train in Europe. It earned the nickname “the slowest express train in the world” in 1983, a label given by Swiss documentary filmmaker Roman Brodman, as noted in the official brochure detailing the train’s history. Kathleen Hinton-Braaten also used this term in a March report for The Christian Science Monitor the same year.
Is the Glacier Express Really Europe’s Slowest Train?
According to this year’s Glacier Express timetable, the journey between Zermatt and Saint Moritz, including stops, takes seven hours and 45 minutes for trains 920, 902, and 904, while trains 903 and 923 require eight hours and 19 minutes, and trains 905 and 925 take nine minutes longer in the reverse direction. To verify the average speed of the Glacier Express as reported by N1, Fake News Tragac reached out to the company operating the trains. Jesi Den Harder from the Glacier Express marketing team informed Tragac that the train’s average speed is 42 km/h, indicating that the speed mentioned in the article is incorrect.
In Europe, there are indeed trains with average speeds lower than that of the Glacier Express. YouTuber Noel Phillips experienced a journey of over six hours on a night train from Uzhgorod to Lviv in Ukraine, covering a distance of just under 200 kilometers. In his vlog, Phillips mentioned that the train’s average speed was around 20 miles per hour (32 km/h). Additionally, Ukraine had another train noted for its slow pace: the diesel train running the Uman-Cherkasi route, also averaging 32 km/h. Dubbed “the slowest train in Ukraine” by the Ukrainian media, it traversed 234 kilometers in nearly seven and a half hours, making stops at no fewer than 52 stations. However, this train is no longer listed on the official website of Ukrainian Railways.
Finding trains slower than the Glacier Express doesn’t require looking beyond Serbia, where Fake News Tragac is based. The Belgrade-Niš railway, whose reconstruction was grandly announced a year ago, spans 241 kilometers. According to the Srbijavoz website, some trains on this route take up to six hours and 43 minutes. Train number 2901, for instance, departs from Belgrade at 3:54 a.m. and arrives in Niš at 10:37 a.m., with about 40 minutes lost to stops at numerous stations. Subtracting the stoppage time from the total journey duration, this train’s average speed is just under 40 km/h, making it slower than the Glacier Express, despite not being a tourist or night train.
Thus, the title bestowed upon the Swiss train as the slowest in Europe is merely honorary and stems from an anecdote dating back to the 1980s. It does not reflect the current reality or the outcome of any research.
Besides the N1 television web portal, the contested news was also covered by the following web portals: 021, B92, BL portal, Kafe.rs, and Vesti.rs.