Great Western Coffee Shop

Here's a picture of a new Swiss EMU.  It's got sliding doors at different heights.  Presumably different sets of doors open depending on the height of the platform at the stations its serves.  I've never seen his before - maybe it's to help disabled people, load buggies etc?

Ah, I've been on these - I don't think they're particularly new.

As I recall, the higher doors are for luggage/goods space - presumably higher to allow them to be directly loaded from a trolley or van/lorry

Yes, that makes sense, and is consistent with there being no windows in that part of the train. I've travelled a fair bit by train in Switzerland (and will be there again in May) but never noticed a train with doors like that.

A lot of the 'private' railways in Switzerland that go to high resorts seem to carry quite a lot of goods and parcels and luggage - makes sense, especially in winter, to keep some of the vans and lorries off the road. Don't forget the BOB goes to Wengen which is traffic free.

Have you got any specific travel plans for your break this year? The ride on the BOB from Interlaken to Grindelwald and then on up to Junfraujoch is expensive and can be very busy (and is also quite a lengthy trip), but is worth it if you've not done it before. As I recall you can get 50% off with a Swiss Pass or half price card on the Junfrau Bahn and the BOB is classed as part of the national network for the rail cards iirc.

It seems to me a little odd that the higher doors intended for light freight or parcels are of a contrasting colour to the surrounding bodywork.

I though that a European standard requires doors intended for passenger use to be of a contrasting colour so as to be seen by those with poor eyesight. That would seem to imply that doors NOT intended for public use should be inconspicuous by being of the same colour as the surroundings.

Or are these doors intended for the public to load their own bulky luggage, skis and so on ?

Surely the reason why the doors at the ends of the train are higher is because that's the floor height over the bogies. TGV-duplex also have them, with a luggage storage area in each end trailer. As far as I can see (from an inadequate drawing) at the ends, where there is no high-level connection to the next carriage, there is a half-height "room" between the above-bogie floor and the upstairs floor - only accessible from this short full-height compartment at that sliding luggage door. Presumably the Swiss one, which has a cab not a power car next to that space, is much the same mutatis mutandis.

I've thought the same of the staff doors on ATW's class 150s. They say Staff Access on them but are painted the same colour as the passenger doors.

From 2012 consolidated text of the the PRM TSI:

There is also this, from the 2014 draft of a revison (apprently still work in progress):

There isn't anything about goods or staff access doors not being painted like passenger ones, which might help. As would common sense, of course.

Having witnessed them in action, albeit a few years ago now, I seem to recall station staff (there are lots) loading up with crates of food/drink deliveries, luggage and so on - I assume they use the high doors (agree that the floor is high due to the bogie clearance, but that bring other benefits) as they're on a level with a van or hand cart. And yes, in winter I am sure they'll be racked out for skis, although there is often an open wagon with ski racks that's towed/pushed at one end of some of the mountain railways. There's many tour groups visiting this area, so there will be significant demand for luggage space, especially for trains to Wengen as road access is not permitted.

With regards to oddities and not conforming to euro standards - this is Switzerland afterall...

My reading is that this makes the livery on 43003 to be against the 2012 rules, but allowed again from the 2014 rules, as the guard / train manager / bicycle door isn't contrasting.   Commonly accepted (or rather commonly acknowledged) that the who set couldn't be retro under modern requirements.

That's what I meant by common sense: is the driver's door an "external door" under the 2012 wording? Or does it not count as there's no reason for considerations of passenger accessibility to apply to it. (Unless it's to help drivers who ...)

There was, in fact, a revised version that came out in 2014 - with the new wording:

There has been a lot more changed in the words defining the scope of the standard. This has gone from:
to :

However, the earlier text also had a section headed "2. DEFINITION OF SUBSYSTEM/SCOPE", within which was:

I can see that might be confusing. I take it to define the scope in terms of the subsystem breakdown - which parts of the railway does this apply to (or not) - while the simpler "scope" is about the scope of application, i.e. which aspects are affected. Which I see as common sense (though that's always been a tricky concept in specifications and standards writing).

I think the intention has always been for passenger doors to be contrasting.  The 2014 simply make that explicit.  AFAIK the doors on power cars have never had a contrasting livery.

I'm no lawyer, and I haven't read the relevant regulations in full, but as far as I can see there is nothing to stop FirstGWR putting a whole rake in a heritage livery if they wanted, for the following reasons:

• The regulations don't actually come into full force until 2020, and the slam-doors mean the train cannot operate beyond that date anyway
• Chiltern painted ex-Virgin mrk3s into blue&grey for their Banbury set and
• as has just brought to my attention by stuving above, there is an exemption for heritage stock anyway

I think a far more likely explanation for only 43002 and 43185 being in retro livery is that FirstGWR don't think it would be a good use of money to do a whole set.

The guards door on the TGS and one of the doors on the buffet cars aren't in a contrasting colour either.

Isn't that door on the buffet car permanently out of use? I don't think they even have door handles fitted anymore.

As I recall, on the west coast mk3 loco hauled stock, there was at least one set of doors of each buffet car marked as 'not for public use' (predictably the 'l' used to go missing from time to time...)

NB. The BOB doesn't go to Wengen, although part of the same Jungfraubahn group, Wengen is served by the WAB, a change of vehicle is required at Lauterbrunnen to get there. Incidentally a huge project on the other side of Mannlichen from Wengen, the Grindelwald side is being constructed. A new BOB station is being built just north west of Grindelwald to link with the replacement Mannlichen cable car AND the brand new mega cable car service from Grund to Eigergletcher, meaning that Kleine Schiedegg will be by-passed by most of the customers aiming for Jungfraujoch from the Grindelwald side. The existing Grindelwald - Kleine Scheidegg rail service via Grund is to continue but in a reduced format unless the new cable system is weather halted.

http://jungfrau.ch.jungfrauweb1.nine.ch/tourismus/news-events/v-bahn/das-projekt-v-bahn/

GTBE junior & family live in Switzerland and his local station is Ilanz, on the Rhatische Bahn between Chur and Dissentis.  Every year we stay a few days with them then travel on by train to a Swiss city. We've done Interlaken and did the trip up the Jungfrau via Grindelwald in the sunshine (best to go early in the day for this). This year it's Bern, so travel via Dissentis, Andermatt, Brig.  We usually get Swiss passes for convenience.

We fly to Zurich.  Used to use Eurostar, but got fed up with unpredictable service and appalling facilities at Gare du Nord which aren't much better than Dover Western Docks used to be.

So many trips to recommend in Switzerland. Rhatische Bahn is wonderful - proper trains with locos on the front and Guard's vans, local pick up freights etc. As Chris75 says, a lot of freight is moved by rail in the high valleys.  Bernina Express route is arguably more scenic that Glacier Express, but on both routes get the local trains not the named trains. 

Edit for spelling of "Rhatische"

Bern is a very pleasant city and comes highly recommended from me for a day visit. There are a number of self guided walking tours available from the tourist info which are quite good.

Depending on which direction you arrive from, keep an eye open for Wankdorf station if you wish to have a childish snigger!

Oh, and don't expect anything other than pizza to eat! For some reason we didn't seem to be able to find anything other than pizzerias when looking for an evening bite to eat!  :)

We're both sort of right, the Berner Oberland Bahnen AG (BOB) own all of the rail lines/companies in that valley including the railway at Murren, Schynige Platte, BOB, WAB & Jungfrau Bahn

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernese_Oberland_railway (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernese_Oberland_railway)