The Glarner Sprinter is a named passenger train of the Swiss Federal Railways (SBB). It runs from Zürich into the Canton of Glarus, where it terminates in Schwanden on weekdays or Linthal on weekends. This is a RegioExpress service.
After leaving Zürich, the train runs all the way along the west side of the Zürichsee (Lake Zürich). Later it follows the path of the River Linth. In addition to the endpoints, major cities served by the Glarner Sprinter route include Pfäffikon SZ, Ziegelbrücke, and Glarus.
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Since the mothballing of the old VSB trackage between Weesen and Näfels in 1918, local rail services only operated to Ziegelbrücke instead of Näfels. Therefore there was no longer a direct connection from the Canton of Glarus to Zurich.
The "Glarner Dream" of a direct connection to Zürich was finally realized by the Pendlerverein (commuter association) of the Glarus government and the SBB as a component of the Swiss Bahn 2000 modernization plan and put into service with the large timetable change on 2004-12-04. The original plan was for an hourly service, but this could not be achieved due to financial problems in the canton Glarus and technical problems on the part of the SBB.
The Glarner Sprinter is primarily a commuter service for those travelling from the towns and villages of Glarus to the greater Zürich region. Conversely, the Canton of Glarus can expect increased weekend tourism (for winter sports, hiking, mountain climbing, etc.) because of this direct connection to the large Glarus valley.
As of 2006, the train frequency is bi-hourly (every 120 minutes). The train does not run late at night. The trip from Zürich to Schwanden takes from 1 hour and 5 minutes to 1 hour and 7 minutes; to Linthal, from 1 hour and 19 minutes to 1 hour and 33 minutes.
As a RegioExpress train, and in keeping with the idea behind the service, the train does not serve any stations along the west shore of the Zürichsee until Pfäffikon SZ. The train does not begin to stop at every station until turning off the SBB main line after Ziegelbrücke. In effect, the train runs as a local service within the Canton of Glarus and provides an express service to Zürich for those communities.
The usual motive power used on this route is the RBDe 560. 3 Einheitswagen ("standard coaches") I (2 second class, 1 first class) as well as a Bt control car make up the rest of the consist.
Occasionally, a consist made up of two RBe 540 on either end of a set of Einheitswagen I/II cars is substituted for these dedicated trainsets.
The SBB has painted 2 NPZ trainsets (RBDe 560 120 "Netstal" and 560 123 "Braunwald") in a special livery which is a variation of the standard NPZ (blue over white) color scheme that has Glarner Sprinter titles and other enhancements [1].
The Glarner Sprinter is the only RegioExpress service in Switzerland offering passengers a Railbar (onboard drink & snack cart), provided on the morning and evening trains. The usual Railbar selection is supplemented by individual Glarus specialities.