Lavaux Express

The Lavaux Express is the way into the terraces without the climb: a small road train looping 1h15 from the lake piers of Cully and Lutry. The Cully loop climbs through Riex and Epesses to a stop at the Dézaley, where a glass of local wine is sold in good weather. In 2020 the canton put CHF 65,000 towards a new locomotive. It is a stop on the Lavaux trail.

Passengers ride open benches with rain covers. From Cully the train takes the vineyard road through Riex and Epesses, then vineyard paths closed to traffic. Every scheduled loop halts for 15 minutes in the vines; on the Cully loop the halt is at the Dézaley, where a glass is sold in good weather. From 1 May to 20 September the 18:30 caveau train from Lutry stops 45 minutes in a growers' caveau: 3 wines and a glass, CHF 28.

Go between 1 April and 1 November: from November to March the train does not run at all. Cully departures are on Saturdays (10:30, 13:30, 15:00, 16:30) and Tuesdays from 1 May; Lutry departures on Wednesdays and Sundays. From 7 June to 28 September extra runs leave Lutry on Fridays and Cully on Thursdays. Summer evenings add the caveau and apéro trains. In winter, the growers' caveau in Lutry and the Domaine Louis Bovard shop in Cully stay open.

Adults pay CHF 17; AVS/AI holders, 14 to 18s and students CHF 14; children 6 to 13 CHF 6; under 6 free. Tickets are sold at the departure stand, in cash (CHF or EUR) or by card; booking is recommended, and groups of up to 18 can book scheduled runs. Runs may be cancelled in bad weather. Wheelchairs cannot board, there are no toilets on board, and the ride is not recommended in pregnancy. Commentary comes from a free izi.TRAVEL audioguide in French, German and English.

Board only at the start, never mid-route. For Cully, take the S1 or S3 from Lausanne (about 10 minutes) and walk about 5 minutes to the pier at Place d'Armes 16. For Lutry, the S1 or S3 takes about 5 minutes, then about 10 minutes on foot to the pier on Quai Gustave Doret; bus 9 to Voisinand also serves it. Domaine Louis Bovard sits about 60 m from the Cully pier.

The Lavaux Express is a small tourist road train that tours the UNESCO-listed Lavaux vineyard terraces from the lake piers of Cully and Lutry, from 1 April to 1 November. Its two scheduled loops last 1h15: Cully, Riex, Epesses, Dézaley and back, or Lutry, Aran, Grandvaux and back. A non-profit association has run it since 2004; the house says about 50 members, mostly retirees, drive and host, and that record seasons carried 25,000 passengers.

After a trial season in 2003, the Association Lavaux Express was founded in spring 2004. The house says Lavaux's UNESCO listing in July 2007 brought a sudden rise in riders and a second train. Its locomotives are built on Landini tractor chassis; the third, "Les 3 soleils", named for Lavaux's tale of three suns, was inaugurated in April 2021. In 2020 the Canton of Vaud granted CHF 65,000 of a CHF 195,000 project for a new locomotive.

From November to March the train is parked, but three of its villages still pour on a Saturday. Lutry's growers' caveau on the Grand-Rue opens all year except the first week of January, Saturday 11:00 to 14:00, a 1 dl glass CHF 4. Domaine Croix Duplex, below Grandvaux station, opens Monday to Saturday. In Cully, Domaine Louis Bovard opens Tuesday to Sunday. S-trains link all three. The Vinorama in Rivaz is shut in January.