Meiringen Transportation

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On foot:
It’s only about a 20 minutes hike from Meiringen railway station to the west entrance at Aareschlucht.

By train:
Depending on the time of the day this one carriage train runs once or twice per hour. The advantage is that if you only want to walk one way through the gorge you can take the train to the “Aareschlucht Ost” stop. You get off the train in a tunnel and then cross the Aare river and climb uphill for about 10 minutes. Please note, that this train leaves from a separate station in Meiringen about 250 meters from the main railway station.

By car:
You best use the “west” entrance as there are more parking spaces there.

Both entrances have facilites. The “Ost” entrance has a kiosk/snack bar and of course free toilets. The “West” entrance has a big restaurant where you get served and a big self-serve restaurant and a souvenir shop.

The gorge is wheelchair accessible but only from the “west” entrance and you will have to turn back before the path climbs up to the “ost” entrance. Also in places the path through the gorge may be a bit too narrow but there is also a tunnel, so you get to view most of it.

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The whole region and its more off the beaten path destinations are accessible by the yellow postbuses. In summer you can take a postbus from Meiringen to Grindelwald (no discounts) over the Grosse Scheidegg. Some years ago I did that the other way round.

There is a postbus station right in front of the Aareschlucht "ost" entrance, too.

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From Lucerne it take 1,25 hours by zb train to Meiringen. Zb means Zentralbahn which used to be called “Bruenigbahn”. This train continues to Interlaken Ost.

From Lucerne you travel along parts of Lake Lucerne, Lake Sarnen, Lake Lungern and up Bruenig mountain pass and back down to Meiringen. I advise you to sit on the “right” side coming from Lucerne.

In case that you stay for at least 3 days with a perfect weather in the area around Thuner- and Brienzersee and intend to explore all of the great mountains in that area it really makes sense to buy the "Regionalpass Berner Oberland" :
It is valid 7 (220,-sfr) or 15 days (265,-sfr) and during 3 of the 7 or 5 of the 15 days you may use that ticket for unlimited travels, only for Jungfraujoch you pay 50 sfr extra and for Schilthorn 30 sfr extra - the Brienz Rothorn is included !!
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The funicular to Reichenbachfall and the buses to Grosse Scheidegg and Grindelwald, the train to Grimselpass, Brig and Zermatt are 50% all days.
This ticket makes sense ONLY when you take it for the expensive railways around Brienz & Interlaken !!
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The tickets are for 7/15 consecutive days, BUT you may choose any 3 (or 5) days of unlimited travels by yourself - you simply stamp your ticket at any trainstation into a machine on these days.
During the rest of the days you pay half of the ordinary prices.
This ticket includes also all trains and ships around Brienzersee and Thunersee, trains till Brig, Lenk i.S., Adelboden, Meiringen, Gstaad and halfprice all days to Zermatt, Luzern, Bern etc...
I had such a ticket with 7 days and could save a lot of money, although I had only 3 days with excellent weather-conditions !!.
See more details about that ticket on my link below !!

Ballenberg-bahn is a museum-railway that is operated still by steam-trains dating back to the 19th century. In summertime this steam-train will go from Interlaken, through Brienz and Meiringen over the Bruenig-pass to Giswil.
The rest of the year you may see the trains and wagons of Ballenberg-Bahn inside a shed in Interlaken Ost, at the end of track #4 (follow the sign-posts !) When you are lucky, there will be someone there to let you in, otherwise you may see at least the old wagons in front of the shed or return on a friday at 02.00p.m., because every friday afternoon the shed is open for visitors !!
In summer the steam-train will make special tours according to these timetables :
www.dampfbahnen.ch - and click on "Fahrplan"
for prices click on "Preise" - it is a pity everything is just in german, but I guess you may understand these infos anyway.
Several train-rides are done each year in July, September and October between interlaken Ost and Giswil ( that is halfway between Brienz and Luzern - with a scenic ride over the Brünig-Pass)

At the SBB-train-station of Meiringen you may change to another train, going to Innertkirchen and passing by the station Aareschlucht Ost. THIS is certainly the best way to see Aareschlucht, because you will start at the East-end and will walk down the gorge, beginning with the wide part and finally ending at the West-gate, where the gorge is really spectacular and you may touch the rocks on both sides of the gorge, while walking on the artificial bridge that was built high above the river there.
The train needs just 4 minutes between Meiringen and Aarschlucht-Ost
trains run between 06.00 a.m. and 07.30p.m.
once or twice every hour.