Entremont region has its on standard-gauge railway system with a total length of 25 km. The system is part of TMR Transport Martigny Region, which also runs the Martigny-Chatelard narrow-gauge railway line. Several TMR operated and Swiss postal car operated bus lines connect railway stations with the valleys and villages around, including bus connections from Orsieres to La Fouly and Val Ferret, to Campex-Lac, and to Val d’Etremont and further onward to Aosta.
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Orsieres bound train
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Le Chable station
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Bovernier station
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Orsieres station
The railway has been important for the access of Entremont region since 1910. British investors received a permit in 1906 to construct a 19 km long standard-gauge railway link to connect Orsieres with Martigny and the main Brig-Lausanne railway line. Construction of the line was triggered by plans of British Aluminium to build an aluminium plant in Orsieres which was never built in the end. And the line was thought to be a first phase of a new to be built international rail connection from Martigny to Aosta and further to Turin as an alternative to the Simplon route. Studies for on several options via either Val d’Entremont or Val Ferret were made, but non was feasible at the time because of reasons like the altitude, the length of proposed tunnels, or detours to be made.
Usage of the railway line was therefore modest during the first decades of operation. An additional 6 km branche from Sembrancher to Le Chable in Val de Bagnes was opened in 1955. The extension included a modern concrete landmark bridge crossing the Dranse d’Entremont. The extension was built to facilitate the transport of cement to the construction site of the Barrage de Mauvoisin dam in the upper section of Val de Bagnes.
As of the 1970s, the railway became more important for tourism, especially after a cable car connecting Le Chable to Verbier and the Quattre Vallees ski area was opened in 1978, with its lower station next to the railway station in Le Chable. Much later an additional cable car was built to connect to Bruson–les-Forets, the ski area of Bruson. Due to rising passenger numbers and to able to handle direct SBB Swiss Federal Railways trains, the station of Le Chable was redeveloped into a new modern railway terminus with several platforms and a direct connection to the cable car station.
Until 2000, the railway system was operated by Chemin-de-Fer Martigny-Orsieres (MO), which merged with Chemin-de-Fer Martigny-Chatelard into TMR Transport Martigny Region as of January 1st 2000.