A rail ride of a lifetime takes in spiralling viaducts, tranquil towns – and the Swiss Grand Canyon
Claire Webb - 19 November 2019
The most relaxing way to experience the super-sized topography of the Swiss Alps is on board the Bernina Express or Glacier Express. The final episode of The World’s Most Scenic Railway Journeys follows these trains as they traverse the historic Albula and Bernina lines, snaking over viaducts and steep passes, skirting glaciers and chugging through mountains.
The narrow-gauge railways are engineering marvels that first brought tourism to isolated villages in the early 1900s and are now attractions in their own right, having been awarded UNESCO world heritage status in 2008.
Neither is especially speedy – the Glacier Express bills itself as “the slowest express train in the world” and averages a leisurely 24mph – which means there’s ample time to drink in the dizzying views. In summer, the trains’ jolly red sightseeing cars pootle through lush meadows dotted with wildflowers, while at this time of year, the landscape is a winter wonderland of white peaks, frozen lakes and frosty forests.
A LEISURELY ROLLER-COASTER RIDE
The Bernina Express begins in the tranquil Italian town of Tirano, two miles from the Swiss border. It climbs into the High Alps and over the snow-blanketed Bernina Pass, before descending to charming Chur, Switzerland’s oldest city. In summer, it also runs to Davos and St Moritz. The journey from Tirano to Chur takes around four hours and winds through 55 tunnels and over 196 bridges.
After its electric engine glides quietly out of Tirano, the first landmark on the Bernina Line is the Brusio Spiral Viaduct, where the train does a horizontal loop-the-loop. It skirts the emerald waters of Lake Poschiavo, before ascending to tiny Alp Grüm station, where it pauses so passengers can admire Palü Glacier. The next station is the summit: 2,253m Ospizio Bernina, which sits on the shores of Lago Bianco and is fed by glacial meltwater.
The Chur route also takes you along the Albula line, which at one point plunges into a 5.8km-long tunnel, dug at the turn of the 20th century using picks and shovels. Engineers are currently excavating a new tunnel, due to open in 2021. The climax of the journey is the 65m-high Landwasser Viaduct. Built without scaffolding, its soaring pillars bridge a precipitous valley and the track seems to disappear into a sheer rock wall.
ALL ABOARD THE GLACIER EXPRESS
The Glacier Express takes around eight hours to meander between St Moritz and the even glitzier Zermatt, wending along 91 tunnels and 291 bridges. After departing from St Moritz, it initially takes the same route as the Bernina Express to Chur, through the Albula Tunnel and over the Landwasser Viaduct.
The train then cleaves through the Swiss Grand Canyon: the sculpted grey cliffs of the Rhine Gorge. Then it’s up past the village of Disentis’s towering Benedictine monastery to the highest point of the journey, the 2,033- metre Oberalp Pass. It slowly descends 1,300 metres, before shinning back up to Zermatt, in the shadow of the Matterhorn.
The scenic rail journeys don’t end there. From Zermatt, the 120-year-old Gornergrat cogwheel railway climbs almost 1,500m in half an hour to Europe’s highest open-air station, where you get an even better view of the Matterhorn and the sea of snowy peaks.
The most relaxing way to experience the super-sized topography of the Swiss Alps is on board the Bernina Express or Glacier Express. The final episode of The World’s Most Scenic Railway Journeys follows these trains as they traverse the historic Albula and Bernina lines, snaking over viaducts and steep passes, skirting glaciers and chugging through mountains.
The narrow-gauge railways are engineering marvels that first brought tourism to isolated villages in the early 1900s and are now attractions in their own right, having been awarded UNESCO world heritage status in 2008.
Neither is especially speedy – the Glacier Express bills itself as “the slowest express train in the world” and averages a leisurely 24mph – which means there’s ample time to drink in the dizzying views. In summer, the trains’ jolly red sightseeing cars pootle through lush meadows dotted with wildflowers, while at this time of year, the landscape is a winter wonderland of white peaks, frozen lakes and frosty forests.
A LEISURELY ROLLER-COASTER RIDE
The Bernina Express begins in the tranquil Italian town of Tirano, two miles from the Swiss border. It climbs into the High Alps and over the snow-blanketed Bernina Pass, before descending to charming Chur, Switzerland’s oldest city. In summer, it also runs to Davos and St Moritz. The journey from Tirano to Chur takes around four hours and winds through 55 tunnels and over 196 bridges.
After its electric engine glides quietly out of Tirano, the first landmark on the Bernina Line is the Brusio Spiral Viaduct, where the train does a horizontal loop-the-loop. It skirts the emerald waters of Lake Poschiavo, before ascending to tiny Alp Grüm station, where it pauses so passengers can admire Palü Glacier. The next station is the summit: 2,253m Ospizio Bernina, which sits on the shores of Lago Bianco and is fed by glacial meltwater.
The Chur route also takes you along the Albula line, which at one point plunges into a 5.8km-long tunnel, dug at the turn of the 20th century using picks and shovels. Engineers are currently excavating a new tunnel, due to open in 2021. The climax of the journey is the 65m-high Landwasser Viaduct. Built without scaffolding, its soaring pillars bridge a precipitous valley and the track seems to disappear into a sheer rock wall.
ALL ABOARD THE GLACIER EXPRESS
The Glacier Express takes around eight hours to meander between St Moritz and the even glitzier Zermatt, wending along 91 tunnels and 291 bridges. After departing from St Moritz, it initially takes the same route as the Bernina Express to Chur, through the Albula Tunnel and over the Landwasser Viaduct.
The train then cleaves through the Swiss Grand Canyon: the sculpted grey cliffs of the Rhine Gorge. Then it’s up past the village of Disentis’s towering Benedictine monastery to the highest point of the journey, the 2,033- metre Oberalp Pass. It slowly descends 1,300 metres, before shinning back up to Zermatt, in the shadow of the Matterhorn.
The scenic rail journeys don’t end there. From Zermatt, the 120-year-old Gornergrat cogwheel railway climbs almost 1,500m in half an hour to Europe’s highest open-air station, where you get an even better view of the Matterhorn and the sea of snowy peaks.