The Bernina Express is a Panorama Express (PE)

train A train (from Old French , from Latin">-4; we might wonder whether there's a point at which it's appropriate to talk of the beginnings of French, that is, when it wa ... , from Latin , "to pull, to draw") is a series of connected vehicles th ...

connecting

Chur '' Chur (locally) or ; ; ; ; ; ; or ; , and . is the capital and largest List of towns in Switzerland, town of the Switzerland, Swiss Cantons of Switzerland, canton of the Grisons and lies in the Alpine Rhine, Grisonian Rhine Valley, where ...

Tirano Tirano (; ) is a town and (municipality) in Valtellina, located in the province of Sondrio, Lombardy (northern Italy). It has 9,053 inhabitants (2016) and is adjacent to the Italy–Switzerland border. The river Adda (river), Adda flows through ...

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

by crossing the Swiss Engadin Alps. For most of its journey, the train also runs along the

World Heritage Site World Heritage Sites are landmarks and areas with legal protection under an treaty, international treaty administered by UNESCO for having cultural, historical, or scientific significance. The sites are judged to contain "cultural and natural ...

known as the

Rhaetian Railway The Rhaetian Railway (; ; ), abbreviated RhB, is a Swiss transport company that owns the largest network of all private railway operators in Switzerland. Headquartered in Chur, the RhB operates all the railway lines of the Cantons of Switzerland, ...

in the Albula / Bernina Landscapes. The train is operated by the

company for the purpose of sightseeing. It takes the form of an enhanced regional service between Tirano and Chur: panoramic coaches with enlarged windows and multi-lingual (English, Chinese, French, German, Italian, and Japanese) audio guide on board. It is not an "express" in the sense of being a high-speed train; passengers must make a seat reservation either directly when they purchase Bernina Express tickets, or pay a small supplement on top of their regional train tickets. The Bernina Express is popular with tourists. It connects in Tirano with a bus service via

Lake Como Lake Como ( , ) also known as Lario, is a lake of glacial origin in Lombardy, Italy. It has an area of , making it the third-largest lake in Italy, after Lake Garda and Lake Maggiore. At over deep, it is one of the deepest lakes in Europe. ...

in Italy to

Lugano Lugano ( , , ; ) is a city and municipality within the Lugano District in the canton of Ticino, Switzerland. It is the largest city in both Ticino and the Italian-speaking region of southern Switzerland. Lugano has a population () of , and an u ...

in Switzerland, with connections to the Gotthard Panorama Express, another tourist train. The Albula line and the Bernina line on the Bernina Express's route were jointly declared a

in 2008. The trip on the Bernina Express through this World Heritage Site is a four-hour railway journey across 196 bridges, through 55 tunnels and across the

Bernina Pass The Bernina Pass (el. .) () is a high mountain pass in the Bernina Range of the Alps, in the canton of Graubünden (Grisons) in eastern Switzerland. It connects the famous resort town of St. Moritz in the Engadin valley with the Italian-spea ...

at above sea level. The entire line is (

metre gauge Metre-gauge railways ( US: meter-gauge railways) are narrow-gauge railways with track gauge of or 1 metre. Metre gauge is used in around of tracks around the world. It was used by several European colonial powers including France, Britain and ...

) and electrified. The Albula line was constructed between 1898 and 1904; it has been operated by the Rhaetian Railway since its inauguration. The Bernina line was built between 1908 and 1910 and operated independently until the 1940s, when it was acquired by the Rhaetian Railway. The Bernina Express uses gradients of 7 % to negotiate the difference in height of about from the summit at Ospizio Bernina to Tirano.

Itinerary

Albula line

The train leaves the city of

() in Graubünden and follows the course of the

Rhine The Rhine ( ) is one of the List of rivers of Europe, major rivers in Europe. The river begins in the Swiss canton of Graubünden in the southeastern Swiss Alps. It forms part of the Swiss-Liechtenstein border, then part of the Austria–Swit ...

to Bonaduz (). From there it enters the Domleschg Valley and follows the Posterior Rhine from Rhäzüns () to Thusis (). The train continues toward Tiefencastel () following the Albula and then crosses the

Landwasser Viaduct The Landwasser Viaduct () is a Single-track railway, single-track six-arched curved limestone rail transport, railway viaduct. It spans the Landwasser between Schmitten, Graubünden, Schmitten and Filisur, in the Cantons of Switzerland, canton of ...

before arriving at Filisur (). Shortly after Filisur the train passes its first

spiral In mathematics, a spiral is a curve which emanates from a point, moving further away as it revolves around the point. It is a subtype of whorled patterns, a broad group that also includes concentric objects. Two-dimensional A two-dimension ...

tunnel and continues to Bergün/Bravuogn. Between Bergün/Bravuogn () and Preda (), at the end of the valley, the train has to achieve a difference in height of about with an horizontal distance of without using rack-and-pinion, but with many spirals. Then the train enters the

Albula Tunnel The Albula Tunnel is the centrepiece of the Albula Railway, which forms part of the Rhaetian Railway network, in the Cantons of Switzerland, Canton of Graubünden, Switzerland. With its maximum elevation of above sea level, it is amongst the hig ...

at under the Albula Pass. It emerges in the Val Bever, where it reaches Bever () on the

Engadin The Engadin or Engadine (;This is the name in the two Romansh idioms that are spoken in the Engadin, Vallader and Puter, as well as in Sursilvan and Rumantsch Grischun. In Surmiran, the name is ''Nagiadegna'', and in Sutsilvan, it is ''Gidegna'' ...

plain. The train continues toward

Samedan Samedan (, locally ) is a town and municipalities of Switzerland, municipality in the Maloja Region in the Switzerland, Swiss Cantons of Switzerland, canton of Grisons. It is served by Samedan railway station on the Rhaetian Railway network and ...

() and arrives at the

Pontresina Pontresina () is a Municipalities of Switzerland, municipality in the Maloja Region in the Cantons of Switzerland, canton of Graubünden in Switzerland. History and name Pontresina was first mentioned in medieval Latin documents as ''ad Pontem Sa ...

station () in the Val Bernina (Bernina Valley).

Bernina line

The train leaves

and ascends progressively through the valley to the

over the Morteratsch station (), where the

glacier A glacier (; or ) is a persistent body of dense ice, a form of rock, that is constantly moving downhill under its own weight. A glacier forms where the accumulation of snow exceeds its ablation over many years, often centuries. It acquires ...

and the highest summit of the

Eastern Alps The Eastern Alps are usually defined as the area east of a line from Lake Constance and the Alpine Rhine valley, up to the Splügen Pass at the Main chain of the Alps, Alpine divide, and down the Liro (Como), Liro River to Lake Como in the south. ...

Piz Bernina Piz Bernina (Romansh language, Romansh, , ) is the highest mountain in the Eastern Alps, the highest point of the Bernina Range, and the highest peak in the Rhaetian Alps. It rises and is located south of Pontresina in the Bernina Region and ne ...

() are visible. Before arriving at the

, the train stops at Bernina Diavolezza () for cable-car connections to Diavolezza (). The Bernina Express reaches the summit at the Ospizio Bernina station at above Lago Bianco. Alp Grüm () is the first station south of the

Alps The Alps () are some of the highest and most extensive mountain ranges in Europe, stretching approximately across eight Alpine countries (from west to east): Monaco, France, Switzerland, Italy, Liechtenstein, Germany, Austria and Slovenia. ...

, situated above Lago Palü and right below

Piz Palü Piz Palü is a mountain in the Bernina Range of the Alps, located between Switzerland and Italy. It is a large glaciated massif composed of three main summits, on a ridge running from west to east. The main (and central) summit is 3,899 metres ...

(+) and its

. After many

hairpin turn A hairpin turn (also hairpin bend or hairpin corner) is a bend in a road with a very acute inner angle, making it necessary for an oncoming vehicle to turn about 180° to continue on the road. It is named for its resemblance to a bent metal ha ...

s the train reaches Cavaglia () above the Val Poschiavo, then the Swiss

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, a Romance ethnic group related to or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance languag ...

-speaking town of

Poschiavo Poschiavo (, , , ) is a municipalities of Switzerland, municipality in the Bernina Region in the Cantons of Switzerland, canton of Grisons in Switzerland. History Poschiavo is first mentioned in 824 as ''in Postclave'' though this comes from a l ...

(). The train then follows the course of the Poschiavino and stops at Le Prese () and Miralago (), both on Lake Poschiavo's shore. After Miralago it continues its descent toward Brusio (), where it passes the spiral Brusio Viaduct. Shortly after the

border at Campocologno (), the Bernina Express ends its journey at

station ().

Route

During the summer, the Bernina Express comprises a special separate train that travels from to with very few stops. In Pontresina, the locomotive is changed (because of the Bernina line's different electricity current) and the train continues with few stops to Tirano. During autumn, winter and spring, the Bernina Express comprises several cars that are attached to regional services. From Chur to , they are part of a

RegioExpress RegioExpress, commonly abbreviated to RE, is a Train categories in Europe, category of fast regional train service in Switzerland, run by Swiss Federal Railways (SBB CFF FFS) or other railway companies (such as Treni Regionali Ticino Lombardia, ...

(RE) train Chur – ; from Samedan to Pontresina, they are part of a Regio (R) train – Pontresina; from Pontresina to Tirano, they are part of a Regio train from St. Moritz – Tirano. Each of these Bernina Express trains includes designated carriages for passengers with only regional train tickets. There is a bus transfer between Tirano and (

Swiss canton The 26 cantons of Switzerland are the Federated state, member states of the Switzerland, Swiss Confederation. The nucleus of the Swiss Confederacy in the form of the first three confederate allies used to be referred to as the . Two important ...

Ticino Ticino ( ), sometimes Tessin (), officially the Republic and Canton of Ticino or less formally the Canton of Ticino, is one of the Canton of Switzerland, 26 cantons forming the Switzerland, Swiss Confederation. It is composed of eight districts ...

), which links the Bernina Express with the Gotthard Panorama Express. At St. Moritz, it connects with the

Glacier Express The Glacier Express is a direct Panorama Express (PE) train connecting railway stations of the two major mountain resorts of Zermatt and St. Moritz via Andermatt in the central Swiss Alps. The train provides a one-seat ride for an 8-hour end-to-e ...

, another tourist train.

Gallery

References

* *

External links

Official website

Switzerland Tourism Bernina Express
{{Coord, 46, 24, 32, N, 10, 1, 11, E, region:CH-GR, display=title Transport in the Alps Named passenger trains of Switzerland Mountain railways Tourist attractions in Switzerland World Heritage Sites in Switzerland World Heritage Sites in Italy Rhaetian Railway