Rhaetian Railway

The Rhaetian Railway (german: Rhätische Bahn; it, Ferrovia retica; rm, Viafier retica), 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 Swiss canton of Grisons, except for the line from Sargans to the cantonal capital, Chur, which are operated by Swiss Federal Railways (SBB CFF FFS), as well as the line from Disentis/Mustér to the Oberalp Pass and further on to Andermatt, Uri, which is operated by Matterhorn Gotthard Bahn (MGB). Inaugurated in 1888 and expanded from 1896 onwards in various sections, the RhB network is located almost entirely within Grisons, with one station across the Italian border at Tirano.

The Rhaetian Railway serves a number of major tourist destinations, such as St. Moritz and Davos. One of the RhB lines, the Bernina Railway, crosses the Bernina Pass at above sea level and runs down to Tirano, Lombardy in Italy.

In 2008, the RhB section from the Albula/ Bernina area (the part from Thusis to Tirano, including St. Moritz) was added to the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites. The Albula-Bernina line is the first rail line in the world to be photographed and put on Google Street View. The line also operates several historic trains on the network.

History

The establishment of the Rhaetian Railway traces back to Dutch Willem Jan Holsboer, who owned a hotel in Davos. He proposed a railway line from Landquart to Davos in 1888. Holsboer founded the Landquart-Davos AG to begin construction of a standard-gauge line, but the mountainous terrain lacked sufficient space. On 29 June 1888, a ground-breaking ceremony took place for a narrow-gauge railway instead. By 1890, the railway line served Davos.

In 1895, Holsboer changed his company's name to the Rhaetian Railway () to reflect his plans for network expansion. By 1896 the lines Chur–Landquart and Chur–Thusis were operated. In 1897, a referendum was held for the Rhaetian Railway to bid on operations of the Graubünden/Grisons State Railways.

This was followed by the Albula line in 1903 and the series of expansion projects carried on until 1922. In 1903 the Album line reached Celerina, and in 1904 also St.Moritz was able to be served. During the years 1907 to 1910, the Rhaetian Railway, in collaboration with the federal and cantonal governments, undertook a large-scale expansion of its network.

All RhB lines are wide and electrified:
* (the Bernina Railway from St Moritz to Tirano) is electrified at 1000 V DC.
* is electrified at 11 kV 16.7 Hz (including since 1997 Chur-Arosa and the new Vereina tunnel).

The network contains 84 tunnels (the longest being the Vereina Tunnel, opened on 19 November 1999, and the Albula Tunnel) and 383 bridges. The maximum gradient is 7% on the Bernina railway, 6% on the Chur–Arosa line and 4.5% on Landquart–Davos line.

In 2022, to celebrate the 175th anniversary of Switzerland's first railway, the Rhaetische Bahn, supported by Swiss train-builder Stadler, came together to run the world's longest-ever passenger train, composed of 100 cars stretching almost two kilometres long.

Network

Current passenger services as operated by the RhB (2016):

In 2002 the annual traffic carried by the RhB was 300 million passenger-kilometres and 54 million tonne-kilometres of freight. 80% of the passenger income comes from tourist traffic, although 40% of passengers are local commuters.

Landquart–Davos line

Landquart railway station in Graubünden is the starting point of the Rhaetian Railway, historically as part of the Landquart-Davos line, operationally as the company's main workshop, and topologically as the 0 kilometre point of the company's core network. The Landquart-Davos line is the oldest in the Rhaetian Railway network.

After leaving Landquart, the line to Davos generally follows the river Landquart upstream as far as Klosters Platz. Along the way, it crosses the river three times and passes by the award-winning Sunniberg Bridge, the centerpiece of the Klosters bypass road.

Just south of Klosters Platz, the tracks cross the river the last time and come to two tunnels. One of these is for the Vereina line (see below). The other, the Klosters loop tunnel, takes the Davos line through a 90-degree loop towards the west. The line to Davos begins to climb at 4.5% gradient and then loops 180 degrees back towards the east, inside the Cavadürli loop tunnel. It continues to climb through dense larch and other coniferous forests to the Davos Laret.

The highest point on the line is the next stop, Davos Wolfgang at . Then the line leads back down and along Lake Davos to Davos Dorf, and the terminus at Davos Platz.

Davos–Filisur line

The connecting line from Davos Platz to the Albula Railway at Filisur passes through wild gorges, and is technically very interesting, not only due to its famous Wiesen Viaduct.

The Davos–Filisur line is long, runs through 14 tunnels extending a total of in length, and crosses 28 bridges. It was electrified in 1919.

Landquart–Thusis line

Starting in the Rhine valley, the Landquart-Thusis line runs more or less parallel with the Swiss Federal Railways' Sargans- Landquart- Chur standard gauge line as far as Chur (). The line to Thusis then simply follows the course of the Rhine to Bonaduz (). From there, it enters the Domleschg Valley and follows the Posterior Rhine from Rhäzüns () to Thusis ().

Albula line (Thusis–St. Moritz)

This line begins in Thusis (697 m). It continues toward Tiefencastel (851 m) following the Albula and then crosses the Landwasser Viaduct before arriving at Filisur (1032 m). Shortly after Filisur the line passes its first spiral