Chur or St Moritz to Tirano

Bernina Express196 bridges and 55 tunnels in about four hours

The Bernina Express leaves Chur and crosses the Landwasser Viaduct, threads the Albula tunnels and climbs over the Bernina Pass before dropping into Tirano in Italy. The full panoramic run takes about four hours. Valleys, glaciers and stone arches pass the window, and the country outside changes completely by the time you stop.

Run by the Rhaetian Railway, the Chur to Tirano line uses both the Albula and Bernina railways, which hold World Heritage status. You can also board at St Moritz for the two-hour-fifteen Bernina section.

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PlaceChur to Tirano, via the Alps

TypePanoramic train

SuitsRail-first Alpine travellers

Stay4 hours

Out of Chur, over the Alps and down to Italy

Chur or St Moritz to Tirano — Cross-border panoramic train.

The full Chur to Tirano run crosses 196 bridges and passes through 55 tunnels. The train climbs the Albula line, crosses the Landwasser Viaduct, goes over the Bernina Pass, and after the high lakes and the Palü glacier drops down the Italian side past the Brusio spiral.

From Chur the trip takes about four hours and shows the whole railway. From St Moritz it takes about two hours fifteen, which suits travellers already staying in the Engadin, though that shorter section skips the Landwasser Viaduct and the Albula line entirely. Check which one you are booking.

It suits people who treat the railway as the destination and will spend a night or two at each end for four hours of travel. If you only need to get from one place to another, ordinary trains run the same line for a fraction of the planning.

A train passing a slope of orange and yellow larch, snow-covered peaks standing behind it. — Autumn slopes, snow peaks, and a red band of train

Red carriages on a stone viaduct spanning a ravine, bare rock and thin trees below the track. — Red carriages crossing a rocky ravine

A multi-arch stone viaduct seen from the side, a train crossing it, the valley floor far below.

From the snow line down to vineyards

You start among high glaciers and conifer forest and finish among Italian vineyards and palms. Very little of that change happens gradually: the descent on the Italian side keeps going, and the landscape swaps whole during a single afternoon of sitting still in one seat.

A red train crossing open high pasture with no trees, a low ridge line and a wide sky behind.

Along a railway that is the monument

Stone bridges, spiral tunnels and a pass are the signatures of this line, and the line itself sits on the World Heritage list, which is why people ride it as an end rather than a means. You are travelling on the exhibit, not past it.

A curved stone viaduct sweeping over an autumn valley, the train part way round the arc.

One turn around the Brusio spiral

At Brusio the train takes a full circle on an open stone viaduct to lose height, and you can see the track it is about to use curving above or below you. It is the clearest piece of engineering on the route, and it lasts less than a minute.

A red train on a steep slope under fresh snow, conifers black against white, cloud sitting low.

Route

The descent that ends the mountain section

This leg does the descending. It joins the snow line of the high Alps to the lakes and cities of northern Italy, and the train has no beds of its own. Place it at the end of a mountain stay rather than in the middle of one.

Four hours between the Engadin and Italy

Reserve the panoramic coach in advance, and decide before you travel whether you want the through train or the regional services that stop.

Stay

The panoramic train takes about four hours, so give a full cross-border trip three to five nights rather than a single day.

Getting there

You can board at Chur, St Moritz or Tirano. The panoramic coach needs a reservation, and ordinary regional trains run the same route.

Season

It runs all year. Winter brings hard snow scenery, and summer connects to high-altitude walking from the line's stations. Neither closes the route.

Watch out

A cross-border trip needs passports, luggage and onward connections checked. Weather affects how much of the glacier you can actually see.

Plan this into a journey

Tell us which end your Alpine stay finishes at, and we will time the crossing so the connections after Tirano still work.

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