TL;DR: A 4-hour audio companion for the Bernina Express from Chur to Tirano, crossing the Alps from German-speaking Switzerland to Italian-speaking Lombardy via the highest railway crossing in the Alps. Pass the Landwasser Viaduct, climb to 2,253 meters at the Bernina Pass, descend through spiral tunnels to palm trees and vineyards. A UNESCO World Heritage railway and one of the steepest adhesion railways in the world.
Journey Overview
| Route | Chur -- Thusis -- Filisur -- St. Moritz -- Bernina Pass -- Poschiavo -- Tirano (Italy) |
| Duration | ~4 hours (Chur to Tirano) |
| Operator | Rhaetische Bahn (RhB / Rhaetian Railway) |
| Track | 144 km, 55 tunnels, 196 bridges |
| Highest Point | Ospizio Bernina, 2,253 m (highest adhesion railway crossing in the Alps) |
| UNESCO Status | Rhaetian Railway in the Albula/Bernina Landscapes (inscribed 2008) |
| Swiss Travel Pass | Covers the journey; seat reservation mandatory (~CHF 14-28 supplement) |
| Best Seat | Left side from Chur for Landwasser Viaduct; right side from St. Moritz for Morteratsch Glacier and Lago Bianco |
Introduction
[Duration: 3 minutes | Departing Chur]
Welcome aboard the Bernina Express, and welcome to this ch.tours audio guide for the most dramatic altitude change on any railway in the Alps.
Over the next four hours, you will travel from Chur at 585 meters to the Bernina Pass at 2,253 meters, and then descend to Tirano in Italy at just 429 meters. That is a total altitude difference of 1,824 meters -- climbed and descended without the aid of a cogwheel or rack system. The Bernina Express uses adhesion only -- steel wheels on steel rails, relying on friction alone -- making it the steepest adhesion railway in the Alps, with gradients of up to 7 percent.
The route traverses two distinct UNESCO World Heritage railway lines. The first half, from Chur through the Albula Valley to St. Moritz, follows the Albula Line, a masterpiece of early 20th-century railway engineering with its spiral tunnels, soaring viaducts, and the famous Landwasser Viaduct. The second half, from St. Moritz over the Bernina Pass to Tirano, follows the Bernina Line -- an open-air railway that crosses the highest point of any railway in the Alps, passing glaciers, frozen lakes, and alpine tundra before descending through chestnut forests and vineyards to the Italian border.
The Bernina Express uses panoramic carriages with floor-to-ceiling windows. Your seat reservation determines your car, but feel free to move to the vestibule areas between cars for photography -- the views from the open windows (where available) are even more immediate than through glass.
The train is departing Chur. The Albula section begins.
Segment 1: Chur to Thusis -- The Rhine Valley
[Duration: 6 minutes | 0-25 minutes into the journey]
Chur, the capital of the canton of Graubunden, is the oldest city in Switzerland, with archaeological evidence of habitation spanning over 5,000 years. As the train leaves the station, look to the right for a glimpse of the Old Town climbing the hillside toward the Bishop's Court.
The train follows the Hinterrhein (Posterior Rhine) south through the broad Rhine Valley. The valley here is agricultural -- orchards, vineyards, and market gardens line the flat valley floor, while the mountains rise steeply on both sides. The villages of Thusis, Cazis, and Sils im Domleschg pass on the right, and the ruins of multiple medieval castles dot the hilltops -- the Domleschg valley has one of the highest concentrations of castles in Europe, with over 20 castles and ruins within a few kilometers.
At Thusis, the train begins its climb into the Albula Valley, and the engineering spectacle begins.
Segment 2: The Albula Line -- Schin Gorge to Filisur
[Duration: 10 minutes | 25-55 minutes into the journey]
Between Thusis and Tiefencastel, the railway enters the Schin Gorge (Schinschlucht) -- a narrow, shadowy defile where the Albula River has cut through the rock. The train clings to the cliff face, passing through short tunnels and over bridges with drops to the river below. This section sets the tone for what is to come: the railway and the mountain are engaged in a constant negotiation, with the engineers of 1904 finding every possible route through seemingly impossible terrain.
At Tiefencastel, the valley opens briefly, and the medieval church tower is visible on the left. Then the railway climbs toward Filisur, and the most famous moment on the Albula Line arrives.
The Landwasser Viaduct: 65 meters high, 136 meters long, six arches, curving directly into a tunnel mouth in the cliff face. The train emerges from a tunnel, sweeps across the viaduct in a left curve with the Landwasser gorge dropping away beneath you, and plunges into the mountainside on the other side. You have approximately 30 seconds on the bridge. Look down to the left -- the gorge is vertigo-inducing. Look ahead -- the dark circle of the tunnel mouth is rushing toward you.
The Landwasser Viaduct is the symbol of the Rhaetian Railway. It appears on the Swiss 10-franc banknote (issued 2017) and was a key element of the UNESCO inscription in 2008. The limestone arches, slim and elegant against the dark rock, demonstrate that railway engineering at its best is also architecture.
Segment 3: Filisur to St. Moritz -- Spiral Tunnels and the Albula Tunnel
[Duration: 10 minutes | 55-90 minutes into the journey]
After Filisur, the railway enters its most technically complex section -- the spiral tunnels at Berguen/Bravuogn. The challenge facing the engineers was immense: the railway needed to climb over 400 meters from Berguen (1,373 m) to the Albula Tunnel portal (1,820 m) in a valley too short and steep for a conventional route. The solution was to build three spiral tunnels and three open loops, creating a route that spirals up the mountainside, crossing over its own track at multiple points.
If you look out the window during this section, you will see the valley from at least three different elevations. The village of Berguen appears below you, then beside you, then far below again as the train spirals upward. The experience is disorienting and thrilling.
The Albula Tunnel, at 5,866 meters long and 1,820 meters altitude, takes you through the mountain and into the Upper Engadin. The change is immediate: the dark, forested Albula gorge gives way to the broad, sunlit Engadin valley, one of the highest inhabited valleys in Europe. The light here is extraordinary -- clear, intense, and golden.
The Engadin lakes -- Lej da Champfer and the St. Moritz lake -- appear on the right, reflecting the peaks of the Bernina range. The train arrives at St. Moritz, where many passengers alight. But the Bernina Express continues -- and the second half of the journey, over the Bernina Pass, is about to begin.
Segment 4: St. Moritz to Morteratsch -- The Bernina Climb
[Duration: 10 minutes | 90-130 minutes into the journey]
Leaving St. Moritz, the train turns south and begins climbing toward the Bernina Pass. The landscape changes rapidly. The elegant resort town gives way to the raw, high-alpine terrain of the Bernina range.
On the right side, the first major feature is the Morteratsch Glacier -- one of the most accessible and visually impressive glaciers in the Alps. The glacier flows down from the Bernina massif in a broad tongue of ice, and a clearly marked retreat path (with dated markers) shows how dramatically the glacier has receded over the past century. In 1878, the glacier reached almost to the valley floor. Today, it has retreated by approximately 3 kilometers. The dated posts along the valley floor make the retreat viscerally real -- each decade marked, the distance between them growing.
Piz Bernina (4,049 m), the highest peak in the Eastern Alps, is visible above the glacier on a clear day. Its summit marks the boundary between Switzerland and Italy, and it is the only 4,000-meter peak in the Eastern Alps. The Biancograt -- the "white ridge" -- which forms the summit approach, is one of the most beautiful and coveted climbs in the Alps, a narrow ice ridge that catches the morning sun.
The Morteratsch station sits at 1,896 meters, and from here the train continues climbing through increasingly alpine terrain. Stands of Swiss stone pine (Arve) -- the tree that produces pine nuts and the fragrant Arvenholz wood used in Swiss bedrooms -- thin as the altitude increases.
Segment 5: The Bernina Pass -- Lago Bianco and Ospizio Bernina
[Duration: 10 minutes | 130-170 minutes into the journey]
The train is now above the treeline, climbing through a landscape of rock, snow patches, and alpine tundra. The air outside is thin and cold even in summer -- you are approaching the highest point of the journey.
At Bernina Suot (2,046 m), look to both sides. The landscape is austere and magnificent -- bare mountains, small tarns, and the vast sky of the high Alps. The railway track is exposed and windswept, and in winter this section can be buried under meters of snow, requiring constant clearance by rotary snowplows.
The summit station is Ospizio Bernina, at 2,253 meters -- the highest railway station on the Bernina Line and the highest adhesion-only railway crossing in the Alps. As the train pauses here, look to the right. The Lago Bianco (White Lake) stretches along the right side of the track, its surface often partially frozen even in early summer. The lake is dammed at both ends, and its water is divided by the continental divide: the water flowing north reaches the Danube and the Black Sea via the Inn River; the water flowing south reaches the Po River and the Adriatic Sea. You are sitting on the rooftop of two river systems.
The Lago Bianco is a striking sight -- a milky turquoise lake surrounded by bare rock and snow, with the railway running along one shore. The "white" in its name refers to the glacial sediment that gives the water its pale, opalescent color.
On the left side, look for the smaller Lej Nair (Black Lake) -- darker in color because it lacks glacial input. The contrast between the two lakes, just meters apart but visually opposite, is a neat illustration of how glacial flour affects water color.
Segment 6: The Descent -- Alp Grum and the Poschiavo Valley
[Duration: 10 minutes | 170-210 minutes into the journey]
From Ospizio Bernina, the train begins its long, steep descent toward Italy. The gradient is relentless -- up to 7 percent -- and the train uses regenerative braking to control its speed, feeding energy back into the overhead wires.
The first stop is Alp Grum, at 2,091 meters, and this is one of the most spectacular viewpoints on any railway in Europe. The station sits on a ledge overlooking a vast drop to the Poschiavo valley far below. On the right side, look down: the Lago di Poschiavo -- a deep blue lake over 1,000 meters below you -- is visible at the bottom of the valley, with the town of Poschiavo clustered at its shore. Behind and above the lake, the Valposchiavo stretches south toward Italy, and on clear days you can see the haze of the Po Plain in the far distance.
The descent from Alp Grum to Poschiavo is one of the most remarkable sections of mountain railway in the world. The train drops over 1,000 meters in a series of loops, spirals, and switchbacks, curving through hairpin turns that give you alternating views of the valley ahead and the mountains behind. At the Cavaglia station, the train passes a series of glacier mills -- potholes in the rock carved by glacial meltwater -- that are among the finest examples in the Alps.
The vegetation changes with astonishing speed as the train descends. At Alp Grum, the landscape is bare rock and alpine scrub. By Cavaglia, low conifers appear. At Poschiavo, you are in a Mediterranean-influenced valley with chestnut trees, vineyards, and stone-built Italianate villages.
Segment 7: Poschiavo to Tirano -- The Italian Descent
[Duration: 10 minutes | 210-250 minutes into the journey]
Poschiavo is a charming Italianate town of about 3,500 at the floor of the valley, with a piazza, a campanile, and colorful facades that could belong to a town in Lombardy. Indeed, the Poschiavo valley (Puschlav in German) is Italian-speaking, and its culture, architecture, and cuisine are profoundly Italian, despite being part of the Swiss canton of Graubunden.
After Poschiavo, the train runs alongside the Lago di Poschiavo -- a 2-kilometer-long lake whose dark blue water reflects the surrounding mountains. Then comes the final, most dramatic section of the descent.
Between Le Prese and Brusio, the train descends through vineyards and chestnut forests, and the gradient steepens. To manage the descent, the railway engineers built the Brusio Spiral Viaduct -- a circular stone bridge where the train loops 360 degrees, crossing over its own track, to lose altitude in a space too confined for a conventional route. The viaduct, built in 1908, is one of the most distinctive structures on the Bernina Line. From inside the train, you can see the front or rear of the train curving away around the circle. From outside, the sight of a train performing a full loop on a curved stone bridge in the middle of a vineyard is surreal.
The valley continues to widen and warm. The Mediterranean influence is now unmistakable -- olive trees, grapevines, fig trees, and the scent of warm stone. The border between Switzerland and Italy passes with minimal ceremony, and the train enters the Italian town of Tirano.
Segment 8: Arrival in Tirano
[Duration: 4 minutes | Final approach]
Tirano is a small Italian town of about 9,000 in the Valtellina, Lombardy's northernmost valley. The town's most prominent landmark -- the Sanctuary of the Madonna di Tirano, a Renaissance church with an elaborate facade -- is visible on the right as the train approaches the station.
The Bernina Express arrives at the Tirano RhB station, which sits adjacent to the Italian state railway (Trenitalia) station. From here, you can continue by Italian regional train to Milan (approximately 2.5 hours) or explore Tirano's pleasant center, which has an Italian market-town atmosphere entirely different from anything in Switzerland.
You have descended from 2,253 meters to 429 meters -- a drop of 1,824 meters -- and in doing so, you have traveled from the frozen tundra of the Bernina Pass to the sunny vineyards of Lombardy. The temperature difference can be 15 to 20 degrees Celsius. The cultural difference is equally dramatic -- from Romansh-speaking, Protestant Engadin to Italian-speaking, Catholic Valtellina, all within four hours.
Closing
[Duration: 3 minutes]
The Bernina Express is not just a train ride. It is a condensed crossing of the Alps -- from north to south, from Germanic to Latin, from snowfield to vineyard, from 585 meters to 2,253 meters and back down to 429 meters. No other railway in Europe packs so much altitude change, so many climate zones, and so much engineering virtuosity into a single journey.
The UNESCO inscription recognized both the Albula and Bernina lines as outstanding examples of railway engineering that harmonize with the mountain landscape rather than conquering it. The railway does not flatten the terrain or blast through every obstacle. It spirals, loops, curves, and adapts, finding a path through the mountains that respects their scale while demonstrating human ingenuity at its finest.
If you are returning to Switzerland, the Bernina Express bus connects Tirano to Lugano in about 3 hours, offering views of Lake Como along the way. Alternatively, retrace the route by regular RhB train (no reservation needed, same views) at your own pace.
ch.tours offers audio guides for the Glacier Express, the GoldenPass Express, and many more Swiss scenic routes. The Bernina Express connects naturally to the Glacier Express via St. Moritz -- together, they form the ultimate Swiss rail journey.
Thank you for crossing the Alps with us today. The Bernina Pass is behind you. Italy is at your feet.
Source: ch.tours | Audio Guide Script | Last updated: March 2026 | Data from RhB (rhb.ch), Bernina Express (berninaexpress.ch), MySwitzerland.com, SBB (sbb.ch), Swisstopo, UNESCO (whc.unesco.org)