Rhaetian Railway in the Albula / Bernina Landscapes
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How it came to be
Until about 1890 south-eastern Switzerland had almost no railways, and the spa of St. Moritz was a 14-hour stagecoach ride from Chur. On 30 June 1898 the Federal Assembly decided to build the Albula line, and work began the same year.
Between Bergun and Preda the valley rises more than 400 m within 5 km as the crow flies. The project supervisor Friedrich Hennings wound the track like the thread of a screw through spiral tunnels and over bridges, adding 12 km to keep the gradient within 3.5 percent. The Albula line reached St. Moritz in 1904, about 67 km with 42 tunnels and galleries and 144 viaducts and bridges.
The Bernina line was built to serve hydroelectric plants on the south side of the pass and to bring in tourists, and opened throughout from St. Moritz to Tirano in Italy on 5 July 1910. It was electric from the start and climbs gradients of up to 7 percent without a rack. In 2008 the two lines and their landscapes were inscribed as a property shared by Switzerland and Italy.
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