History

The Rhaetian Railway was built by the canton of Graubünden (Grisons) to connect its isolated mountain communities to the Swiss railway network. The challenge was extraordinary: the Alps presented gradients and altitudes that conventional railways could not handle, yet the engineers were constrained by the requirement for rack-free operation (meaning the locomotive could not grip a central toothed rail for extra traction) to keep speeds and operating costs manageable.

The Albula Line, built between 1899 and 1904 under chief engineer Friedrich Hennings, solved the altitude problem through geometry: spiral tunnels bored into the mountainside allow the train to gain height by spiralling upward inside the rock. At Bergün, three consecutive spiral loops lift the line 416 metres over just 15 km of track. The Albula Tunnel (5.9 km) was the highest Alpine main-line tunnel at its opening and required extraordinary construction effort at altitude.

The Bernina Line (1910) was even more audacious: it crosses the Bernina Pass at 2,253 metres without any rack mechanism, descending 1,800 metres in 61 kilometres through 55 tunnels and 196 bridges. The Brusio Circular Viaduct — a stone spiral viaduct that loops around itself to lose height — became one of the most photographed railway structures in the world.

Both lines were electrified early (Bernina from opening in 1910, Albula in 1919), making them among the world’s first electrified mountain railways. The Glacier Express tourist train began running in 1930, connecting the Albula to the Matterhorn region via one of Europe’s great scenic rail journeys.