The Albula line, the Glacier Express stretch on an ordinary ticket.

The full Glacier Express, from St. Moritz to Zermatt, is a whole day sitting down. If it's the spectacular part you want, do the Albula on a regional train and save yourself the day.

What it is

The Albula line is the Rhätische Bahn section between Thusis and St. Moritz: 61.7 km of narrow-gauge track that crosses the Albula Pass with a chain of spiral tunnels, stone viaducts and tight curves, with no cogwheel and gradients of up to 35 per thousand. Its highest point, at 1,821 m, lies inside the Albula tunnel, almost 5.9 km long. Since 7 July 2008 it has been a World Heritage Site together with the Bernina line, as an example of how a mountain railway blends into the landscape.

For you it means you can do the most spectacular stretch of the Glacier Express route on a regional train, with an ordinary ticket, and get off wherever you like.

What you see from the window

• The Albula tunnel, between Spinas and Preda, beneath the pass.
• The spiral tunnels between Preda and Bergün: the train loops inside the mountain and comes out again above itself to lose height. From the window you see the same Bergün bell tower appear at different heights and from different sides.
• Bergün, a village of painted Engadine houses, with the Bahnmuseum Albula, the line's railway museum, beside the station.
• The Landwasser Viaduct, just before Filisur: 142 m long and 65 m high, on a curve, with the last arch resting on the rock wall, where the track goes straight into a tunnel.

Tickets

On the regional train any ordinary Rhätische Bahn ticket is valid, and the Swiss Travel Pass covers it entirely; no reservation is needed. On the Glacier Express, the ticket is also covered by the Swiss Travel Pass, but the seat reservation, at CHF 54, is compulsory for any stretch.

On foot beside the track

Between Preda and Bergün runs the Bahnhistorischer Lehrpfad, a railway trail with panels that follows the track and the points from which you can see the spiral tunnels from outside. It is a good way to combine the journey with a downhill walk: get off at Preda, walk to Bergün and carry on on the next train.

With children and when to go

It is a journey that works at any age: children press against the window in the spiral tunnels, trying to guess where the train will come out. All year round: in summer with green meadows, in autumn with yellow larches and in winter with snow, when the Bergün valley looks whitest. On foggy days in the valley bottom, though, you miss a lot.

Round off the day with the other World Heritage train, the Bernina line, which leaves from the same St. Moritz station for Italy.