Railing against it: Onwards and up on the Glacier Express, Switzerland's great railway

By MICHAEL BAILEY

Sweeping: The Landwasser Viaduct is one of Europe's great feats of rail engineering


You can understand why trains are held in such great affection by the Swiss. Until the middle of the 19th Century (when Britain provided the world with the gift of rail travel), moving from one part of Switzerland to the next was likely to be a lengthy, disagreeable business of trailing up and down vertiginous mountains.

The new age of the train heralded huge progress for Switzerland, and they've never forgotten it.

So while in other countries train lines have withered and died, I can't recall ever seeing an abandoned rail track in Switzerland. Here the railway proliferates in all its forms: from rack-and-pinion mountain crawler to lavish inter-city.

It's absolute heaven for trainspotters, who take particular pleasure in the superlative time-keeping of Swiss trains. No wrong type of snow or leaves on the line here, and never a preceding slow train to hold you up.

But you don't have to be a train nerd to be swept off your feet by the charms of Switzerland's Glacier Express - not just the most popular train ride in Switzerland but arguably the best anywhere on the planet.

Billed as 'the slowest express train in the world', the service travels between St Moritz and Zermatt, a seven-and-a-half-hour ride up into the clouds, through untouched Alpine countryside, over roaring mountain streams, past towering walls of rock. It crosses 291 bridges and chugs through 91 tunnels.

The journey's ultimate wow moment comes at the Landwasser Viaduct, near Filisur in south-east Switzerland, when the train crosses the narrow Landwasser river that runs down from Davos.


Panoramic: The Glacier Express offers a sensational view of the surrounding scenery


Whenever and wherever you travel by rail in Switzerland, you gasp in amazement at the achievements of its Victorian engineers. But the Landwasser Viaduct, opened in 1904, is particularly amazing.

Astonishingly, it took just 14 months to construct: it stands 130ft high and 426ft long and comprises six arches of dark limestone. The single track runs in a line shaped like a quarter-circle with a 324ft radius before plunging into an opening in a huge rock face and entering a 700ftlong tunnel.

The details of its construction are extraordinary. There was no large scaffolding in the traditional manner: a metal tower was built within three taller piers, each equipped with a bridge crane. The towers rose as construction proceeded upwards, until the arches could be built by putting up wooden scaffolding on them. The first and last arches are anchored by strong abutments to the rock face on either side of the gorge.

You could satisfy your Glacier Express craving in one intense day-long burst but you would be better advised to drink this rich rail cocktail down in enjoyably gentle sips.


Train holiday specialist Great Rail Journeys has created an easy-paced, eight-day Glacier Express itinerary that involves days on the train and evenings at hotels along the route. The trip includes rail travel to Switzerland from London's St Pancras International by Eurostar via Brussels and Thalys service to Cologne.

After an overnight stay in Cologne, the journey continues along the Rhine Gorge into Switzerland for three nights in Chur. The price of the holiday includes a Swiss Pass which allows you to make the scenic train journey on the Arosa Express.

You can also take the narrow-gauge Bernina Express from Chur over viaducts and bridges into the Engadine Valley before climbing even higher over the Bernina Pass to more than 7,000ft.

On day five you leave Chur on the Glacier Express narrow-gauge train to Andermatt and make your way down the Rhone Valley to Brig, where you have a three-night stay at the Hotel Victoria.

The following day is the mountain railway ride to Zermatt, a pretty, car-free alpine town overlooked by the Matterhorn.

The next day is at leisure when you can again use your Swiss Travel Pass to explore, so why not go along the Rhone Valley to Montreux, where you can enjoy a cruise on Lake Geneva, or join the GoldenPass Line panoramic train for the journey over the Golden Pass to Spiez?


In training: A rail pass will take you all around Switzerland - including to outposts such as the city of Brig


On the final day, you return home to London via Geneva where you join the direct TGV to Paris and the Eurostar back to St Pancras International.

Travel Facts
Great Rail Journeys (01904 521980, www.greatrail.com/Alps) offers an eight-day Glacier Express holiday from £978pp.


source: dailymail