Swiss Highlights
Hand-colored glass-plate photograph, 1942: a woman in a 1940s dress and hat stands at the edge of a narrow path cut into the rock, at the bend of a gorge, one hand resting on the wall; below, a foaming turquoise torrent rushes between the rocks; larches and firs frame the scene on either side, with a patch of blue sky visible in the upper left.

Scenic trains and routes

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4 member places · BE, GR, UR, VD, VS

Deterministic criterion: place type railway line or route in golden-set.json.

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Bisse du RoGlacier ExpressGoldenPass ExpressBernina Railway
Interactive map — schematic view of Switzerland.
Hand-colored glass-plate photograph, 1942: a woman in a 1940s dress and hat stands at the edge of a narrow path cut into the rock, at the bend of a gorge, one hand resting on the wall; below, a foaming turquoise torrent rushes between the rocks; larches and firs frame the scene on either side, with a patch of blue sky visible in the upper left.

Historic bisse · Crans-Montana

Bisse du Ro

Modified in 1925 to compensate for low stream flow, the Bisse du Ro was abandoned in 1947. Reopened as a trail and partly refilled with water in 2015, its route crosses cliffs secured, on the second half, only by a handrail.

A red and white Glacier Express train, its panoramic cars broadly glazed, curves along the stone arches of the Landwasser Viaduct and is about to head straight into the tunnel cut directly into the limestone wall; opposite, a slope of dark conifers descends to the bottom of the ravine, and the track the train has just left can be made out below to the left.

Railway line · Valais–Graubünden

Glacier Express

The train crosses 291 bridges and 91 tunnels over 291 kilometres of metre-gauge track, climbs to the Oberalp Pass at 2,033 metres and drops again to Chur, at 585 metres, its lowest point.

At the platform in Zweisimmen station, the GoldenPass Express train shows off its rounded midnight-blue nose and cream body outlined with a golden stripe, with wide windows running its full length. On the left, a wooden chalet with green shutters bears the station's name; behind the train, mown meadows and woods rise toward the ridges of the Simmental under a summer sky with cumulus clouds.

Railway line · Vaud–Bern

GoldenPass Express

Between Lake Geneva and the Bernese Oberland the train moves from 1,000-millimetre track to 1,435: the wheels spread apart and the body adjusts to platforms that rise from 300 to 560 millimetres.

A red Rhaetian Railway train, seen from above, negotiates the loop of the Brusio spiral viaduct: the superimposed stone arches carry the track on two levels between green meadows and groves with golden autumn foliage.

Graubünden · UNESCO World Heritage

Bernina Railway

From St. Moritz to Tirano, 60.688 metre-gauge kilometres cross the Bernina Pass at 2,253 metres. No rack rail: adhesion alone, on gradients reaching 7%.