Travelling on The Bernina Express

1: Like the Glacier Express, the Bernina Express uses special panorama coaches with extra large windows to make the most of the spectacular views.
Though the newer RhB regular 'red' trains between St Moritz and Tirano also have large windows, bigger than those on the older regular trains.

2: Regular coaches, which are cheaper because they don't have the mandatory reservation fees required for travel in the panorama cars, are also available on all Bernina Express departures.

3: In the Panorama and Regular coaches both first and second class is available, in first class the seats are larger, they have more leg room and are arranged 2 + 1 across the aisle instead of 2 + 2.
So parties of two people can avoid having people occupying the seat next to them.
Note that there is no catering included with first class tickets.

4: Seats in the Panorama coaches must be reserved and these reservations can now be booked up to twelve months ahead - See the info below on how to book reservations and tickets.
You have to choose specific seats on a seating plan, though you won't know whether window seats will be looking out on views to the left or right during the journey.

5: If you want to travel on a specific departure, note that seats in the panorama cars, particularly by the windows, can be fully booked months ahead of a travel date.

6: If you have a valid Eurail, Interrail or Swiss Travel Pass, or Saver Day Pass you can board into the Regular coaches/cars which don't require a reservation.
OR you can travel in the Panorama cars on The Bernina Express by only paying the reservation fee.
Though the reservations fees when using Eurail / Interrail passes vary according to the time of year:

7: If you don't have a rail pass and want to travel in the Panorama cars, you can now book tickets + reservations together up to 6 months ahead of the travel date - this is a recent change.

8: Or you can now book a reservation(s), to secure your place in the Panorama cars, from 7 to 12 months ahead of travel and then book a journey ticket online from 6 months ahead.
Though the journey tickets won't sell out, so you don't have to rush into booking that part of the trip.

9: So another option is to book the reservation for the Panorama cars online and then buy your ticket(s) at the station, just prior to boarding.

10: Or if you have already booked tickets for the route / journey and then decide that you want to travel in the Panorama cars, you can book go back to the website and book separate reservations.

11: Reservations are not possible in the ordinary coaches; Though a benefit of travelling 1st class in these coaches is that they tend to be much less busy than 2nd class.

12: You don’t have to take the Bernina Express to travel by train in either direction between Chur and Tirano.
Regular RhB 'Red trains' operate on all parts of the route.
However, to make the Chur to Tirano journey by the other trains, connections have to be made in both Samedan and Pontresina - though the transfers couldn’t be more straight forward.

How tickets and reservations can be purchased to travel by the Bernina Express has recently been switched up, as the company which operates the train, the Rhaetian Railway / Rhätische Bahn, has altered its online booking path.

The big change is that seat reservations for places in the Panorama cars / coaches can now be booked up to twelve months ahead!

What hasn't changed is that holders of valid rail passes, including Eurail and Interrail passes, only have to book reservations.

If you don't have a rail pass and want to travel in the Panorama cars, the options are:

• Book reservations in the Panorama cars online from 7 to 12 months ahead of travel - see below on how to do this + book journey / travel tickets online up to 6 months ahead of the day on which you have reserved your seats; The journey tickets can also be booked on the SBB website.
• Book the reservations and tickets together online up to 6 months ahead - see below on how to do this.
• Book the reservations in the Panorama cars online up to 12 months - see below on how to do this + book journey / travel tickets at the station prior to boarding.

The reservations can become fully booked months ahead, but the journey tickets won't sell out, so you don't have to rush into booking that part of the trip.

When accessing the part of the Rhaetian Railway website which is dedicated to the Bernina Express on a PC or tablet, it's likely that you'll need to scroll down to access the ticket booking.

What has been pointed out above is:
1 and 2. - The from and to stations are on drop down menus, the Bernina Express takes two routes Chur ↔ Tirano, the longer route, and St Moritz ↔ Tirano,
3. - Ignore this symbol, you don't have to book return tickets, The opportunity to add a return comes further along the booking path, along with the opportunities to select 1st and 2nd class, plus adding additional people to the booking.
4. - Use the calendar to choose your travel day; the default will be today.
5. - The text here reads 'Bookings can be made up to 365 Days in advance' but this time period only applies to the booking of the reservations.
Tickets can be booked up to 6 months ahead, so if you will be booking less than 6 months ahead you will in effect be purchasing the ticket(s) + reservation(s) together.
Book 7 to 12 months ahead and you can can only purchase a reservation(s).

The arrow has been added to the screenshot, because what won't be obvious is that there is a weight of useful info below this ticket booking area.

If you go down the page below the ticket box, what you can access includes:

1. You can check the ticket prices before you proceed down the booking path - As shown below, there are several steps to take down the booking path before you'll see the ticket price.
2. You can find out more about how the reservations work.
3. Take a look at the timetable to check if the timings of the Bernina Express trains can be accommodated into your itinerary, in Winter there will be only 1 x train in each direction per day.
   Though what's been circled is that you may need to check the dates on which the current timetable is valid for.

Having clicked on 'Find a Connection' on the ticket booking window, you will be given the opportunity to choose the train you'll want to travel by.
Though as can be seen, because the enhanced views from the windows are core to taking the Bernina Express, this stage of the booking gives an an opportunity to assess how likely it will be that you can experience them.

Hence what has been pointed out is:

1. The number of green circles indicates how many seats are still available on each day; No circles = sold out, One = limited availability, Four = excellent choice of seats etc. As can be seen you can easily switch the booking to a different day / time if there is more availability on alternative days to your first choice.
2. What the arrow indicates is that the info you'll see below, correlates to that departure day.
3. This 'Show Details' link gives access to more info about the route taken by the train, it doesn't give additional info about the reservations.
4. This is particularly crucial info, as it is showing how many seats are still available for selection in 1st and 2nd class.

Not that the journey was being looked up around 4 months in advance, but despite that, only 11 seats were still available in 1st class on this train.
Also despite the three green lights indicating good availability, there are actually less than 40 seats available for selection on this entire train.

Around a third of the seats in 1st class and around half of the seats in 2nd class are not window seats; So the number of seats shown on this screen doesn't indicate that window seats will still be available on this train.

As will be seen above, if you look up a journey less than a 6 months ahead, you will see a 'Buy a ticket' button, but if you will using the service from 7 to 12 months ahead, you will only be able to purchase reservations - hence the button will read 'Buy a seat reservation'.
The steps to solely booking the reservation are the same as when purchasing the tickets and reservations together.

Having clicked on 'Buy a Ticket' you will see;

1. That booking a one-way / single ticket is the default.
2. But this is the opportunity to book a return / two-way ticket.
3. The button reads 'Choose seats' because selecting specific seats on the train is integral to making a booking on the Bernina Express.

What has been pointed out above is;

1. You need to choose your seats, before
2. Adding the passenger details.

You don't add other passengers to the booking before you choose the seats for all members of the party.
Additional travellers are added to the booking by selecting more than one seat on the plan.

This is the stage of the booking when you can opt to book 1st or 2nd class tickets / reservations.

1. 1st class will be the default and the seating plan that will be initially shown will be for a 1st class coach.
2. However, if you want to travel in 2nd class, you will need to click here, so that you can then access a seating plan for 2nd class coaches.

As can be seen on the screenshot, plans were available for only one coach in both 1st and 2nd class.
I wasn't given an opportunity to look through the train, to have a look at the availability in other coaches.

What the arrow, that's been added to the screenshot, is indicating, is that you may need to scroll down to access the seats.

On this example of a 1st class seating plan, what has been pointed out is;

1. If you will be travelling solo or in a pair, these single seats are the ultimate travel experience, they're all by the windows and nobody will be sat beside you. Though note despite this journey being looked up around 4 months ahead, all of these types of seats have already been claimed!
2. This group of 4 seats is facing each other, as indicated by the seat backs.
3. Note that there is no direction of travel arrow, so it isn't possible to book seats on the left or right-hand sides of the train.
4. Click here to move on to the next stage of the booking path.

You will then be asked to add the name(s) and other details for each passenger, then after this step, you will at the stage when a discount - including whether you will be travelling with a rail pass can be added to the booking.

1. The name etc have been erased for privacy purposes, but you will see the details you have entered here
2. As will be seen below, if you won't be travelling with a pass and don't meet the criteria* for a discount, you still need to make a selection here - Note that can different discounts can be applied to each traveller.
3. Don't click this if you only need a reservation because you will be travelling with a rail pass - instead you will need to select a discount.
4. This is how to move on to the next step of the booking, despite the somewhat odd labelling

*= Discounts include the prices for children.

What has been pointed out above, is that the default is that you (and the other members of your travel party) will be travelling with Half Fare cards.
So if you don't have one, you will need to proactively select 'No Discount'.
If need be, click on 'No Discount' if none of the other discounts / cards apply to you - a selection has to be made on this page in order to complete a booking,

This is the opportunity to check what you have selected pre-payment and to check its price!

1. Note that the price of making the journey is being shown here - Prior to this stage, the price shown has solely been the price of the seat reservation(s)!
2. This journey has been looked up less than 6 months ahead of travel, so a journey ticket has automatically added to the booking, hence a total cost being shown here for a reservation + a journey ticket. However, if you will be travelling with a rail pass, all you will see here is the price of the reservation, because you don't need a ticket.
3. You can add other tickets / journeys pre-payment.
4. This is the opportunity to check what you have booked, but note that you cannot access the terms and conditions on these booking pages - instead you can find them here in the FAQs section of the website! Though the key piece of info to be aware of, is that tickets can be refunded up to one day before the journey with an administration fee of CHF 10.00
5. Check that you have made the correct selection per traveller before you proceed to payment.

This video was taken from a train travelling from Tirano to St Moritz and it showcases the weather extremes, which can be experienced on this trip.

The section of the route through the Bernina Pass had experienced a heavy snow fall on the previous day, but just a five minute train ride away to the south of the pass, there was no snow at ground level to be seen at all; Quite the wow moment, but sadly not guaranteed on every journey!

What makes this train ride so special is that each part of the journey has distinct highlights.

The videos were captured when travelling in the opposite direction from Tirano to St Moritz.

As you head south from St Moritz and Pontresina, the best of the journey will be ahead of you
The train ride as far as Bernina Suot station is delightful, but it doesn’t have the wow factor of the second phase of this part of the journey between there and on to Alp-Grum station.

Between those two stations the trains travel through the stunning Bernina Pass, which due to its elevation and lack of vegetation, has an other-worldly quality in the height of summer....

... but a snow covered landscape is pretty-much guaranteed between November and April.

As the train traverses the Bernina Pass, it passes by some small lakes, these can be seen on the right when heading south, so are on the left when travelling north from Tirano; the snowy scenes were captured by SMTJ on the second weekend in May.

The third phase of the journey comes when the train exits the pass just to the north of Alp-Grum station the on-board commentary available on all of the trains which follow this route, will point out the view of the glacier on the other side of Lago Palu.

The fourth phase of a southbound journey commences at Cavaglia station, between there and Poschiavo station the railway loops like a snake on the mountain side; and on this part of the route, at the top of this summit, there are second-to-none views from a train to revel in.

Because the railway loops across the mountain side, so that the trains can descend and ascend between Cavaglia and Poschiavo, there are incredible views back down the valley, from both sides of the train.

The highlight of the fifth phase of the journey between Poschiavo and Miralago station, are the beautiful views of the lake, the Lago di Poschiavo, along with the river to the south Poschiavo station, they are both on the left when heading south towards Tirano; so are on the right when heading north.

Between Miralago and Tirano the railway follows a valley and here the best of the views switch to the right when travelling south.

At the foot of this valley, just to the north of Tirano is the uniquely fabulous Brusio Spiral Viaduct.

The Bernina Express timetable is arranged so that the year round daily options, along the full route Chur <> Tirano route, are

• Depart Chur at around 08:15 to 08:30* and arrive back in Chur at around 18:15 to 18:30; with the return train departing Tirano at around 14:15 to 14:30
• Depart Tirano at 08:10 to 08:25 and arrive back in Tirano at 17:45 to 18:10; with the return train departing Chur at around 13:30.

*= The timetable can alter from year to year and between summer and winter, so these loose timings have been included to give an indication of when the trains will depart.

If you want to make a return day trip solely by the Bernina Express the going is easier if you spend the previous night in either Chur or Triano.
Though a daily IC express train typically departs from Zurich after 06:30 and arrives in Chur before 08:00.
Also in on Monday to Friday there is typically an easily timed connection from a slower IR service, though it usually leaves Bern before 04:40, from Olten before 05:30 and from Zurich before 06:15.

In the other direction, the morning departure to Chur leaves Tirano before the arrival of the first train of the day from Colico and Milano.

Also good to know that if you take the afternoon Bernina Express from Chur, it will arrive in Tirano after the departure of the final connections by regular train back to Chur.
Similarly if you take the afternoon departure from Tirano, you won't be able to return later that day.

If you won't be staying in Chur and also want to avoid having to be there in time to take the morning departure, an option is to take the afternoon Bernina Express to Poschiavo and then head back to Chur by regular trains.
The connections from Poschiavo will have you back in Chur in time for an IR train service on to Zurich.
The journey from Chur to Poschiavo will take a little under three hours.

If you will be staying in Milano you can usually depart from Centrale station at around 11:20 on a train to Tirano
You can then take the afternoon Bernina Express as far as Pontresina, on a journey which will take around two hours.
A regular train from Pontresina will arrive back in Tirano in time for a connection back to Millano.