Bernina Express (Switzerland)

The Bernina Express is operated by the Rhätische Bahn (RhB)/ Rhaetian Railway which operates a network of routes in south-east Switzerland.
One of the RhB routes is the Albula railway which links Chur with St Moritz - and the other special train service which calls in Chur, the the Glacier Express, uses this railway at the beginning or end of its journey to and from St Moritz.

Another RhB route is the Bernina railway which travels between St Moritz and Tirano, which is located over the border in Italy - the Bernina Express lives up to its name by using the Bernina Railway, but the Glacier Express doesn't take this route.

The Rhätische Bahn also has a railway which in effect by passes St Moritz and links the Albula and Bernina Railways, so a very special aspect of the Bernina Express experience, is that it uses this other railway to travel direct between Chur and Tirano.

In the summer season, which is usually from the second Saturday in May to the final Sunday in October, because the Bernina railway is so wonderful, there are also two Bernina Express services per day which take a St Moritz ↔ Tirano route.

During the summer season there is also an additional second train of the day in each direction on the Chur ↔ Tirano route

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 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

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: Though 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, you can now book tickets + reservations together up to 6 months ahead of the travel date.
So you can secure your place(s) in the Panorama cars from 7 to 12 months ahead of travel and then either book a journey ticket online from 6 months ahead, or book 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 booking the ticket + reservation 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 will get to 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. 1 = limited availability, 4 = 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.

Note 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 actually 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.
Instead the 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 that despite this journey being looked up around 4 months ahead, all of these types of seats had 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.

The videos were captured when travelling in the opposite direction from Tirano to Chur on an ordinary train.

The highlights of the northern part of the Albula Railway between Chur and Filisur include, the River Rhine between Chur and Reichenau-Tamins, the the Lake Alora north of Tiefencastel and the views looking down on that village and the village named Surava.

Though the ultimate wow moment on this part of the trip is the valley to the north of the Landwasser Viaduct.
The train will rush into a tunnel on the other side of the viaduct when heading south, or burst out of it when heading north.

The spectacular Landwasser Viaduct is a moth to a flame for photographers and as can be seen, ShowMeTheJourney is no exception!

The two highlights of the part of the journey between Filisur and Samedan are a result of the railway using spiraling loops cut into the mountain side to gain height, as the trains ascend or descend there are spectacular views looking back down the valley.
These spirals are located just to the south of Filisur station...

....and between Bergun station and Preda station, to the north of the Albula Tunnel.

The route also taken by St Moritz <> Tirano trains

As you head south from 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.

Good to know:

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 to be seen at all; so quite the wow moment, but sadly not guaranteed on every journey!

The year round Bernina Express on the Chur to Tirano route typically departs from Chur station shortly before 08:30.
A connecting train typically departs from Zurich shortly before 06:40.
The effort to make this early morning departure is rewarded by being able to make a return journey back to Chur on the Bernina Express - and the connecting train on from Chur will arrive in Zurich before 20:00.

Though in the summer season, which is usually from the second Saturday in May to the final Sunday in October, a second Bernina Express train to Tirano departs from Chur shortly after 13:30.
Connecting trains depart from Bern at around 09:35 and from Zurich after 11:30.
Though this later train arrives in Tirano too late to make a return journey back to Chur, though it's possible to return from Poschiavo on the regular trains
So a return day trip to Poschiavo is possible from Zurich if you depart at around 11:30 - and then return by connecting in Pontresina, Samedan and Chur.

It's also to possible to take a journey from Zurich to Milan and to travel on the Bernina Express.

Year round the schedule is:

1. Depart from Zurich at 06:40
2. Take the Bernina Express to Tirano
3. After a connection in Tirano of around 15 mins, arrive into Milano Centrale at 15:40.

During the summer season the additional option is:

1. Depart from Zurich shortly after 11:30
2. Take the Bernina Express to Tirano
3. After a connection in Tirano of under 10 mins, arrive into Milano Centrale at 20:40.

The year round Bernina Express on the Tirano to Chur route typically departs from Tirano station shortly before 14:25.
A train from Milano Centrale, typically departs at around 10:20 and arrives in Tirano around two hours prior to the departure of the Bernina Express.
Year round its possible to make the journey from Milano to Zurich on this combination of trains:

1. Depart Milano Centrale at 10:20
2. Ride the Bernina Express which departs Tirano shortly before 14:25.
3. Connect in Chur into a train on to Zurich which arrives there before 20:00.

Day trips from Milano

It isn't possible to make a day trip from Milano which includes a return trip to Chur from Tirano by the Bernina Express.
Though in the summer season, which is usually from the second Saturday in May to the final Sunday in October it's typically possible to:

• Depart Milano at 06:20
• Just eight minutes after arrival into Tirano, so this connection is not guaranteed, it's possible to arrive in Chur at around 13:00 by taking regular trains and connecting in Pontresina and Samedan
• Board the Bernina Express which will depart Chur shortly after 13:30
• Arrive back in Tirano at around 18:00 for a nine minute connection into a train which will be scheduled to arrive in Milano Centrale at around 20:40.

Though in the summer season it's possible to make a return day trip from Milano and ride the Bernina Express in both directions between Tirano and St Moritz.
The connecting trains typically depart from Milano Centrale at 10:20 and arrive back there at 21:40