About this journey

Arosa station sits at the upper end of the Chur–Arosa railway, a metre-gauge line spanning 25.681 km that descends 1,155 m to the Graubünden capital below. That final approach to the station passes through a 299 m tunnel bored under part of the resort before the terminus is reached.

The line was built by the Chur-Arosa-Bahn, with construction starting on 1 August 1912 and the railway opening on 12 December 1914. The terrain demanded 41 bridges, 19 tunnels, and 12 avalanche-protection galleries, and the cost of CHF 402,700 per kilometre made it the most expensive line on the Rhaetian Railway network at the time. The original electrification used an unusual 2,400 volts DC, distinct from the surrounding RhB system; re-electrification to 11 kilovolts AC followed in 1997 at a total cost of CHF 58.3 million. The line passed into Rhaetian Railway operation in 1942.

Descending through the Schanfigg valley, the railway runs independently of the road as a mountain line before the character of the journey changes entirely at the edge of Chur. There the track switches to grooved tramway rails, crosses a roundabout, and threads through city streets before arriving at platforms 1 and 2 on Bahnhofplatz — the Arosabahn's own dedicated platforms at Chur station, separate from the main SBB concourse.