About this journey

Chur station sits at the heart of the Grisons cantonal capital, where the metre-gauge Arosabahn departs on one of the most varied short railway journeys in Switzerland. Rather than heading immediately into open countryside, the line runs on-street through the city centre, threading along Engadinstrasse, Grabenstrasse, and Plessurquai beside the Plessur river, before breaking free as an independent mountain railway into the Schanfigg valley. The line was built by the independent Chur-Arosa-Bahn company and opened on 12 December 1914; in 1942 it merged with the Rhaetian Railway, which has operated it ever since under the enduring name Arosabahn.

Once clear of Chur, the railway begins a sustained climb that gains 1,155 metres of altitude over just 25.681 km of track, negotiating a minimum curve radius of 60 m and a maximum gradient of 6.0 per cent. The mountain section is densely engineered: 41 bridges, 19 tunnels, and 12 avalanche-protection galleries carry the 1,000 mm gauge single track up through forested gorges and open alpine terrain. The most prominent structures along the way are the Castielertobel Viaduct, the Gründjitobel Viaduct, and the celebrated Langwieser Viaduct, while the longest bore is the 399 m Lüener Rüfe tunnel. The line's electrification was converted from 2,400 V DC to 11 kV 16.7 Hz AC overhead catenary in 1997, bringing it fully into the RhB system. The journey ends at Arosa station, at 1,739 metres above sea level — a striking contrast to the cobbled city streets where it began.