About this journey

Chur station, opened on 30 June 1858, is Graubünden's principal railway junction, where SBB standard-gauge services and the metre-gauge Rhaetian Railway share the same platforms — an arrangement imposed by the Swiss Federal Council when the RhB was required to integrate into the existing station rather than build its own. From here the Ge 4/4 II heads west up the Rhine valley on the RhB line whose origins trace to 1896, when the railway first pushed the narrow-gauge network toward Thusis.

The route follows the Rhine upstream through the heart of Romansh-speaking Graubünden toward Disentis Mustér, where the valley reaches its highest step and the roads of the Oberalp and Lukmanier passes converge. Disentis/Mustér station is both the western terminus of the RhB line from Landquart via Chur and the eastern terminus of the Matterhorn Gotthard Bahn from Brig via Andermatt, making it a genuine mountain crossroads. Close to the station stands Disentis Abbey, a Benedictine monastery whose origins date to around 720 and whose present baroque complex was built between 1696 and 1712. The journey moves from Switzerland's busiest alpine rail junction, where two gauges meet under one roof, to a quiet Romansh terminus defined by monastic history and converging alpine passes.