About this journey

Chur station, the most important railway junction in Graubünden, serves as the departure point for this journey into the Rhine Valley. Opened on 30 June 1858 as the terminus of the Rheineck–Chur railway, the station later became a shared facility after the Swiss Federal Council required the Rhaetian Railway to integrate into the existing structure rather than build its own terminus. The Rhaetian Railway reached Chur in 1896 with a narrow-gauge line between Landquart and Thusis, and subsequent decades brought the Albula Railway in 1903 and the Chur–Arosa line in 1914, each expanding the station's role. A comprehensive redevelopment began in 2000 as a joint project of SBB, the Rhaetian Railway, and the town, raising platforms to 55 cm. Today the station accommodates both SBB standard-gauge services and the RhB's 1,000 mm metre-gauge network, and it serves as a calling point for the Glacier Express and Bernina Express.

From Chur — a settlement with roots going back to 3900–3500 BC and situated at 594 m above sea level in the Grisonian Rhine Valley — the train departs on Fahrplanfeld 920, the RhB line toward Disentis/Mustér, heading northwest to the intermediate station at Ilanz on the Reichenau-Tamins–Disentis/Mustér line. The journey moves through the Rhine Valley, with the Alps rising on either side of the corridor throughout.