About this journey

Chur station, opened on 30 June 1858, is the principal railway junction of Graubünden, where the standard-gauge SBB network and the metre-gauge Rhaetian Railway share a common facility. That integration was not voluntary: the Swiss Federal Council required the Rhaetian Railway to abandon plans for a station of its own and join the existing United Swiss Railways building. The narrow-gauge line toward Thusis arrived in 1896, and the Albula Railway followed in 1903, each expansion deepening the RhB's reach into the Alpine interior.

The Albula Railway is the route this journey follows out of Chur toward the Engadin. At St. Moritz the line reaches its southern terminus at 1,775 m above sea level — the highest urban railway station in Switzerland — where it meets the Bernina Railway coming up from Tirano in Italy. Because the Albula and Bernina lines operate on different types and levels of power supply, St. Moritz station also functions as a power supply switch point, known in German as a Systemwechselbahnhof. The station opened in 1904, and the contrast between the relatively low-lying departure point at Chur and this high-altitude terminus defines the character of the entire run.