About this journey

The Bayerische Zugspitzbahn departs from its own terminal station in the Garmisch quarter — a station still named simply Garmisch, distinct from the adjacent Deutsche Bahn station next door, whose double-barrelled name reflects the contentious merger of the two towns formally completed on 1 January 1935. The line was built between 1928 and 1930, opening in three stages with the final section inaugurated on 8 July 1930, and was nominated in 2007 for a Historic Landmarks of Civil Engineering in Germany award.

For the first 7.5 kilometres as far as Grainau, the metre-gauge line operates as a conventional adhesion railway, electrified at 1,500 V DC. Beyond Grainau, the remaining 11.5 kilometres are rack-worked, engaging the Riggenbach system as the line climbs from 705 metres at Garmisch toward the summit area at 2,650 metres — a height difference of 1,945 metres, the largest of any railway in Europe. The journey then enters the 4,466-metre Zugspitze Tunnel, opened in 1930, which carries the line through the mountain, passing almost directly below the Zugspitze summit and within metres of the Austrian border with Tyrol. Near the summit end, the 975-metre Rosi Tunnel, completed in 1987, diverts the route onto the Zugspitzplatt plateau. The contrast between the open valley floor at the start and the subterranean approach to Germany's highest rail terminus defines this 19.0-kilometre journey.