About this journey

Jenbach station stands out as the only station in Austria where railways of three different gauges converge — standard gauge, metre gauge, and the 760 mm narrow gauge of the Zillertalbahn. It is from this junction that the Zillertalbahn departs southward into the Ziller valley, a line that has run continuously since it opened on 31 July 1902 to connect the valley's communities with the main line at Jenbach.

The Zillertalbahn covers 32 kilometres of 760 mm gauge track, operated by Zillertaler Verkehrsbetriebe AG — a company that took its current name in 1956. The railway follows the river Ziller along the valley floor, keeping mostly to the eastern bank, sharing the corridor with the main road. The line is predominantly single track, with double-track sections between Ramsau–Zell am Ziller and Kaltenbach-Stumm–Ahrnbach. Since 2005, all points are controlled remotely from the Jenbach Control Centre via fibre-optic technology. Standard-gauge wagons from the national network also travel the route on transporter wagons, giving the line a freight function alongside its passenger role.

At the southern end of the valley, Mayrhofen station serves as the terminus for all Zillertalbahn services, sitting beside the Zillertaler Bundesstrasse at the head of the valley. The journey moves from a rare three-gauge junction through an alpine river corridor to a quiet valley-end terminus.