About this journey

Pilatus Kulm station sits near the Esel summit at 2,073 m, the upper terminus of a line that descends 1,629 m over just 4.6 km of 800 mm gauge track. That combination of figures defines the Pilatus Railway's central distinction: it is the steepest rack railway in the world, with a maximum gradient of 48% and an average gradient of 35%. To make such gradients workable, engineer Eduard Locher devised a horizontal double rack with teeth facing each side, engaged by two flanged cogwheels on vertical shafts — a system found nowhere else on the network.

Construction began in March 1886, employing six hundred labourers over four hundred working days spread across three summer seasons, all funded by private capital without government subsidy. The line opened on 4 June 1889, was electrified in 1937 at 1,650 V DC, and still runs on its original rack rails, which proved durable enough simply to be turned over when worn. On descent, the electric motors act as generators, with the current dissipated as heat rather than recovered. The Bhe 2/2 cars operating this journey were introduced by Stadler Rail in 2023, bringing updated efficiency to a line whose rack, rails, and operating principles have remained essentially unchanged for well over a century.