About this journey

Rigi Kulm station sits at 1,797 metres above sea level on the main summit of the Rigi massif, in the canton of Schwyz. From here, the descent follows the Vitznau–Rigi line, which opened on 21 May 1871 as the first mountain railway in Europe. The line was electrified in 1937, some three decades after the parallel Arth-Rigi-Bahn, which had reached electrification in 1907 and in doing so became the first electrified standard-gauge rack railway in the world. The two companies and their successors were eventually brought together under Rigi Bahnen AG in 1992.

The Rigi massif is almost entirely surrounded by three bodies of water — Lake Lucerne, Lake Zug and Lake Lauerz — a geography that becomes apparent as the line descends toward the shore. The journey ends at Vitznau station, the lakeside terminus of the Vitznau–Rigi line, where a turntable serves the adjacent Rigi Railways depot and regular ferry services on Lake Lucerne connect the station to Lucerne and beyond. The descent covers in roughly an hour terrain that separates a high Alpine summit from a working waterfront interchange, tracing the full vertical and historical range of one of Europe's most significant rack-railway routes.