About this journey

Tarvisio Boscoverde station, which opened on 26 November 2000 as the northern terminus of the rebuilt Pontebbana, is where this ÖBB RailJet service crosses from Italy into Austria and joins the Rudolf Railway northward toward Villach. The station replaced the earlier Tarvisio Centrale and Tarvisio Città stations that had served the line since 1879, and it marks the point where Italy's 3,000-volt DC electrification gives way to the Austrian network.

The Pontebbana's origins lie in 1850s Austrian Empire proposals for a Vienna–Venice corridor through these Alps. The line opened fully on 30 October 1879, built jointly by Italian and Austrian companies, and after the 1919 Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye established the border near Tarvisio, the station became an Italian frontier post. The northern section visible at the start of this journey is entirely modern: between 1985 and 2000 the old single-track mountain route, which followed the Fella river and was vulnerable to landslides and floods, was replaced by a double-track line running largely through long tunnels, including one between Pontebba and Ugovizza-Valbruna that traces an underground 'M' shape.

The RailJet working this service — train RJ132, named "Gondoliere" — operates as part of an ÖBB EuroCity pair linking Venice and Vienna, a service restored in December 2013. North of Tarvisio the line transitions onto the Rudolf Railway, bringing the train out of the Italian Alpine tunnels and down through Carinthia to Klagenfurt.