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Maintenance on Tirano-Milano track this summer? Might affect those SB on Bernina Express

Posted by (NC, US) on

Has anyone heard of planned maintenance on the Tirano-Milano track this summer? We will be traveling from Zurich using regional trains over the Bernina Pass in early September, and I've been monitoring the Trenitalia website for the Tirano-Milano Centrale portion. It looks like a new schedule has been released and, unfortunately, it's different from what we were expecting based on all of the previous months. Starting 11June23, it appears there will be bus service between Tirano and Sondrio, causing the Tirano departure time to change from 11:08 to 10:56. Our train from the St Moritz area arrives at 11:00, so we'd miss the planned connection. I couldn't find an announcement on the Trenitalia or Trenord websites, nor elsewhere for that matter, so I thought I'd check if anyone here has heard.

Interestingly, if one tries to route from Tirano to Milano Centrale on the SBB website, the normally-nonstop trip now is routed back through Chur and then Pfäffikon SZ and Arth-Goldau before continuing to Milano. At least the Trenitalia booking just gives you a short-ish bus ride.

Posted by
219 posts

Well shoot. Thanks for the news feed, @lachera. I was hoping I was reading the schedule incorrectly. We are traveling on 05 Sept - just too soon.

Posted by
1722 posts

I understand there will be some competitions in the Sondrio zone in the Winter Olympics 2026, by that time they want to have the railway line refurbished.

Posted by
1608 posts

Thanks for the info. We'll be in the area September 9 and I was just starting to plan our route.

Posted by
77 posts

I'm really glad to have come across this post. We are also taking regional trains from Zurich over the Bernina Pass, and ending our journey in Varenna. We're traveling on August 1. It seems this work will affect our travels. And, just the other day there was a landslide closing the rail line and the road just north of Varenna. www.sondriotoday.it is publishing the story and updates. I surely wonder if it will be fixed by August. I'm going to rely on the Varenna tourism office to help me find a way around the closure if needed. Bus schedules have been posted for the detour, but until you are there on-the-scene, it's hard to figure out.

Posted by
219 posts

I hadn't heard about the slide until your comment, so thanks for posting the link. It seems like many areas are facing challenges in the infrastructure. I'm hoping the train lines will have workarounds working smoothly for both the locals and the travelers. I'm going to keep an eye on the Trenitalia schedule.

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