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Glacier Express partial Trip?

I will be visiting Europe this August/September with my father. We will have a car and be within a 2 hour Drive of St Moritz. My father is a huge train buff and I enjoy them also. And being as he is 87 and hiking in the Alps is not much of an option I was thinking that perhaps a short Out and Back may be doable on the St Moritz side of the Glacier Express.
I have looked on here but I can’t seem to find any information.

Is it possible to take a train west and the switch at some point two to three hours out and return?
If so is it a nice view?
I know there is a spectacle curved stone viaduct and I believe it is on this end. If so would that be in the section covered?
I am afraid our schedule is such that we only have the one day to travel down take the train and return. Giving us about 4 to 6 hours (maybe we could stretch that a tiny bit if we changed out hotel plans a touch)
Thanks for any advice
-Doug M

Posted by
19637 posts

Yes, Swiss trains let you get off and on at any stop as long as you have a valid ticket. The Glacier Express has a mandatory seat reservation fee, but it is reduced if you are only doing a section, like St Moritz to Chur.

I think the viaduct you are thinking about is the Landwasser Viaduct. Is this it?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Landwasser_Viaduct

It is just past Filisur on the way to Chur.

To mix it up, you could go back via Landquart and Davos to Filisur and then on to St Moritz.

Posted by
32515 posts

You don't need to ride the named train Glacier Express (or even Bernina Express) which have a few trains through the day. All Swiss railways, and the routes that the two named trains above use are included, have a normal local train every hour. So yes, it is very easy to go out and back using the local trains. You just don't get the wine glass with the tilted stem.

I prefer the local trains. On many the windows open so you can get a better view and much better photography. They're not air conditioned and I've never had any problem getting seats. And there is no surcharge on the local trains. They go just as fast as the named trains, over the same tracks.

Where will you be coming from (and returning to) that is two hours away?

Posted by
8889 posts

Doug, this is something I keep saying. All rail routes and all stations in Switzerland have at least one train per hour in each direction. The Glacier Express (and the other named tourist trains) travel on the same tracks as the regular hourly trains, and you see the same mountains out the windows. So you can turn round and come back at any station.

The Glacier Express route runs from Chur, west to Disentis, Brig and Zermatt. It doesn't go via St Moritz.
The Bernina Pass route runs from Chur, south to Pontresina (near St Moritz) and Tirano.
You can see all this on the Swiss rail map here: https://www.sbb.ch/content/dam/sbb/de/infotexte/uebersichtskarte-sts.pdf
The viaduct you are referring to is the Landwasser viaduct. It is between Chur and St Moritz on the Bernina route (click for photo).

You can look up train times on the SBB (Swiss Federal Railways) website: https://www.sbb.ch/en
You will need to know the name of the station you wish to go to.

Since you want to see all these lovely train routes, why not ditch the car and do a circular loop round Switzerland by train?

Posted by
8889 posts

The "official" Glacier Express train divides at Reichenau, one half goes to Chur, and the other to St Moritz.
The "official" Bernina Express runs from Chur, Reichenau, over the same tracks to Pontresina (near St Moritz) and Tirano.
But this is all academic, if you want to go from Chur to St Moritz, and see the Landwasser viaduct, there is one train per hour on all these routes. You do not need to restrict yourself to the branded tourist trains.

To the OP's original question "We will have a car and be within a 2 hour Drive of St Moritz. . . . . I was thinking that perhaps a short Out and Back may be doable on the St Moritz side of the Glacier Express"
If he is 2 hours from St Moritz, where is he? There is probably somewhere a lot closer he can drive to to get on a train for whatever scenic section he wants to go on.
And why is he travelling by car, why not to a scenic circular tour of Switzerland by train?

This all sounds like the misconception that the Glacier Express is one isolated tourist train. It is not, it is an extra train on a network. That 2 hour journey to St Moritz can probably be done by train.
See the rail map I posted earlier: https://www.sbb.ch/content/dam/sbb/de/infotexte/uebersichtskarte-sts.pdf

Posted by
739 posts

After looking into this a bit using the information provided here (thanks everyone so far). I have figured out a bit more then I started with.
To answer questions. I will have a car for various reasons. Basically this is a trip for my father to go back to where he grew up in Germany see the old homestead and connect with Family. So will be picking up a car in Germany and traveling around to various locations mostly in the country side, and then dropping the car back off before taming a train from Cologne to Paris and on to England. As a result of where he wants to go we will end up someplace over near the Lichtenstein/Austria/Switzerland boarder. With a day to spare.
Basically we will have about two days. We will be starting near Innsbruck with a short stop near there and we need to end up near Schwangau (Neuschwanstien) I will need a car before that and after that so it just makes more sense to keep the car. Originally we thought about just driving around as we had nothing perticular planed. And thought it would be interesting to see a tiny little bit of Switzerland and Liechtenstein. But then I realized we would be relatively close to this train route.
The other issue is that while the trains and mass transit in Europe are good, mass transit still can be a bit harder for an 87 year old as the walking between trains at connections and before and after the train sometimes can be a bit rushed and finding elevators or escalators or such can sometimes be a bit difficult especially especially if pressed for time. So we compromise and use trains for long distance (Cologne Paris, Paris to London) and a car when we need to go out into the countryside. In a town or city with no perticular schedule we have enough time to find our way around and either avoid stairs or take rests after them. This is harder and more stressful to do if you are trying to catch a perticular train or what not. Thus we will have a car.
Originally we were thinking about staying someplace near Vurduz (spelling) in Lichtenstein and looked around for something to do. But looking at the map and with a bit more understanding I think we can stay someplace close to Chur (or in Chur) if I understand it right we can take a train heading from Chur towards St Moritz.
The Question then is how far to go before stopping (maybe for lunch and a walk around whatever town we are in) and returning to Chur?
Is this section of the trip “scenic” or would we be better going the other way?
Does this section contain the aforementioned curved stone viaduct?
I believe the answer to the last two questions is yes but I am seeking the opinion of those that may actually know this area.
If I stay in Chur (any good Budget friendly places?) We would have pretty much all day. As the schedule would be
Day 1). Drive to Chur from Innsbruck (pretty much a whole day)
Day 2). Day in Chur (or that area) and ride on train
Day 3) Drive to Schwangau (Neuschwanstien)
Thanks for the help

Posted by
8889 posts

If you are in Chur, you can do a day circuit from there.
See the Swiss railway map I linked to earlier, or this one which shows the lines of the local railway company only, but shows all the stations: https://www.rhb.ch/fileadmin/user_upload/redaktion/Home_Marketing/Service___Souvenirs/Streckennetz/linienplan_A4_2018.pdf
It is a diagram, each coloured line represents one train per hour.

You could go Chur - Reichenau - Samedan - St Moritz (orange line on the map, includes the famous Landwasser viaduct).
Have a break in St Moritz. But it is a climb from the station on the lake up to the town, may need a taxi, or stay in the lower town by the lake Click for photo, you can just see a red RhB train in the bottom right of the photo.
Then go back via St Moritz - Zernez - Klosters - Landquart (light blue line on map), and a second train Landquart - Chur.

Look up train times and prices on: https://www.sbb.ch/en (Swiss Federal Railways, but the site covers all railway companies in Switzerland).

Posted by
19637 posts

Couple of things.
1. You will need to purchase a vignette (and properly attach it to the windshield) to drive on motorways in Austria, which you will certainly need to do driving from Innsbruck to Switzerland.
2. Same for Switzerland, but you can avoid that. I'll explain.

I would drive to Landquart and park the car at the station. You can drive through Liechtenstein and Vaduz on the way, knocking that one off the bucket list, on secondary roads. Then get tickets from Landquart to St Moritz, specifying via Chur and Filisur so you will be on the Albula rail line where the Landwasser Viaduct is. This is actually the best approach as you can see it coming up if you sit on the right hand side of the train.

You may choose to stay over night in St Moritz, or in Chur at the start. If you want to take an alternate route back to Landquart, You buy a ticket specifying via Davos. I do know that you have to change trains at Filisur and that is an under-the-tunnel connection going that direction. They have gentle ramps. One thing to keep in mind, that your ticket is good on any train on the specified route that day. So if you do miss a connection, just wait maximum 1 hour and you can get the next train. You also change trains at Davos Platz station, but I think that is a cross platform connection. The next train goes all the way to Landquart through some scenic landscapes, through Klosters.

Once back at Landquart, drive to Neuschwanstein the way you came toward Innsbruck, but get off at Imst and go to over the Fernpass to Fuessen.

Posted by
32515 posts

Ibis hotels tend to be a reasonably inexpensive chain and they have a strange pyramid shaped location just out from the station in Chur. We found it OK but we were there before the smoking laws came in and we had a bit of smoke coming up the pyramid from the bar in the lobby. You might find that the smoke is no longer an issue, or you or he may smoke and no issue.

I know others have stayed elsewhere in Chur. Taking a bus to the station from your hotel should be easy because the bus station is right upstairs from the train station.