Scenic route
Arlberg Railway
Zurich → Vienna · Switzerland · Liechtenstein · Austria · Germany
Arlberg Railway in pictures
Photographs by their authors, hosted on Wikimedia Commons · tap through for the licence
- Distance
- 787 km
- Fastest time
- ≈ 8 h 10 min
- Average speed
- 96 km/h
- Top speed
- 230 km/h
- Operator
- ÖBB · SBB
- Train
- ÖBB Railjet
- Countries
- Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Austria, Germany
- In service since
- 1884
- Runs
- 3–4× daily through (hourly in sections)
- Highest point
- 1,310 m
Figures are published values, not live data · corrections log
Eight hours Zurich to Vienna on Austria’s only east–west mountain mainline: the Trisanna gorge, Wiesberg Castle and a 1,310 m summit in the 10.2 km Arlberg tunnel.
Driven through in 1884 as Austria’s only east–west mountain mainline, the Arlbergbahn is the middle of a much longer run: railjets leave Zurich along the Walensee, cross the Rhine into Liechtenstein and Vorarlberg, then climb the Klostertal through a chain of avalanche galleries to a 1,310 m summit inside the 10.2 km Arlberg tunnel. The eastern descent is pure theatre — the lattice arch of the Trisanna bridge flung across a gorge beneath Wiesberg Castle, then the Inn valley to Innsbruck. Beyond it the train clips the German corner at Rosenheim and runs the Salzach and the Danube into Vienna, eight hours after Zurich.
How this line was checked
- The 135 km this route shares with OpenStreetMap relation 1623486 is drawn from that relation's own nodes, thinned to within under 25 m of them
- Checked against OpenStreetMap: 99% of this line lies within 250 m of real track (median 17 m); the longest stretch away from it is 4 km
- The operator publishes this line's timetable: ÖBB · SBB — a place to look it up, not a check of our drawing
- Wikipedia has an article for this line
Along the way
- Walensee shore east of Zurich
- Rhine valley through Liechtenstein
- Klostertal avalanche galleries
- Arlberg tunnel (10.2 km)
- Trisanna bridge & Wiesberg Castle
- Danube plain into Vienna
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More train routes in Switzerland · Liechtenstein · Austria · Germany.
Planning this trip? Journey time & direct trains: Vienna → Zurich · Zurich → Vienna.