Train routes in Switzerland

Lenzburg → Lucerne · 47 km · ≈ 1 h 35 min

SBB · S9

Opened in 1883 by British investors down the Seetal lakes to Lucerne. For a century a roadside light railway, it was rebuilt on its own alignment in the 2000s.

Winterthur → Romanshorn · 56 km · ≈ 48 min

SBB · IC 8 · InterCity

Switzerland's fourth-oldest railway, opened on 16 May 1855 down the Thur valley to Romanshorn, where trains once met the Lake Constance ferries.

Lucerne → Olten · 55 km · ≈ 45 min

Südostbahn · IR 26 · InterRegio

Built by the Schweizerische Centralbahn and open to Lucerne since 1856: double track, electrified, and still the fast way north to Olten and Basel.

Neuchâtel → Bern · 42 km · ≈ 45 min

BLS · IR 66 · InterRegio

The Direkt Linie of 1901, driven almost dead straight across the Grand Marais, and still part of the shortest rail route from Bern to Paris.

Burgdorf → Thun · 40 km · ≈ 1 h 03 min

BLS · S 41

Opened in 1899 as the first electrified main-line railway in Europe, running from Burgdorf over Konolfingen to Thun.

Delle → Delémont · 40 km · ≈ 52 min

SBB · R 1 · Regional

Opened in stages from 1872 through the Jura canton (Glovelier, Porrentruy, Boncourt) and over the French border to Delle.

Ins → Fribourg · 32 km · ≈ 43 min

TPF · S 20

Single track built by the Fribourg–Morat–Anet company, running from Fribourg past Murten and its lake to Ins in the Seeland.

Domodossola → Brig · 41 km · ≈ 32 min

SBB · EC · EuroCity

The Swiss–Italian side of the Simplon: 41 km from Brig to Domodossola, almost half of it inside the 19.8 km Simplon Tunnel of 1906.

Etzwilen → Winterthur · 31 km · ≈ 45 min

Thurbo · S 29

An 1875 single track north out of Winterthur through the Thur valley wine villages to Etzwilen near the Rhine.

Huttwil → Wolhusen · 25 km · ≈ 29 min

BLS · S 7

Emmental single track of 1895, running from Huttwil down to the Little Emme and the junction at Wolhusen.

Yverdon-les-Bains → Fribourg · 49 km · ≈ 54 min

SBB · S 30

Single track across Romandy's Broye valley, crossing its sister line at Payerne on the way from Lake Neuchâtel to Fribourg.

Vallorbe → Lausanne · 46 km · ≈ 51 min

SBB · R 3 · Regional

The climb from Lake Geneva into the Jura at Vallorbe: since 1870 the shortest rail route between Paris and Milan.

Zurich → Munich · 332 km · 3 h 44 min

SBB · DB · SBB Astoro ETR 610

Electrified through in 2020, which cut an hour off the run: out of Zurich by Winterthur and St Gallen, over the Rhine at St Margrethen, along Lake Constance through Bregenz and Lindau, then the Allgäu to Munich.

Klosters → Sagliains · 19 km · ≈ 19 min

Rhätische Bahn · RhB car-carrying wagons

Metre gauge under the Silvretta: cars loaded at Selfranga near Klosters and carried through the 19 km Vereina tunnel to the Engadine, open when the Flüela pass is shut.

Biel/Bienne → Bern · 34 km · 29 min

BLS · S 31

Bern to Zollikofen opened on 16 June 1857 as part of the Centralbahn line to Olten; the Bernese state railway carried it on over Lyss to Biel in 1864.

Lucerne → Lugano · 180 km · 5 h 30 min

SBB · SBB panorama coaches & lake paddle steamer

A paddle steamer up Lake Lucerne, then the 1882 Gotthard line’s spirals and the Wassen church seen thrice. Summer only, once daily, seat surcharge.

Chur → St. Moritz · 89 km · 2 h

Rhaetian Railway (RhB) · RhB Allegra & panorama cars

The UNESCO Albula line spirals through helical tunnels and sweeps over the six-arch Landwasser Viaduct, a curved stone bridge running straight into a cliff, on its climb to St. Moritz.

Zürich → Locarno · 200 km · ≈ 3 h 50 min

SOB · SOB Traverso (IR46)

The everyday Gotthard panorama train: hourly IRs over the 1882 mountain line’s spiral tunnels, no surcharge, from Basel or Zürich to Locarno’s palms.

Zurich → Graz · 697 km · ≈ 9 h 50 min

ÖBB · SBB · EuroCity with SBB panorama car

One train, one panorama car, half the Alps: Zurich to Graz over the Arlberg, past Zell am See, the Ennstal and the Gesäuse gates. The day-long EuroCity people ride for the window.

Interlaken Ost → Grindelwald · 19 km · 35 min

Berner Oberland-Bahn · Stadler ABeh 4/8 EMU · rack sections

Jungfrau gateway since 1890: from Interlaken Ost the BOB splits at Zweilütschinen. One arm goes to Lauterbrunnen; this one climbs to Grindelwald under the Eiger’s north face.

La Chaux-de-Fonds → Glovelier · 51 km · 1 h 10 min

Chemins de fer du Jura · CJ metre-gauge railcars

Metre gauge across the Franches-Montagnes plateau: horse pastures and firs at 1,000 m from watch-town La Chaux-de-Fonds to Saignelégier, then a wooded ravine descent to Glovelier.

Davos Platz → Landquart · 49 km · ≈ 1 h 11 min

Rhätische Bahn · RE · Rhaetian Railway

Metre-gauge Rhaetian track climbing the Prättigau from the Rhine valley at Landquart to the high spa town of Davos, open since 1890.

Bever → Scuol-Tarasp · 49 km · ≈ 1 h 13 min

Rhätische Bahn · R · Rhaetian Railway

Metre gauge down the Lower Engadine from the Albula line at Bever to the spa at Scuol-Tarasp, opened in 1913 and never joined to Austria.

La Chaux-de-Fonds → Biel/Bienne · 43 km · ≈ 40 min

SBB · RE 4 · RegioExpress

Single track up out of Biel through the Jura gorges to the watchmaking city of La Chaux-de-Fonds at 1,000 m, worked since 1874.

Biel/Bienne → Basel · 73 km · ≈ 1 h 22 min

SBB · BLS · IC 51 · InterCity

The Jurabahn of 1857 follows the Birs out of Basel into the French-speaking Jura, through Delémont and the Moutier gorges down to Biel.

Cadenazzo → Luino · 31 km · ≈ 36 min

SBB · RE · Regional-Express

Hugs the north-eastern shore of Lake Maggiore, crossing from Ticino into Italy on the way to Luino.

Saint-Gingolph → Saint-Maurice · 27 km · ≈ 46 min

RegionAlps · R 91 · Regional

Opened in 1859 by the Ligne d'Italie, running from the Rhône at Saint-Maurice out to Lake Geneva at Le Bouveret and the French border.

Linthal → Ziegelbrücke · 27 km · ≈ 43 min

SBB · S 25

The Glarnerlinie of 1859, single track up the Linth valley under the Glärnisch and the Tödi to the road-head at Linthal.

Schaffhausen → Winterthur · 29 km · ≈ 27 min

SBB · S 24

Named for what it passes: the 1857 line from Winterthur to Schaffhausen runs along the Rhine Falls, Europe's widest waterfall.

Wasserauen → Gossau · 31 km · ≈ 55 min

Appenzeller Bahnen · S 23

Metre-gauge adhesion track from Gossau up through Appenzell to Wasserauen under the Alpstein, running continuously since 1949.

Capolago → Monte Generoso · 9 km · 40 min

Ferrovia Monte Generoso · Stadler rack railcars

A rack line from the shore of Lake Lugano to a 1,704 m summit whose Mario Botta “Fiore di pietra” lookout takes in the Alps from Monte Rosa to the Apennines.

Schwyz (Schlattli) → Stoos · 1.74 km · 4 min

Stoosbahnen AG · Rotating barrel cabins by Garaventa (2017)

The world’s steepest funicular: a 110% maximum gradient climbed by barrel cabins that rotate to keep the floor level, 744 m up to car-free Stoos.

Mülenen → Niesen Kulm · 3.5 km · 28 min

Niesenbahn AG · Two-section funicular; car change at Schwandegg

Climbs 1,643 m over 3.5 km up the pyramid of the Niesen, and the service stairway alongside is the longest on earth at 11,674 steps.

Handegg → Gelmersee · 1.03 km · 10 min

Grimselwelt (KWO) · Open-air 24-seat cars of 1926, public rides since 2001

An open-car ride up a 106% grade, Europe’s steepest funicular until Stoos overtook it in 2017, built to serve the Gelmersee dam works.

Sierre → Crans-Montana · 4.19 km · 13 min

SMC · Fully renewed cars, track and drive (2022)

Switzerland’s longest funicular: 4.2 km and 927 m of climb from the Rhône valley vineyards at Sierre to the Crans-Montana plateau.

Fribourg (Pertuis) → Fribourg (Saint-Pierre) · 0.12 km · 2 min

TPF · 1899 cars hauled by 3,000-litre wastewater ballast tanks

Europe’s last funicular driven by wastewater: since 1899 the descending car is weighted with up to 3,000 litres of city sewage.