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Hi. We were planning to take the Bernina Express from Chur to Tirano in late January, but having visited Muottas Muragl lookout from Pontresina in summer we’ve decided we would also like to take in the view in winter. We are thinking of taking the Bernina Express to Pontresina, staying overnight at Muottas Muragl, and then continuing to Tirano the following day by local train. The SBB website doesn’t show the January timetable yet (that I can see), and the rhb website tells me “no connections” are available Chur to Pontresina on 25 Jan but does show Chur to Tirano. But maybe this is just because you have to buy the Bernina Express supplement for the full distance? Is there any way of being sure that the 8.28 Bernina Express stops in Pontresina in January? Or should we just use local trains for both legs to be sure? Any advice appreciated.
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The railway timetables change across Europe every year in mid December. The year 2023 timetable will commence on December 12 2022. Although planned many months in advance, the timetables are never finalised for the public until late October early November each year (railway timetables are very complex and take a lot of work to co-ordinate…) .
HOWEVER – you can be certain that the railway timetables in most of Switzerland generally will not change significantly year on year , so you can be happy that there will be a train every hour from Punt Muragl (depart at xx.51) to Pontresina, connecting to the Bernina railway trains. Just look the current 2022 timetable and it is highly likely the 2023 timetable will be exactly the same as 2022 or very very similar.
By the way, there is no need to take the Bernina Express from Chur, just take any of the once every hour IR express trains Chur – Samedan and change at Samedan for the short trip to Punt Muragl.
http://www.fahrplanfelder.ch/fileadmin/fap_pdf_fields/2022/940.pdf
http://www.fahrplanfelder.ch/fileadmin/fap_pdf_fields/2022/960.pdf
Thanks so much for this. My main concern is whether the Bernina Express will stop in Pontresina in January on its way to Tirano, because we will need to book the Muottas Muragl hotel soon (so before the December timetable comes out). It sounds as though it’s likely that it will, though, and there are numerous other trains between Chur and Pontresina that we could probably take instead if it didn’t (and we’d just lose the Bernina Express supplement if we’d paid it).
Thanks again for your help. Sounds as though overnight at Muottas Muragl is doable.
Every single train that passes Pontresina station stops at the station. It is an important station both for passenger and for technical reasons.
From Muottas Muragl, you would descend on the funicular to Punt Muragl. From Punt Margal you would get a train at xx.51 (eg 09.51) to Pontresina arrive xx.57 (eg 09.57). From Pontresina you can get any of the hourly trains to Tirano (eg 10.08 ),.
As you are splitting your journey I recommend you just save money and use the regular trains in all cases. (The Bernina (and Glacier) express trains are best suited to package tourists going all the way from one end to the other).
Thanks for this. One final query – do you have a view on Bernina express vs local trains on that route? I feel more confident with the BEX because of the allocated seating and because we’ll have luggage with us and I’m not sure how busy the local trains get, but there is a considerable cost difference…
Appreciate your advice.
Thanks – this probably makes my last query a bit unnecessary. This is very helpful. Thanks for your time.
All RhB carriages have adequate space for luggage (it is after all the reason for the RhB railway’s existence…). In my experience the ‘ordinary’ trains will have plenty of space – as there is an hourly service traversing a very sparsely populated area.
Great. Thank you!
Hi AnnieP, thanks for joining MySwissAlps!
You’ve planned a wonderful journey. The Bernina route is amazing, and spending a night on top of Muottas Muragl will be a great experience too. You can safely plan this, as huge timetable changes after mid-December 2022 indeed are not expected. You can read about it at http://www.myswissalps.com/timetable.
As for the difference between regular trains and Bernina Express trains, please see the sections “The train” and “Regular trains versus Bernina Express” at http://www.myswissalps.com/berninaexpress.
If you need more info about your winter trip to Switzerland, this section may be of help: http://www.myswissalps.com/winter.
Thanks so much, Arno. This forum is so helpful, and it’s really helped us decide on the best plan. We’re now planning to take a local train rather than the Bernina express to Pontresina, stay overnight at Muottas Muragl (already booked!) and then continue by local train to Tirano. This will give us more flexibility time-wise and also save us a bit of money. Hopefully the local trains won’t be too crowded in late January and we’ll be able to get a seat. Thanks for all your help.
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