MySwissAlps.com features ads, commercial and non-commercial Does the Bernina Express stop before Tirano?
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I am visiting Switzerland on the 27th December and will be staying in Lucerne. I would like to travel on the Bernina Express (BE) but I do not want to take the entire route. I understand that it is 4 hour direct trip from Chur to Tirano, Italy.
I would like to know which is the closest city or train station I can get off the BE to go to St Moritz for a few hours. Also is there a direct train I can take from St. Moritz back to Lucerne?
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Hello Adventurist and Welcome to MySwissAlps,
Please find details about the route of the Bernina Express in below link. You can take the Bernina Express from Chur to St. Moritz directly, travel via Samedan or do the same route on regular trains:
– http://www.myswissalps.com/be rninaexpress/gettingth ereTo figure out details about traveling times use the timetable below and note that the “panoramic” trains are marked with PE (panorama express).
– http://www.myswissalps.com/ti metableThe timetable of the SBB is renewed every 14th of December, so you might not find connections yet for the 27th, but normally schedules on mayor routes don’t change much.
Best and happy planning.
Steph
Take care with the over hyped marketing of the Bernina (and Glacier) Express brands as I think you have been led into misunderstanding the ‘Bernina Express’ concept in this case.
It is important to understand the difference between the ‘Bernina Express’ and the ‘Bernina Railway’. The Bernina Railway is the (originally independent) railway line St Moritz – Tirano. It became part of the Rhätische Bahn* (RhB) in 1943. The Bernina Express title designates one or two trains a day operated by special coaches (with supplement payable) which include a journey on the Bernina Railway. The Bernina Railway itself does not connect to Chur
There is absolutely no need to use the Bernina Express if you are just going from Chur to St Moritz and back.
The railway line from Chur as far as Samedan/Pontresina/St Moritz is the Albula railway not the Bernina railway.
The Albula railway UNESCO listed in its own right, and the Bergün – Preda section is superb.
Just get on one of the regular IR express trains that run every hour throughout the day between Chur and St Moritz. They leave at xx.58 every hour
* – The Rhätische Bahn is the ‘national’ train operator in Canton Graubünden, with a network of metre gauge lines, separate from Swiss Federal Railways
Lastly as a reminder of the foregoing:
As I’ve said more than a few times on this site, the marketing of the ‘panoramic expresses’ is so overpowering that it confuses the proportion of visitors who would be happy to know that you can ride the same railways on any ordinary train (with just the same views and a more genuine local experience). The irony being that in most cases the Glacier Express and Bernina Express services are no faster than a local train because of the single track infrastructure.
“You can take the Bernina Express from Chur to St. Moritz directly,”
Sorry, but this is an incorrect statement. The Bernina Express does not serve St Moritz
Hello Adventurist,
“I would like to know which is the closest city or train station I can get off the BE to go to St Moritz for a few hours.“
Pontresina.
“Also is there a direct train I can take from St. Moritz back to Lucerne?“
No.
For details see replies above.
Hello 1960man & Co,
Sorry for mixing up the two panoramic trains Glacier Express and Bernina Express, read too quick and just “assumed” ..hmmm! SORRY and thanks for correcting and keeping an eye on me.. 😉
Steph
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