Historic Bernina line looks to the future

The Bernina Express in the Montebellocurve near Morteratsch, with Piz Bernina in the background © Rhaetische Bahn, Chur/ Foto: Andrea Badrutt

The Bernina train line is 100 years old and still going strong. Over the past century millions of visitors have been seduced by the alpine countryside it crosses.

The line has been a Unesco World Heritage site since 2008, but very nearly didn’t make it. Railway bosses were only convinced following a campaign by locals.

Opening celebrations were held on July 5, 1910. A train rumbled by, marking the first time St Moritz in Switzerland and Tirano in Italy were connected by a railway line.

It was 12 years since federal minister Numa Droz had first proposed constructing a rail link over the Bernina Pass; and four years since work had started.

The line was an immediate success. By August almost 92,000 tourists had taken the train. For local residents the ticket prices were far too high.

But they didn’t mind, as the railway brought other benefits – regional development, work and electricity, produced by the Campocologno hydroelectric plant, built to supply the locomotives.

One hundred years later there are more celebrations. And it’s not just about nostalgia. The Bernina train, which has survived two world wars and their ensuing recessions, competition from the car and short-sightedness over its special qualities, also has a future.

Spiral marvel

Admirers of the “little red train” can be found all over the world. A copy of the circular Brusio Viaduct has existed in Costa Rica since 2000. The idea came from a Swiss expatriate who put up a spiral bridge to connect his hotel to a panoramic restaurant.

The original, a nine-arch circular viaduct designed to help the train gain altitude, is an elegant accompaniment to a landscape made up of rocks and chestnut trees.

Technically speaking, it may not have been the first bridge of its kind but it quickly gained an international reputation, becoming the symbol of the Bernina railway. It is also the site of the centenary celebrations.

Apart from the pleasant train ride, travellers can also see the Engadine forests, the eternal snows of the Piz Bernina Mountains, the highest peak in the Graubünden Alps at 4,049 metres, the Valposchiavo mountain valley, and the shrine of the Madonna of Tirano.

“Where else can you, in the space of two hours, go from glaciers to palm trees, crossing three linguistic regions and a national border,” asks Silvio Briccola, deputy director of the Rhaetian Railway, the company in charge of the Bernina line.

Unesco pitch

It is exactly this strong link between railway technology, countryside and culture that convinced Unesco, the United Nations culture body, to add the Bernina line – and the Albula line which runs from St Moritz to the Graubünden capital Chur – to the World Heritage list in 2008.

Last year more than one million passengers used the Bernina line. “It’s difficult to quantify the Unesco effect,” Briccola said. “But there has undeniably been one. We had an increase in visits and turnover.”

Nowadays the Rhaetian Railway is proud of the Unesco label and uses it to attract both tourists and journalists. The first centenary celebration was attended by many foreign media.

However, at first company bosses were sceptical about the Unesco bid. “We didn’t have any examples upon which to base an assessment of the repercussions of such a decision,” Briccola explained.

“It was important to us not to become a railway museum, losing any opportunities for development. Furthermore we couldn’t allow the already high maintenance costs to increase.”

This is why in 2004 the Rhaetian Railway decided to only put the Albula line forward as a Unesco candidate, as it was considered the most interesting from a technical point of view.

Locals to the rescue

But they hadn’t reckoned with the inhabitants of Valposchiavo. “One couldn’t leave out the Bernina line, with its beauty and special qualities,” said Cassiano Luminati, president of the Valposchiavo tourism office.

“To avoid this, we set up a committee, mobilized all our contacts in Bern and Italy, and campaigned until the Rhaetian Railway management changed its mind.”

Now nobody doubts that the decision was the right one. “It was the correct reaction to the pride of a rather peripheral region used to fighting for what it believes in,” Briccola said.

Paradoxically, few locals actually use the line. “It’s true,” admits Luminati. “We only use the train if there is no alternative.” The problem is that it is too slow. The Bernina needs two hours to cover what a car can do in just 45 minutes.

But it does offer work. Practically everyone knows someone who works or has worked for the Bernina – and with great passion. Among these are the pensioners who are restoring the “coccodrillo” GE 4/4 182, a former locomotive, for free.

Passion and gratitude are also the themes of the innumerable events – exhibitions, performances and celebrations – which are accompanying the jubilee.

Doris Lucini, swissinfo.ch (Adapted from Italian by Isobel Leybold-Johnson)

Bernina Railway

The rail line was built from 1906-1910, at the same time as the Albula line. Both form part of the World Heritage Site.

It connects St Moritz, in the Engadine, to Tirano in Italy and cross Valposchiavo, one of the four valleys of Italian-speaking Graubünden.

The line is just over 61km long, and passes from 1,850 metres above sea level in Engadine, to 2,253 at the Ospizio Bernina, then descends to 429m at Tirano.

The train manages 70% inclines without the aid of a rack system. It is also the only one to pass through the Alps without using tunnels.

It also plays a role in good traffic, transporting timber (from north to south) and oil derivatives (south to north).

Four seasons

Originally the Bernina was meant for the summer. But by 1913 it was in use all year round. This is why the celebrations for the centenary are taking place all year round. They started in St Moritz in January and will continue on May 8-9 in Tirano.

At the beginning of summer (June 18-20) there will be an event at Valposchiavo, attended by the Swiss president, Doris Leuthard. The Brusio Viaduct will be at the heart of the festivities.

The final party takes place from September 18-19 in Engadine, in Pontresina.