Mountain Railways in Switzerland Worth the Fare

The headline ride, and priced like one. From Kleine Scheidegg the line tunnels through the Eiger and Mönch to Jungfraujoch at 3,454 meters, the highest railway station in Europe, with a brief stop at Eismeer to look out from inside the mountain. At the top, the Sphinx terrace looks down the Aletsch Glacier, the longest in the Alps. This is the trip to save for a clear forecast: in cloud you pay a premium fare to stand in fog. The Good Morning Ticket takes 20% off the first two trains up from May through October if you are back down by early afternoon, though it cannot be stacked with rail pass discounts. Seat reservations for the trains to Jungfraujoch are compulsory from May through October.

The engineering pilgrimage. Opened in 1889, it is the steepest rack railway in the world, with a maximum gradient of 48% on its climb from Alpnachstad on Lake Lucerne to Pilatus Kulm at 2,073 meters. It uses the Locher system, a horizontal double rack laid between the rails, and the 4.6-kilometer line gains more than 1,600 meters on the way. Best as part of the Golden Round Trip, which links boat, cog railway, cable car and gondolas into one loop around the mountain from May to October. The cog railway itself runs from mid-May to late November, while the cable car side stays open most of the year apart from maintenance breaks. A Swiss Travel Pass covers the boat and bus, but you still buy a reduced ticket for the mountain itself.

The Matterhorn trip, and the strongest rival to Jungfraujoch for one big summit day. Climbing from Zermatt to 3,089 meters, it is the highest open-air railway in Europe, so the views build all the way up instead of arriving at the end of a tunnel. The operator counts the Matterhorn, 28 four-thousand-meter peaks and the Gorner Glacier from the top. Opened in 1898 as Switzerland's first electric rack railway, it is the one to choose if you are staying in Zermatt anyway. Sit on the right going up for the Matterhorn side. Like every summit here, the whole point disappears in cloud, so keep the day flexible.

The best value on this list for many visitors, because the Swiss Travel Pass and the GA travelcard cover the Rigi railways outright. The Vitznau line opened in 1871 and bills itself as Europe's first mountain railway, though a quarry rack line near Bern beat it by a year. It climbs from the shore of Lake Lucerne to Rigi Kulm at 1,752 meters. Rigi is far lower than the glacier summits, so it is the sensible fallback when cloud sits on the high peaks, and a free one for pass holders. A classic loop goes up from Vitznau and down the other side on the Arth-Rigi line to Arth-Goldau, whose tracks meet the Vitznau line at Rigi Staffel.

The ride most Jungfrau visitors take without noticing it is a sight in itself. At just over 19 kilometers, from Lauterbrunnen through Wengen to Kleine Scheidegg and down to Grindelwald, it calls itself the world's longest continuous rack railway. Wengen has no public road access, so the train is how almost everyone arrives. It earns a place even if you skip Jungfraujoch. Kleine Scheidegg is the junction for the Jungfrau Railway and sits at 2,061 meters below the Eiger, and the climb above Wengen opens up the Lauterbrunnen valley. On a cloudy day, riding up to Kleine Scheidegg and stopping there is a cheaper way to judge whether paying for the final leg to the summit makes sense.

The vintage ride. Opened in 1893, the line climbs from Wilderswil, just outside Interlaken, to Schynige Platte at about 1,987 meters. Its electric locomotives were built between 1910 and 1914, and it still keeps one of its original steam locomotives. The reward at the top is a view of the Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau and an alpine garden that has been there since 1928, with ridge walks for those who want more. It is summer only, from early June to mid-October, because the overhead wires come down every winter for snow and avalanches. A gentler alternative to the big summits for families and anyone who prefers century-old locomotives to crowds.

The steam railway. Unusually for Switzerland the line is not electrified, and most trains are still pulled by steam locomotives, pushing up gradients of up to 25% from the lakeside at Brienz to 2,244 meters. The smoke, the noise and the slow, working climb are the experience, as much as the summit. From the top, Lake Brienz lies far below on one side with the Bernese Alps beyond. It runs only in summer and fall, roughly June to late October, and some departures run on weekends only, so check the timetable before planning a day around it.

Not a rack railway but a funicular, and here for one reason: at a maximum gradient of 110%, it is the steepest in Europe, and the operator, backed by Guinness World Records, calls it the steepest funicular in the world. Opened in December 2017, it rises 744 meters in about 1.7 kilometers to the mountain resort of Stoos. The barrel-shaped cabins rotate as the slope changes so the floor stays level, which is the strange, memorable part of the ride. Stoos is among the three mountains the Swiss Travel Pass covers in full, so pass holders can try it at no extra cost. It makes an easy half-day from Lucerne or Schwyz.

The pick for anyone based on Lake Geneva rather than in the Bernese Oberland. The rack line climbs straight out of Montreux, past Glion, to the Rochers de Naye at about 1,970 meters, with views over Lake Geneva and across to the French Alps. Its strengths are convenience and a year-round timetable: you can ride it from a lakeside hotel without a long transfer, and it runs throughout the year, which several seasonal lines here do not. It is not the Jungfrau, and does not pretend to be, but on a clear day the drop to the lake is one of the most striking views in western Switzerland.

The Italian-speaking south's mountain train, and a different kind of view. The 9-kilometer rack line has run up from Capolago on Lake Lugano since 1890, and the summit at 1,701 meters looks out over the Lombardy Plain rather than over glaciers. At the top is the Fiore di Pietra, a summit building by the architect Mario Botta that opened in 2017, which gives the trip an architectural draw of its own. Trains run daily from spring to early November and on weekends and holidays through the winter, so it suits a spring or fall visit to Ticino when several Alpine lines further north are not yet running or have already closed.

A pass crossing rather than a summit ride, and the one for steam enthusiasts. The nearly 18-kilometer meter-gauge rack line between Realp in Uri and Oberwald in Valais was closed in 1981, then reopened in stages from 1992 as a heritage railway worked only by steam and run largely by volunteers, with the whole line back in service by 2010. Many of its locomotives and carriages are over a century old and were restored by those volunteers. It runs only in the summer and fall season, and it is a slow, long outing rather than a quick view, best for travelers who care about the trains as much as the mountains.