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International

Rhaetian Railway

UNESCO World Heritage Site of Switzerland, its glory and

national pride

By Evelina Rioukhina and Ryan Kennedy

Not many countries have such a sophisticated Little Red Train – History
railway system as Switzerland. Indeed, the The Rhaetian Railway (abbreviated RhB), and
Swiss Railways are a national pride and namely the Albula and Bernina lines which
glory. There are beautiful and very technical stretch from Thusis to Tirano, are extraordinary
railways all over the world, high-speed or examples of technological innovation,
mountain tracks, but only two of them are showing man’s mastery of the Alpine
included in the World UNESCO Heritage List landscape. The Rhaetian Railway became a
– one is in India , and the other one, is here, UNESCO World Heritage site in July 2008.
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in our host county Switzerland. But while the More than a century ago, the Grisons had
whole railway system deserves admiration counted on the construction of a transit line
and much written about, it is one particular through the Splügen. A decision to build a
line that is totally outstanding and exceptional modern transportation system to provide
for its historical, engineering and spectacular access to its 150 valleys. Thus, a large narrow-
historical values. It is called the Rhaetian gauge system was laid out between 1889 and
Railway (RhB). 1913, as a replacement for the never realised
You cannot see those trains in Geneva, they standard gauge line through the eastern Alps.
do not circulate here. To see and experience It was, however, a private citizen who took
them, you need to travel at least 4 hours from the first step toward building a railway. The
Geneva to the real “heart” of Switzerland. Dutchman, Jan Willem Holsboer, was the
Read our story below: owner of a hotel in Davos, and thought with
good reason that a railway would bring a
Three of the mountain rails of India, all narrow- considerably larger stream of tourists to the
gauge railways, namely, the Darjeeling Hima- famous high valley than the horse-drawn
layan Railway, the Nilgiri Mountain Railway, and carriages and mail coaches. Consequently,
the Kalka–Shimla Railway, are collectively des- the Landquart-Davos Railway (LD) was
ignated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site under
the name “Mountain Railways of India”. The Nilgiri founded, and in 1889 its line was opened
Mountain Railway is also the only rack railway in as far as Klosters, reaching Davos in 1890.
India. The Davos-Filisur section, opened in 1909,

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