Six Days in Basel; Day Two - Rhb Trains including the Albula Line

In order to extract as much value from the Swiss Flexi Pass as we could, without going into obsessive money saving territory (completely), we wanted to make the most of the three days of travel that our particular choice of pass allowed us.

Being on holiday we didn’t want to leave the hotel much before 9:30am and also didn’t want to be in a state of mild hysteria rushing from one train to another. 
The latter wasn’t a factor, as tight connections between trains are wired into the Swiss railway timetables, but the reputation for punctuality turned out to be no myth - you won't miss the trains!

Traveling over as many scenic railway lines in the  Switzerland as possible, in a relatively short time period, meant that spending leisurely hours in beautiful locations had to be sacrificed, but we had trains to catch!

The 11:33 train from Basel to Zurich was a double decked TGV Duplex, 

so we headed to the upper deck, always a minor thrill as we don’t have this option in the UK.

However, double deck trains do tend to feel a tad cramped and this TGV was no exception and of course I succeeded in caving my head in on the ceiling as I left my seat. I always manage to pull of this trick when I’m on an upper deck.

The Swiss Pass (and other rail passes) can be used on any international train within Switzerland including this Lyria train that was on its way to Zurich from Paris.

Reservations aren’t necessary in Switzerland, despite being compulsory on the Lyria trains in France, which also makes using the Swiss Pass so simple, you just can hop off one train and on to another - on trains where the Swiss Pass entitles you to free travel.

We could have taken a direct IC train from Basel to Chur, but decided to break our journey in Zurich.

I wanted to take some photos of the station for use on ThereByTrain, which was a tad pointless as the front of the station is currently a building site.

But my research did uncover a top travel tip to share with the world – it costs 2 Fr to use the loo at Zurich station, which puts the grumbling about spending 30p to access the toilets at some London stations into context – it’s 6x more expensive in Zurich!

So the tip is to try and hang on until you’re on the train – brilliant travel advice right there folks!

A cursory glance at ThereByTrain will tell you that sitting on one side of the train and not the other is a minor obsession of mine, but it is rooted in fact. If you sit on the left on the Zurich to Chur train as the train leaves Zurich station, you’ll experience one of the world’s greatest train journeys, but if you sit on the right you won’t.

Initially, for more than five minutes the train will be in a tunnel and you’ll be understandably wondering what the fuss is about, but  then for 20 mins from the left side of the train you will be gazing upon the splendor that is Lake Zurich.

While  on the right, you’ll only be looking at the admittedly, to-die-for homes, that line the shore.

All that yoghurt and muesli have obviously had a positive effect on the Swiss population, the journey was akin to traveling through a Calvin Klein commercial, thanks to all the bronzed bodies that occupied every spare yard of ground between the railway line and the lakeside.

15 mins after leaving the shore of the Zurichsee behind us, we were travelling along the right bank of the Walensee

which was even more incredible, and this was only the prelude for what was to come.

Cue minor panic at Chur station. As we exited the IC train from Zurich, on the opposite platform was The Glacier Express to St Moritz.

It was due to leave at the same time that I thought our train would be departing and my heart began to sink. I must have mixed up the timetable and our tickets weren’t valid on The Glaicer Express.

But then we heard a station employee shouting and Paul’s language skills enabled him to decipher that the Glacier Express coaches had been attached to the back of our ordinary (RhB) train, which was waiting for us further along the platform.

The last minute purchase of our Swiss Pass had been due to Paul making a case for opting for the 1^st class pass, while I was resisting paying the £100(ish) difference in price.

I knew that that 2^nd class would be  fine on Swiss standard trains and was struggling to see what difference it would make on the independent Swiss Tourist trains – after all what we’d come for was the view out of the windows, not to be sat in a comfortable seat.

Paul won the day and we were soon very glad that he had, in our opinion the 1^st class pass proved to be worth every penny.

In the 1^st class on the RhB train on the route through the Albula Pass, the train was half empty.

In contrast in 2^nd class (with only 5 mins between the arrival of the train from Zurich and the departure of the Rhb train to St Moritz), we’d have been lucky to find a window seat at all – not ideal for a once in a lifetime journey on a railway line so spectacular that it’s a U.N.E.S.C.O World Heritage site.

Being in 1^st class also meant that we didn’t have to ask a couple of dozen people if they minded us opening the window, so that was another tick in the box. (though yes we should have asked the two or three people that were actually sat behind is, but we forgot our manners in all of the excitement)..

The Glacier Express cars at the back of the train had extra-large windows, but we loved having nothing between us and the spectacular view.

We left the train to St Moritz at Samedan, because rather than heading back in the opposite direction to Chur we’d opted to loop back to Landquart, from where we could pick up a train to Basel.

This involved taking two other RhB routes  and Samedan is the junction for the first of these trains, which heads up the line towards Scuol-Tarasp.

As we the left the train at Samedan we spotted that a direct train to Landquart was about to depart, so we rushed for it.  I grabbed and opened the door when Paul cried out ‘Stop’. 
In typically English fashion, we then debated whether to get on the train or not, which incurred the wrath of the driver, we’d made the train 30 seconds late and we’re very sorry.

Paul was hungry and getting on the train to Landquart would have meant the possibility of no food or drink for another two hours.

Generally on the trip the close connections at stations didn’t allow us the luxury of proper meals between trains, which wasn’t a problem because we couldn’t afford it in any case. Also many Swiss stations have sandwich counters that wouldn’t disgrace the food hall in Harrods. Samedan’s station kiosk, wasn’t one of these, but the pizza slices were fine, particularly as the station was rather lovely.

20 mins later we were heading up the line towards Saglians,

 a station which has the sole purpose of allowing travellers to change trains on to the line to Landquart. Of course the connecting train was waiting for us as we arrived.

We struck up a conversation with the charming young guard, who urged us to return in winter when we wouldn’t believe we were in the same place – so that’s been added to the ‘to do list’.

The other Rhb lines tend to get eclipsed by the attention that the UNESCO routes receive, but with the sun beginning to set on the train to Landquart, we were mesmerized.

On the train back to Basel, Paul said it had been one of the greatest days of his life, so mission accomplished!

The trains taken;

11:33 TGV train from Basel to Zurich

13:37 IC train from Zurich to Chur

14:58 Rhb train from Chur to Samedan (final destination of this train was St Moritz)

17:08 Rhb train from Samedan to Saglians (final destination of this train was Scuol-Tarasp)

18:03 Rhb  train fro Saglians to Landquart

19:19 IC train from Landquart to Basel – arrived back in Basel at 21:27