Rail traffic Nostalgic trips on the Rhaetian Railway will soon be possible again

The Rhaetian Railway (RhB) train journeys that were canceled due to staff shortages can be resumed from mid-December. By then, the railroad company intends to have increased its workforce. In addition, optimizations have led to a shortening of the Chur-St. Moritz route.

Three percent of train services had to be replaced by buses at the beginning of the year because the RhB had too few train drivers. The popular special trips with nostalgia trains or special charter trains have been completely discontinued.

These can now be offered again from the timetable change on December 15, as the RhB announced on Monday. The reason for this is a training offensive. In summer, up to 50 train drivers were undergoing training at the same time.

Seven minutes faster in St. Moritz

With the timetable change, RhB is also introducing the so-called short turnaround on the Albula line. Passengers will now reach St. Moritz from Chur seven minutes faster.

Previously, six trains were needed on this route, now five. The stopping time of the trains in St. Moritz has been reduced from 62 to 14 minutes. Thanks to the opening of the new Albula Tunnel, speed increases and track optimizations in Val Bever, the route can be mastered with one less composition from mid-December, explained Simon Rageth of the Rhaetian Railway when asked by the Keystone-SDA news agency.

As a result, one train will only stop in St. Moritz for 14 minutes, the journey time will be reduced by seven minutes and costs will be saved, Rageth continued.

The railroad company purchased the six compositions required for the Albula line back in 2016. According to Rageth, the old train composition, which was previously used on a situational basis, will hardly be used from the timetable change.

SDA