Rhetic Railroads

The Railroad rhetic (in the singular (!), a very current fault.) or RhB (in German: Rhätische Bahn , in Italian: Ferrovia Retica , in Romanche: Viafier Retica ) exploits a private network of almost 400 km of railways in the canton of the Grisons (is Suisse). The capital of the company is almost entirely public: canton of the Grisons 53%, Confederation 43%, private 5%.

The manpower rises with: 1479 people (2002).

Network

The network, entirely with metric gauge track (spacing of 1 m), is in length the second of Switzerland after that of the CF. It includes/understands:

61 km, electrified in D.C. current: 1000 V (the line of Bernina-Bahn, BB);
12 km, electrified in D.C. current 1,5 Kv (the Castione-Cama line, which nowadays is not opened any more with the regular service of the travellers);
321 km, electrified in Alternative course 11 Kv 16,67 Hz (of which Coire - Arosa and the line of Vereina).

The network counts 84 tunnels (of which Vereina, 19,042 km, and Albula, 5,864 km) and 383 bridges. The maximum slope is of 7%.

It is in contact with the network CF in Landquart and Coire (capital of the Grisons) and crosses the Italian border to the station (FS) of Tirano (Lombardy). Trains CF serve Coire.

Services

Public means of transport, the “red train” are also a tourist attraction. They are the tourists who bring 80% of his receipts to him, but 40% of the traveller-kilometers are due to the local customers. It serves in particular famous stations like Davos and Saint-Moritz. On its lines circulate of the famous trains like:

the “ Glacier Express train ”, the the slowest express train of the world : Zermatt (: 1604 m) - Holy Moritz (: 1755 m) while passing by Oberalp (: 2033 m); this service is managed in common with the MGB (Matterhorn-Gotthard-Bahn)
the “ Bernina Express ”, Coire - Tirano, via the tunnel of Albula and the old people's home of Bernina (: 2253 m); service prolonged by coach until Lugano;
the “ Aqualino Scuol ”, of Landquart with Scuol, via the tunnel of Vereina;
the “ Engadine Star ”, of Landquart with Saint-Moritz, via the tunnel of Vereina;
the “ Arosa Bahn ”, between Coire and Arosa.

''' Car-sleeper trains ''': shuttles given rhythm for cars function in any season on two axes: by the tunnel of the Vereina to join low Engadine (valley of the In) at the beginning of Klosters, and by the Tunnel of Albula to join high Engadine at the beginning of Thusis.

The annual traffic rises to 300 million traveller-km and 54 million tkm (2002).

History

The network was built between 1889 and 1913. It is a Dutchman, Jan Willem Holsboer, owner of a hotel in Davos which took the first initiative. It created the company “Schmalspurbahn Landquart-Davos” which opened the first section of line of Landquart with Klosters in 1889, then of Klosters to Davos in 1890. The company took the name of “Rhätische Bahn” in 1895.

The electrification of the network began with the startup in 1913 from the Saint-Moritz-Scuol line. The choice was made on the alternative course to simple phase 11 Kv 16 2/3 Hz, which had made the object of tests into low Engadine between Seebach and Wettingen of 1904 to 1909.

In 1943, RhB absorbed the “Berninabahn” which had opened the line of Saint-Moritz with Tirano in 1910, and in 1950 the “Chur-Arosa-Bahn”, line built in 1914.

The last built line, between Klosters and Lavin in low the Engadine borrows the tunnel of Vereina, opened on November 19th, 1999. This section reinforces the capacity of the network notably.

Gallery photographs

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