Experience the Bernina Train

The Bernina train is the Rhaetian Railway (RhB) line that climbs from Tirano in Italy over the Bernina Pass to St. Moritz in Switzerland. The ride between St. Moritz and Tirano takes about 2 hours 15 minutes, and the panoramic Bernina Express also runs the full route from Chur in about 4 hours. Together with the Albula line, it has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2008. This independent guide, unconnected to the railway, compares the day trips, tickets and do-it-yourself routes.

Two trains share one track

The Bernina Express is RhB’s panoramic train: big windows that curve up into the roof, a few departures a day, and a mandatory seat reservation that you pay on top of the ticket. Its windows do not open. The other is the ordinary regional train, which Italians call the trenino rosso and tour listings call the Bernina red train. It has regular coaches with windows you can open, runs roughly every hour, and a seat reservation is optional at CHF 5 per person.

The scenery is identical; the price, the seat and your photos are not. RhB itself warns that some third-party sellers call regional trains “Bernina Express”. Our Bernina Express vs regional train guide compares the two carriage by carriage.

Most “Bernina Express” day trips ride the red train

Read the small print and most Milan day trips put you in 2nd class on the regional train. Several say outright that the ride is not in a panoramic carriage. That suits photographers, with no glass glare, but it is not the panoramic train.

Only two tours on this site sell a guaranteed seat in a panoramic Bernina Express coach, and both come from Frigerio Viaggi. From Milan it is the Milan: St. Moritz and panoramic Bernina Express tour (our breakdown), from $186 per person on its panoramic-carriage option and rated 4.6 from 4,090+ reviews. It is the most-reviewed tour that guarantees a panoramic coach, though seats are not assigned. From Como, the Como: Bernina panoramic express and St. Moritz (our breakdown) does the same from $220.

If open windows and a lower price matter more, the Milan Bernina red train and St. Moritz day trip (our breakdown) is the most-reviewed red-train day trip without a lake cruise: 4.8 from 5,110+ reviews, from $144. Our Bernina Express from Milan page sorts every Milan day trip by train, and Bernina red train from Milan covers the regional-train tours.

What a day trip from Milan really looks like

Plan on 11 to 13 hours from departure to return, with only about 2 to 2.5 hours of it on the train. The rest is coach time, roughly 2.5 to 3 hours each way. One leg follows Lake Como’s eastern shore and the Valtellina to Tirano; the other crosses the Maloja Pass and drops through Chiavenna. In between come one to two and a half hours in St. Moritz and often a short stop in Tirano.

Many tours may run the day in reverse, and a few swap the Bernina line for the Albula line (St. Moritz–Thusis) on some dates, so check your option. Bring a passport or national ID card: every Milan day trip crosses the Swiss–Italian border twice, and operators ask for it even inside the Schengen area.

What you see from the window

Heading south from St. Moritz, the train passes Pontresina and runs below the Morteratsch glacier, takes the Montebello curve and climbs past Lago Bianco to Ospizio Bernina. At 2,253 m it is the highest point on the whole RhB network. From Alp Grüm the view opens over the Palü glacier, then the line drops in tight loops toward Poschiavo, turns a full circle on the Brusio circular viaduct and runs on the street in places on its way to Tirano, at about 430 m. That is a descent of roughly 1,800 m in about 61 km, without a rack.

One famous bridge is not on this stretch. The Landwasser Viaduct, the tall curved bridge on so many Bernina Express posters, is on the Albula line between Chur and St. Moritz, near Filisur. You cross it on the Bernina Express from Chur, and one Milan tour visits a viewpoint on its Albula option, but most Milan day trips never see it. Our Chur to Tirano page covers that full route.

Tickets or a tour

You do not need a tour at all. Trenord regional trains run from Milano Centrale to Tirano in about 2.5 hours, roughly every one to two hours, for about EUR 12.50 in 2nd class. In Tirano the RhB station sits across the square from the Italian one. There you need an RhB ticket for the red train, or a ticket plus the Bernina Express reservation, reported at CHF 32 between St. Moritz and Tirano. Everyone pays that supplement in full, children and Swiss Travel Pass, Eurail and Interrail holders included. Official tickets are sold on rhb.ch.

On GetYourGuide, the Tirano to St. Moritz red train ticket (our breakdown) starts at $75 one-way in 2nd class, the cheapest listing on this site, with unreserved seats and free cancellation up to 7 days before. A tour costs more but handles the coach, timing and border. Our Bernina Express tickets page compares official and reseller fares, and Milan to St. Moritz by Bernina train sets a tour against doing it yourself.

Seasons in brief

The line runs all year. In summer 2027 RhB schedules five Bernina Express departures in each direction a day; in winter there are two, with a third on some days. Snow makes winter photogenic, but St. Moritz gets only about 8.5 hours of daylight in late December; see the Bernina Express in winter. Third parties also report a closure between Cavaglia and Tirano from early October to late November 2027, with replacement buses. RhB has not confirmed it, so check rhb.ch if you travel then.

Choose by starting point

• Milan: almost every tour starts here. Book the Frigerio tour for the panoramic train; red-train day trips start at $110. For groups of at most 18, see small-group and private tours.
• Lake Como: the Lake Como cruise, St. Moritz and Bernina red train (our breakdown) is the most-reviewed tour on this site, 4.6 from 6,300+ reviews, and departs from Milan. Tours that actually leave from Como are on the Lake Como and Bernina Express page.
• Tirano: you are already at the station. The Tirano–St. Moritz red train return day ticket (our breakdown) lets you hop off along the way, from $123. More on Bernina Express from Tirano.
• St. Moritz: ride south and spend the afternoon in Tirano. The St. Moritz to Tirano train page compares the panoramic train and the red train from the Swiss end.
• Chur: start here to add the Albula line and the Landwasser Viaduct, about 4 hours on the Bernina Express. See the Chur to Tirano route.

If you are still deciding, our guide to which Bernina train tour is right for you matches all 14 tours and tickets to a type of traveler.

When you have a date in mind, check availability for the panoramic Bernina Express tour from Milan and choose the panoramic-carriage option on the calendar.