Steeped in history

Few trains in the world can have such a cosmopolitan clientele as the Glacier Express, which this year celebrates its 75th anniversary. Arguably offering the finest landscapes of any train journey in Europe, it has become one of those things that you should do during your life. Yet the title of the train is a misnomer. Averaging 36km/h, it's an express only in its limited stops, and it no longer passes the Rhone Glacier after which it was named; to see that, you have to break the journey and take a steam heritage railway over the old route under the Furka Pass.

Few trains in the world can have such a cosmopolitan clientele as the Glacier Express, which this year celebrates its 75th anniversary. Arguably offering the finest landscapes of any train journey in Europe, it has become one of those things that you should do during your life. Yet the title of the train is a misnomer. Averaging 36km/h, it's an express only in its limited stops, and it no longer passes the Rhone Glacier after which it was named; to see that, you have to break the journey and take a steam heritage railway over the old route under the Furka Pass.

For some, the prospect of eight hours on a train may seem daunting, but it is astonishing how 290km of alpine scenery can be so varied and how quickly it passes; every twist and turn of the train opens up a new view, and even for those accustomed to Britain's upland areas, the sheer size of the mountains is awe-inspiring. Lunch in the dining car also helps to break up the day, and few remain immune to the charms of the metre-gauge network that links the Valais with Graubünden.

The journey begins, or ends, in Zermatt. The erstwhile farming village is now a major skiing resort, thanks to its excellent slopes and the dependability of snow at the margins of the season. Train is the only way to reach Zermatt, since the town voted to exclude motor traffic. It is a revelation to some that life as we know it can still function without the motor car; nowhere is very far to walk from the station, but half-sized milk floats glide through the streets with the infirm and heavily laden. For all but the benzine-dependent, the peace and air are an elixir.

In winter you can join a half-full train of just four coaches, but from spring to autumn you need to book ahead to secure a seat in a train twice that length. The slope of the roof on the panoramic coaches is glazed so that you can see the tops of mountains without getting a cricked neck, and slender pillars between the huge windows barely impede the view. If you have a choice, the best views for most of the journey are on the right-hand side leaving Zermatt or the left leaving St Moritz. If you're lucky, you may have one of the older dining-cars, with elegant brass table lamps and wine bottle holders, fresh flowers on the table and proper napery. Normally they are used on special services, but they occasionally appear when the usual cars are being serviced.

The train leaves Zermatt in the first of many concrete avalanche or snow shelters, some open-sided, and soon joins the Matter Vispa river which it follows at varying levels all the way to the Rhone valley at Visp. The value of the panoramic windows is immediately apparent as all heads are raised to peaks thousands of feet above the puny train. Between the pretty chalet-style station at Randa and Herbriggen is a graphic demonstration of nature's power to cause havoc in these valleys. A colossal slide in 1991 compelled a new section of railway to be built around the jumble of boulders and scree that covers two-thirds of the narrow valley floor.

At Brig the train reverses, so a change of side is necessary for the optimum views. As soon as Brig is left behind, the railway follows the Rhone almost to its source, reaching the upper Valais by the beautiful Goms valley. After Morel railway, river and road squeeze through a narrow gorge before reaching the first spiral of the journey. After crossing Grengiols viaduct (the highest bridge on the line at 91 metres), the line curves sharply left inside a tunnel to loop round over itself and emerge high above the lower level.

Climbing through forests of pine, spruce and birch, the train reaches the upper Goms, a broad valley of densely nucleated villages composed of chalets and barns, some on staddle stones. It was from Niederwald that César Ritz set out on his travels round the world from which he developed the ideas for the hotels that would make him "the hotelier of kings and king of hoteliers".

Ahead, mountains crowned with snow signal the approach to the Furka Pass which links the Valais and canton Uri. Until 1982, the railway swung north at Oberwald to climb steeply towards the Furka Tunnel, with fine views over the Rhone glacier, before dropping down to Realp. Winter conditions were so severe, particularly on the east side of the tunnel, that the line could not be operated in winter; one bridge was so susceptible to avalanches that a collapsible bridge was designed, enabling it to be taken away in October and re-erected at the end of May.

The inability to run trains for eight months of the year prompted construction of the 15km Furka base tunnel, allowing year-round operation since 1982 and closure of the costly section between Oberwald and Realp. However, the line between Realp and Gletsch has been reopened by preservationists using Swiss-built rack steam locomotives, some repatriated from Vietnam where they survived the war locked away in a shed hidden by jungle.

Lunch is served after Andermatt, where the line ascends without rack assistance through a series of U-shaped loops to a height from which the town looks Lilliputian. Several levels of track lie below you, and that multi-layered toy railway in the window at Hamleys no longer seems a flight of fancy. With a final twist the train turns into the long valley of the Vorderrhein and the wildest section of the journey. The desolate valley has the feel and look of a Scottish glen, with rock outcrops piercing the tussock grass and gorse, and eagles riding the thermals. Near the 2,033-metre summit of the railway at Oberalppasshöhe, the infant Rhine is so narrow that you can jump across it.

Beyond Ilanz is a gorge with tree-fringed cliffs the colour of dirty chalk towering over the bends in the river. The rock is contorted into such peculiar shapes that it could be a set from Star Wars. Shortly before Reichenau-Tamins the railway crosses the Vorderrhein near its confluence with the Hinterrhein, the waters becoming the Rhine and flowing north to reach the North Sea in the Netherlands.

Having reversed again, the train heads south beside the Hinterrhein to reach the valley of the Albula and the tunnel that will take the railway under the Albula Pass. Shortly before Filisur is a bridge that has perhaps appeared in print more times than any other railway viaduct: the Landwasser Viaduct is famous for its graceful curve and the way the final arch springs from a sheer wall of rock where the line enters a tunnel.

Beyond Filisur is one of the most dramatic and ingeniously engineered sections of railway in the world. Many must have doubted the confidence of the builders: the steep sides of the narrow valley mean that the railway is always on a ledge, but it is the difference in height between Bergun and Preda - 416 metres - that compelled the engineers to use three horseshoe loops and three spirals, often in tunnels, to avoid use of a rack. Crows can fly between the stations in 6.5km; trains require 12.2km. No other railway in the world can rival this concentration of corkscrews and curlicues.

From the long Albula Tunnel, the train descends through the sparsely populated valley of the River Bever to Samedan and the apex of three valleys. Passing the foot of the Cresta Run at Celerina, the train climbs through spruce and larch into St Moritz, summer and winter sports capital of the Engadine. Given the resort's status today as being "more Bulgari than Burton", as someone put it, it's extraordinary that its first winter visitors had to be bribed to stay.

TRAVELLER'S GUIDE

STAYING THERE

In Zermatt, Anthony Lambert stayed at Hotel Mirabeau (00 41 27 966 26 60; www.hotelmirabeauzermatt.com), which has a 16-point Gault Millau restaurant. Doubles cost from SFr274 (£120). In St Moritz at Hotel Steffani (00 41 81 836 96 96; www.steffani.ch). Doubles from SFr280 (£125). Prices include breakfast.

GETTING AROUND

The Swiss or Swiss Youth Pass gives unlimited travel for 4, 8, 15, 22 consecutive days or one month; the Swiss Flexi Pass confers the same benefits for a varying number of days within a one-month period; the Swiss Card covers the journey from the border/airport to your destination and back, plus a 50 per cent discount on most public transport in the interim; the Swiss Travel System Family Card gives free travel to children up to 16 when accompanied by a parent.

MORE INFORMATION

For information and purchase of Swiss Travel System tickets covering a range of scenic rail journeys and offering unlimited travel on boats, buses and trains, public transport in 37 Swiss cities, as well as reductions on many mountain excursions, contact: Switzerland Tourism

(00800 100 200 30; info.uk@myswitzerland.com; MySwitzerland.com

RAIL... AND ROAD

GREAT RAILWAY JOURNEYS

The Glacier Express may be the best known of Switzerland's railway journeys, but there is no shortage of rivals for breathtaking scenery. The highest rail crossing of the Alps is made by the Bernina and Heidi Express, which reach Tirano in Italy from Chur and Davos respectively. In summer you can ride in open carriages to appreciate the air and the views at their best. Taking less than two hours to travel from glaciers to palm trees, the trains descend over 1,800 metres in just 54km.

Another international route heads west from Locarno through the lonely Centovalli. The narrow-gauge railway crosses some vertigo-inducing viaducts on the way to the Italian railway junction of Domodossola. Many of the hillsides are covered in chestnut trees and are so steep that the size of the few settlements is limited.

The William Tell Express from Lucerne to Lugano begins with a journey on one of Lake Lucerne's magnificent paddle steamers, the oldest dating from 1901 and the youngest from 1929. Lunch is served amid the finest lake views in Switzerland, passing various places associated with the William Tell story. At Flüelen, passengers transfer to panoramic coaches for the spectacular railway journey through the Gotthard and Valle Leventina to lakeside Lugano.

The Golden Pass Route links Zurich and Geneva, but it is the narrow gauge section between Lucerne and Montreux that offers the best scenery, ranging from the rolling pastoral hills of the Pays d'En-Haut and the mountains around the skiing mecca of Gstaad to the series of jewel-like lakes along the Brünigbahn.

POSTBUS EXCURSIONS

The yellow postbus and its distinctive horn has been a feature of Swiss life for generations. Comfortable and as clean as Swiss trains, they offer the chance to cross the highest passes without worrying about the driving. Two circular routes, from Andermatt or Meiringen, take in the Furka, Grimsel and Susten passes, and the San Bernardino Route Express between Chur and Bellinzona crosses the eponymous pass in summer as well as threading the Via Mala - in the pre-motor age one of the most feared sections of road in a country full of perilous journeys.

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