Introduction

Today I‘m on my way back home to Basel. The weather has changed overnight. While it was quite warm up until yesterday evening, today it‘s raining and fresh. It looks quite poetic, with the low clouds gently drifting through the valley in ghostly silence.

First Leg: Scuol to Sagliains

The first leg is from Scuol Tarasp to Sagliains. The journey takes twenty minutes. Scuol is the end of the branch line. At 1200 metres above sea level, it’s not even that high.

The language policy in this part of Switzerland is slightly muddled. The sign indicating the station’s altitude is in German, whereas the platforms and their sectors are marked in Romansch.

The train to Sagliains runs all the way to Pontresina. It is made up of two compositions, with one First Class coach in each composition.

The cabin is configured with sets of two or four opposing seats.

The scenery is quite spectacular. The rain has turned the streams that were a milky slate colour yesterday into raging brown torrents.

Second Leg: Sagliains to Landquart

Sagliains used to be a small and insignificant station. However, with the opening of the Vereina tunnel in 1999 it has assumed an important strategic role, as this is now the station where cars are loaded onto the shuttle train to Klosters.

From Sagliains I catch a northbound train to Landquart, which will takes us through the Vereina. The journey from Sagliains to Landquart is roughly one hour.

The photo below was taken looking back towards Klosters.

Third Leg: Landquart to Zürich HB

At Landquart I have three minutes to connect to the SBB intercity train to Zürich. There are direct trains to Basel via Zürich, but they only run every two hours, so I’ll have to change at HB.

The journey to Zürich takes an hour. The service is operated by one of those dreadful Dosto tilting trains that are prone to shake for no apparent reason.

There is plenty of room to store luggage – once you’ve managed to successfully cart it up the steep stairs to the cabin on the upper level.

The journey from Landquart to Zürich is rather nice. For most of it, the railway lines run close to the shore of Lake Zurich.

Fourth Leg: Zürich HB to Basel SBB

At Zürich HB I alight and change platforms to catch a train to Basel. Now this is much more like it: this service is operated by the Giruno, which I think is currently the SBB’s best looking passenger train. The service I’m taking to Basel is a Eurocity which continues to Frankfurt. This is a fairly new route. Until recently, only the Deutsche Bahn operated with the ICE between Switzerland and Frankfurt. I don’t know whether this service is in direct competition or in addition to the ICE.

The cabin on the Giruno is very nice.

I particularly like the seat pairs facing each other that are displaced to give both passengers more space. There’s also ample storage space conveniently located next to the seat.

Conclusion

The Engadin is in a very remote corner of Switzerland. There are some small villages that until recently were exempted from import taxation, simply because they belonged to Switzerland politically but were accessible only through Austria or Italy.

The journey from Scuol to Basel took me four hours. The beauty of the Swiss railway service is that the schedules are coordinated to offer seamless connections. I took four trains to get home. In some cases, the connection time was less than five minutes – and it still worked out.