TRANSMISSION

07:12to Alvagrat

One line, one winter day. 41.8 kilometres and 1,248 vertical metres, from the larch yards of Tarven to the ridge at Alvagrat. This page runs on the line’s own clock. Scroll to ride the whole day.

The line

Metre gauge, adhesion only. No rack, no help. The Alva climbs out of the Tarven valley on nine stone viaducts and through thirteen tunnels, and it has done so every winter morning since 1913. Four trains a day each way. Ninety-six minutes. No seat is far from a window.

Length: 41.8 km
Climb: 1,248 m
Steepest grade: 70 ‰
Viaducts: 9, all stone
Tunnels: 13 · 11.2 km
Winter service: 4 trains daily, each way

km 0 — 16.2

The climb begins

Out of Tarven the line finds the flank of the valley and stays with it, rising through larch forest that holds the first snow of November until April. Seventy per mille, the steepest adhesion grade in these mountains. The train does not hurry. Neither should you.

km 16.2

Punt Alva

Six arches of dressed stone, 84 metres over the Bualetsch gorge, built in two summers by men who never saw it in winter. The line exits a cliff tunnel, crosses in open air, and buries itself again. The whole event lasts forty seconds and no one has ever looked away.

One of nine. Every crossing on the Alva is stone; the youngest is 111 years old.

km 19.0 — 23.1

Tunnel dal Corv

Four point one kilometres of dark. The windows give you back your own face, and the mountain takes eleven minutes to pass.

km 23.1 — 31.6

Plaun Alv · the long light

The tunnel ends and the world is a single white page. Eight kilometres of high plain where the line runs arrow-straight between avalanche galleries, and the afternoon sun lies flat on the snow for hours. Passengers who slept since Tarven wake up here. They always do.

The window seat

There is no dining car and no commentary. There is a stove at the end of every carriage, a fold-down table, and ninety-six minutes where the only work is looking. Three ways to sit:

Bench wooden, by the stove, with the locals 24 CHF
Window reserved seat, gorge or valley side, your call 42 CHF
Panorama glass to the roofline, front carriage 68 CHF

Single, Tarven–Alvagrat. Children under six ride free on a lap.

Reserve a window

km 41.8 · 2,236 m

Alvagrat, blue hour

The last kilometre runs along the ridge with the valley lights below, and the train arrives warm into the cold; mean January evening here is minus fourteen. The stove has been lit since Tarven. Stay for the last light, catch the 18:17 down, and watch the whole day run backwards.

Today from Tarven

dep	arr Alvagrat	service
07:12	08:48	First light
09:47	11:23	Morning
13:02	14:38	Midday
16:31	18:07	Alpenglow

Down trains leave Alvagrat at 08:58, 11:33, 14:48 and 18:17. Every service, every winter day, snow permitting.