7 Best European Train Tours for Scenic Rail Journeys
Contents
If you are shopping for European train tours, the first decision is not which country. It is whether you are buying a tour at all. Almost every journey below is a scheduled public train: you buy a ticket, you sit down, and it runs whether or not a tour company sold you a package. A rail tour bundles those same seats with hotels, transfers and someone to call when a connection breaks. That has real value, but it is convenience you are paying for, not access.
What follows is seven named routes with the operator, the endpoints, the journey time and whether a seat reservation is mandatory. Fares and timetables change every season, so treat any figure here as what was published at the time of writing and open the booking page before you commit money.
Key takeaways
- Six of these seven routes are ordinary scheduled services you can book direct from the operator.
- Switzerland’s panoramic trains charge a mandatory seat reservation on top of the ticket, and no rail pass covers it. The Glacier Express reservation is listed at CHF 54 in first or second class.
- Norway, France, Italy and Spain require reservations on most long-distance trains; Switzerland, Belgium, Denmark and the Netherlands generally do not.
- The Flam Railway is 20.2 kilometers and takes under an hour. Plan it as one leg of a day, not the day itself.
- The Jacobite in Scotland is the one genuinely tour-shaped product here, and its 2026 season runs 1 June to 23 October.
| Route | Operator | Endpoints | Journey time | Reservation |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Glacier Express | Glacier Express AG | Zermatt to St. Moritz | About 8 hours | Mandatory, paid |
| Bernina Express | Rhaetian Railway | Chur to Tirano | About 4 hours | Mandatory, paid |
| GoldenPass Express | MOB and BLS | Montreux to Interlaken Ost | About 3 hr 15 min | Recommended |
| Flam Railway | Vy, for Flam Utvikling | Myrdal to Flam | 50 to 59 minutes | Advisable in summer |
| Rauma Line | SJ Norge | Dombas to Andalsnes | 1 hr 17 min standard | Required in Norway |
| West Highland Line | ScotRail | Glasgow Queen Street to Mallaig | Around 5 hours | Optional |
| Semmering Railway | Austrian Federal Railways | Gloggnitz to Murzzuschlag | Under an hour | Optional |
1. Glacier Express: Zermatt to St. Moritz in about eight hours
Glacier Express AG, a joint venture between the Matterhorn Gotthard Bahn and the Rhaetian Railway, has run the route since 2017; the first through service departed on 25 June 1930. It is an eight-hour panoramic journey from the foot of the Matterhorn to the Engadin, crossing 291 bridges and 91 tunnels, summiting at the Oberalp Pass at 2,033 meters. The nickname “the slowest express train in the world” is not marketing: it covers roughly 291 kilometers in the time a high-speed service would cross a country.
The pricing structure is what travelers get wrong. The seat reservation is separate from the ticket and obligatory for everyone, pass holders included. The operator lists it at CHF 54 per person in first or second class and CHF 540 in Excellence Class, which also requires a first-class ticket. Tickets go on sale 180 days before travel; standard reservations open 93 days out. The published example fare for the full St. Moritz to Zermatt run is CHF 159 in second class and CHF 272 in first, before the reservation.
2. Bernina Express: a UNESCO line from Chur to Tirano
The Rhaetian Railway’s flagship runs from Chur in Switzerland to Tirano in Italy in about four hours, or roughly two hours fifteen minutes if you join at St. Moritz. The operator counts 196 bridges and 55 tunnels, taking in the Landwasser Viaduct, the Brusio circular viaduct, the Palu Glacier and Lago Bianco. Both a seat reservation and a separate transport ticket are required, and tickets can be bought up to six months before travel.
The engineering is the reason to go. The Bernina line is 60.69 kilometers of meter-gauge track with gradients up to 7 percent, one of the steepest adhesion railways anywhere, topping out at Ospizio Bernina at 2,253 meters, the highest railway crossing in Europe, with no rack and no cable. The Rhaetian Railway in the Albula and Bernina Landscapes was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site on 7 July 2008. The Landwasser Viaduct on the connecting Albula section, completed in 1902, stands 65 meters high on six arches and runs straight off its far end into a 216-meter tunnel bored into the cliff.
3. GoldenPass Express: Montreux to Interlaken without changing trains
For a century, getting from Lake Geneva to the Bernese Oberland by rail meant changing at Zweisimmen, because the MOB runs on meter gauge and BLS on standard gauge. The GoldenPass Express, launched on 11 December 2022 and jointly operated by MOB and BLS, solved that with an automatic gauge changeover at Zweisimmen believed to be the first of its kind in the world; the platform height shifts from 350 mm to 550 mm in the same operation and passengers stay in their seats. The run to Interlaken Ost takes about three hours fifteen minutes with seven intermediate stops, among them Chateau-d’Oex, Gstaad and Spiez. Early operations wore the standard-gauge wheels unevenly, and full service resumed on 11 June 2023 once the wheel spacing was narrowed.
4. The Bergen Line and the Flam Railway
Norway’s Bergen Line opened on 27 November 1909 and runs 371 kilometers from Honefoss to Bergen, climbing to 1,237 meters near the Finse Tunnel. Finse station, at 1,222.2 meters, is the highest point where passengers can actually get on or off. Vy operates the passenger service and Bane NOR owns the infrastructure.
At Myrdal the Bergen Line meets the Flam Railway, and this is where most itineraries branch. The Flam Line is 20.2 kilometers of standard-gauge track descending from Myrdal at 863.6 meters to Flam at 2 meters, a drop of about 862 meters through twenty tunnels on a maximum gradient of 5.5 percent, making it the steepest standard-gauge railway in Europe. End to end it takes 50 to 59 minutes. The stop travelers remember is Kjosfossen, a waterfall of roughly 225 meters about 1.5 kilometers from Myrdal, where in summer a performer costumed as a huldra dances on the rocks as the train pulls in.
5. The Rauma Line: Dombas to Andalsnes
The Rauma Line is the quieter Norwegian option and, for many travelers, the better one. It runs 114.2 kilometers from Dombas to Andalsnes, operated by SJ Norge with Class 93 diesel units and four departures a day in each direction, taking about one hour seventeen minutes. From June through August the operator deliberately slows the service into a tourist working with audio commentary, reduced speed and pauses at the landmarks, stretching the journey to roughly one hour thirty-five minutes. Those landmarks include the Kylling Bridge, a stone arch with a 42-meter main span thrown high above the Rauma river, and views of Trollveggen and the Romsdalshorn.
6. The West Highland Line, and the Jacobite
Scotland’s West Highland Line leaves Glasgow Queen Street and splits at Crianlarich, one branch to Oban and the other to Mallaig via Fort William; counting the reversal at Fort William, the network totals 331.1 kilometers. Readers of Wanderlust magazine voted it the top rail journey in the world in 2009. It crosses Rannoch Moor and serves Corrour, one of Britain’s most remote stations, reachable by no public road. The Glenfinnan Viaduct carries 21 semicircular arches 380 meters across and 30 meters above the River Finnan, built in mass concrete between 1897 and 1901, the line opening on 1 April 1901.
The Jacobite, operated by West Coast Railways, is the steam-hauled tourist working over the Fort William to Mallaig section, an 84-mile round trip. Its published 2026 morning service runs 1 June to 23 October, with a second afternoon departure from 10 June to 25 September. Fares start at £76 standard and £116 first class, with children from £43. The operator also notes that a vintage diesel substitutes for the steam locomotive on a handful of July 2026 dates, which matters if steam is the reason you booked.
7. The Semmering Railway: the line that made the others possible
Between Gloggnitz and Murzzuschlag in Austria, 41 kilometers of track built from 1848 to 1854 became the first mountain railway in Europe laid to standard gauge. Carl von Ghega’s route carries 16 viaducts and 14 tunnels over a summit of 898 meters, on curves down to a 190-meter radius. Around 20,000 workers built it, UNESCO inscribed it in 1998, and Austrian Federal Railways still runs regular trains over it. This is the anti-panoramic option: no reservation, no premium coach, no surcharge, on the line that solved the problem every route above inherited.
How to book these without a tour operator
Every route above is bookable directly. The Swiss Travel Pass, sold to visitors resident outside Switzerland and Liechtenstein, covers 3, 4, 6, 8 or 15 consecutive days of train, bus and boat travel, more than 500 museums and city transport in over 90 towns, with Rigi, Stanserhorn and Stoos included and up to 50 percent off other mountain excursions. It does not cover panoramic-train reservation fees.
Reservation rules are uneven. Interrail lists mandatory reservations on most trains in Croatia, France, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Norway, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden and Turkiye; Switzerland, Belgium, Denmark and the Netherlands generally require none domestically. Germany sits in between, with many ICE trains requiring reservations between 1 June and 1 September.
Pro tip
Treat the ticket and the reservation as two separate purchases, because that is how the Swiss operators sell them. Glacier Express tickets open 180 days ahead but standard reservations only open 93 days ahead, so a traveler who books six months out and forgets to come back can arrive with a valid fare and no seat.
Common mistake
Assuming a rail pass covers everything. The Swiss Travel Pass, Eurail and Interrail all reduce or replace the ticket, but the obligatory Glacier Express seat reservation applies to every passenger regardless of pass. The same holds on the Bernina Express, where the operator requires a reservation and a transport ticket.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need a guided tour to ride these trains?
No. Six of the seven are scheduled public services sold directly by the operator, and the seventh, the Jacobite, is sold directly by West Coast Railways. A package adds hotels, transfers and support, which is worth paying for if you are moving fast or traveling with people who cannot absorb a missed connection, but it does not unlock anything you could not book yourself.
Which route should I choose if I only have one day?
For maximum spectacle in a single day, the Bernina Express from St. Moritz to Tirano covers the UNESCO line, the highest railway crossing in Europe at 2,253 meters and the Brusio circular viaduct in about two hours fifteen minutes, leaving the afternoon free. The Glacier Express, at roughly eight hours, consumes the whole day.
How far in advance should I book?
For the Glacier Express, tickets are available 180 days out and standard reservations 93 days out, so the reservation window is the binding constraint. Bernina Express transport tickets can be bought up to six months ahead. Jacobite season dates for 2026 were published before the season opened, and high-summer departures are the ones that disappear first.
Are these routes worth it in winter?
The Glacier Express runs a winter timetable and the Bernina line is famous for crossing snowfields, so often yes, but daylight is the limiting factor. An eight-hour journey in December spends part of itself in the dark, which is a straightforward argument for choosing the shorter routes between November and February.
What is the cheapest way to see this scenery?
Ride the same tracks on regional trains. The Bernina and Albula lines carry ordinary Rhaetian Railway services at regional fares with no reservation surcharge, and the Semmering Railway is an everyday Austrian Federal Railways route with no premium product attached at all. You lose the panoramic glazing and the commentary; you keep the mountains.
