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The world’s longest passenger train, made up of 100 connecting carriages, stretched for more than a mile as it meandered through the Swiss Alps.
The Rhaetian Railway (RhB) claims to hold the world record for the longest passenger train on a event to mark the 175th anniversary of Switzerland’s famous railway system.
The 6,266-foot train, made up of 25 multi-unit trains with 150 passengers on board, traveled through the Alps in the eastern Swiss canton of Grisons.
RhB chief Renato Fasciati said the locomotive was “Swiss perfection” as it meandered through the mountains.
While there are freight trains that are longer – some longer than two miles – the ‘Alpine Cruise’ is the longest passenger train ever run.
The Rhaetian Railway (RhB) announced it had broken the world record for longest passenger train, at an event to mark the 175th anniversary of Switzerland’s famous railway system
The 6,266-foot train, consisting of 25 separable multi-unit and 150-passenger trains, traveled through the Alps in the eastern Swiss canton of Graubünden
RhB chief Renato Fasciati said the locomotive was ‘Swiss perfection’ as it meandered through the mountains
While there are freight trains that are longer – some over two miles in length – the ‘Alpine Cruise’ is the longest passenger train ever run.
The immense vehicle was several hundred meters longer than the Belgian train that held the unofficial world record in the 1990s, said an RhB spokesperson.
Listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the ‘Alpine Cruise’ took the spiral route from Preda to Alvaneu in less than 45 minutes.
Figures showed that 3,000 people watched the historic event on a giant screen set up near Bergun halfway through the journey.
It was several hundred meters longer than a train with the unofficial previous record, in Belgium in the 1990s, an RhB spokesperson said.
It took the spectacular, spiraling Albula/Bernina route, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, to cover the nearly 15 miles from Preda to Alvaneu in less than 45 minutes
Statistics show 3,000 people watched the train on a giant screen near Bergun – halfway through the journey
Swiss media broadcast aerial footage showing the train on several levels at once, with its muzzle out of one tunnel as carriages slid further back through others
It wound through 22 spiral tunnels, crossing 48 bridges along the way, including the majestic Landwasser Viaduct, which towered 65 meters above the ravine below
It wound through 22 spiral tunnels and stabbed 48 bridges along the way, including the majestic Landwasser Viaduct.
Swiss media broadcast aerial footage showing the train on several levels at once, with the nose exiting one tunnel as the carriages slide further back through the other.
The road to the various lookouts was closed to traffic, but many hiked or biked up the mountainside in search of the best view.
The road to the various lookout points was closed to traffic, but many hiked or biked up the mountainside in search of the best view
As the train descended a mountainside, a swarm of people on bicycles tried to follow past it on a parallel path
According to Railbookers, few countries have a rail network as dense as Switzerland with about 196 miles of track per 1,000 square miles
Tourists sit and laze in the sun as the red ‘Alpine Cruise’ meanders and films through the Swiss Alps
And as the train descended a mountainside, a swarm of people on bicycles tried to follow alongside on a parallel path.
Few countries have a rail network as close as Switzerland, which 196 miles of rail per 1,000 square miles of land, according to Railbookers.
The affluent Alpine country saw the departure of its first train service on August 9, 1847, linking Zurich to Baden, 23 kilometers to the northwest – a journey that took 33 minutes.