Journeys where the train is the destination
Rail Europe
Some lines were built to move slate, ore or salt and are now worth the fare on their own. Others were engineering arguments. All of these are scheduled public services rather than tourist excursions, which means you can use them as transport and get the spectacle for the price of a ticket.
8 places across 7 countries · not an itinerary
Flåm
865 metres of descent in twenty kilometres, and a gravel road to ride back down.
St. Moritz & the Engadin
The Bernina line: glacier to palm trees in four hours, over a UNESCO-listed railway.
Bacharach & the Rhine Gorge
The Rhine gorge line, forty castles in sixty-five kilometres, on an ordinary regional train.
Mokra Gora
The Šargan Eight: a narrow-gauge line that loops over itself to climb.
Eryri / Snowdonia (Betws-y-Coed)
Slate railways built to run downhill by gravity, now running for the view.
Pinhão & the Douro valley
The Douro line, hugging the water past terraces the whole way.
Abisko
The Iron Ore Line to the Norwegian coast, through Lapland and above the tree line.
Lauterbrunnen
Cog railways and cable cars as public transport, timed to the minute.
Not an itinerary
A theme is a way of seeing, not a route: these places are not in travelling order and most people take three or four of them, not all. For an order that respects distance, put the ones you want into the Planner.
Countries it crosses
Norway, Switzerland, Germany, Serbia, United Kingdom, Portugal, Sweden