Europe's most under-rated scenic rail routes

[johnnychips]

Genova-Casella. Lovely run up a mountain with quirky stock.

 

[Groningen]

1/4 of the Semmering tunnel is now complete. Goodbye nice views in future.

 

[duesselmartin]

1/4 of the Semmering tunnel is now complete. Goodbye nice views in future.

Similar to the Gotthard, regional services will still run over the old route.

 

[cactustwirly]

Similar to the Gotthard, regional services will still run over the old route.

Which is a good thing for the intermediate stations Payerbach-Reichenau - Muerzuschlagg, who get a very limited service at the moment.

 

[cactustwirly]

Anyway another one for the thread, the Karawanken railway from Villach to Jesenice is very pretty, the onward journey to Ljubljana is very nice as well!

The Tauern railway is spectacular, especially around Bad Gastein!

 

[61653 HTAFC]

A couple of hidden gems in the Pyrenees. Most of us have heard of the "little yellow train" on the French side, but the other two surviving routes from Latour de Carol are just as scenic if not quite as quaint. Much like the yellow train they aren't overburdened with services though...

On the Rodalies de Catalunya R3 line there are only a handful of services that run right through to the border station, but they're well worth seeking out. As you head down the mountains, the first stop is Puigcerda, which looks like a fair-sized city that's been dropped into a spaghetti-Western (or should that be Paella-Western?) landscape. A couple more stops then the line starts to descend along a narrow, steep-sided valley with views that are truly breathtaking. In the space of about 20mins you get to see snow-capped peaks, semi-desert scrubland, rugged moorland and alpine fforests all from the same train.

The line from Toulouse can't quite compete with the other two, but is still amazing. Watching the sun rise over the mountains from the open window of a couchette compartment is a memory I'll take to my grave. You also get to call at Andorra's only railway station, which is of course in France! One tip though- bring your own breakfast if you're doing the sleeper as there's no on-train catering!

 

[dazzler]

The line from Toulouse can't quite compete with the other two, but is still amazing. Watching the sun rise over the mountains from the open window of a couchette compartment is a memory I'll take to my grave. You also get to call at Andorra's only railway station, which is of course in France! One tip though- bring your own breakfast if you're doing the sleeper as there's no on-train catering!

I do like the lines from La Tour de Carol, I've been down the "Petit Train Jaune" route a few times over the years via the Paris - La Tour de Carol couchette and it never gets boring.

Another one for the jury - a couple of years ago I had a similar view of mountains from a couchette window on the Briançon service between Chorges and Embrun. The view over the Lac d'Embrun is absolutely gobsmackingly beautiful. (Then I got off the train at Briançon and headed off into the Alps on my bike for many, many more gobsmackingly beautiful views in the high mountains - but that's a story for a different forum! )

 

[61653 HTAFC]

I do like the lines from La Tour de Carol, I've been down the "Petit Train Jaune" route a few times over the years via the Paris - La Tour de Carol couchette and it never gets boring.

Another one for the jury - a couple of years ago I had a similar view of mountains from a couchette window on the Briançon service between Chorges and Embrun. The view over the Lac d'Embrun is absolutely gobsmackingly beautiful. (Then I got off the train at Briançon and headed off into the Alps on my bike for many, many more gobsmackingly beautiful views in the high mountains - but that's a story for a different forum! )

The Barcelona line seems to be neglected more than the two French ones, but it's well worth a trip. Even the last hour or so beyond Ripoll through Vic and into the suburbs of Barcelona are quite interesting, though in a different way...

You can see signs of the property crash as you ride down the mountains though, with "ghost villages" scattered around. All to match the abandoned station buildings at Ripoll and the severed junction at Puigcerda which I assume was once a route towards Zaragoza and Madrid.

 

[dazzler]

The Barcelona line seems to be neglected more than the two French ones, but it's well worth a trip. Even the last hour or so beyond Ripoll through Vic and into the suburbs of Barcelona are quite interesting, though in a different way...

You can see signs of the property crash as you ride down the mountains though, with "ghost villages" scattered around. All to match the abandoned station buildings at Ripoll and the severed junction at Puigcerda which I assume was once a route towards Zaragoza and Madrid.

I remember riding down the Barcelona line as far as the station with the rack railway (Ribes?) when I was a kid in the early 80s and we were around there on holiday (father was BR staff, so FIP tickets to the fore!). I don't think the rack railway was running, so we got the next train back up the hill. I *think* we were stopping in the station hotel at La Tour de Carol as well. It's changed a *lot* since then!

 

[MarcVD]

Yes if you are in the area, the rack line from Ribes de Freser to Val de Nuria is well worth a visit. And you can sit in front, with view on the track. And in the same (large) area, the rack line to Monserrat also.

 

[Richard Scott]

Surprised Bulgaria's only had a brief mention - Sofia to Levski stunning as is the narrow gauge line out of Septemvri - bonus of rateable diesel hydraulics on this. Also only briefly done Romania but line from Bucharest to Brasov then along to Sibiu and beyond is well worth doing for scenery. Serbia from Nis to Dimitrovgrad is very scenic (good job as line speed somewhat slow) and generally anywhere in Slovenia but the line from Most na Soci up to Jesenice is definitely a must, especially if doing the avtovlak for part of the way!

 

[Giugiaro]

I haven't really travelled much outside of Portugal and the UK.

If I were to pick one, it would be the Berlin Stadtbahn. The scenery and the railway is nothing short of amazing!
I crossed it several times between Charlottenburg and Berlin Hauptbahnhof, but the whole length between Charlot and Berlin Ostbahnhof is just beautiful and mesmerizing, squiggling around between buildings, old and new, parks and rivers... there's nothing I experienced that comes close to it.

Unfortunately if I were to propose something like the Stadtbahn in Portugal I would end up getting my head cut off!

 

[nw1]

Would agree about Garmisch to Innsbruck. The way the line drops down the side of the mountains into Innsbruck is quite something else!

A number of years ago I travelled across a good part of the Alps from Garmisch to Visp by way of Innsbruck, Filisur (overnight), Disentis, and Brig. Pretty stunning all the way though probably not underrated. Classic Alpine summer weather of sunny with 'fluffy' (cumulus) clouds too...

The main line from Athens to Thessaloniki has some very nice stretches indeed, somewhere just south of Lamia for instance the train goes along the side of a mountain with an estuary far below. Electric locos with hauled stock very reminiscent of the UK in the 1980s too!

 

[eastwestdivide]

Would agree about Garmisch to Innsbruck. The way the line drops down the side of the mountains into Innsbruck is quite something else!

However, when I went in 2015, the tree cover had grown up to obscure the views somewhat. Without the trees it might almost rival the drop down from the Lötschberg route into Brig.

Meanwhile, the route from Koblenz down the Mosel valley towards Trier isn't bad, and the continuation from Trier through to Saarlouis/Saarbrücken was an interesting gradual change from rural river valley to slightly post-industrial.