In Sept 2016 we spent a few hours driving the c125kms from Tirano to Thusis across the Bernina and Albula Passes, stopping along the way to see various aspects of the Rhaetian Railway. My general impression was that the Bernina section provided the better “scenery” and the Albula section the more interesting/accessible “railway engineering”. Overall the site passes through some fine, albeit “typical”, Alpine scenery and in some parts contains some interesting, even spectacular, (if not “unique”) railway engineering. Its boundaries, OUV, and even its title, also provide interesting examples of the subtleties and compromises involved in defining a “World Heritage Site”. I explore these below.

The Bernina section commences in what we felt was the disappointing town of Tirano. The metre gauge RhB station sports a UNESCO plaque but is totally without architectural interest. A few very modern trains sat at the modern platforms and the town was full of tourists milling around or having lunch between Rhaetian trains. It turns out that the 3kms section between here and the Swiss border was only added to the nomination during its later development after Italy, never a country to miss a chance of getting another WHS, made “diplomatic” contact with Switzerland to get the section added! (See - http://www.provinea.it/index.php?sezione=candidatura_ferrovia )

For a few kms the line runs along the road itself. The Nomination File makes much of this “It is rare for European railways to run on roads through towns like the Bernina Railway does. Overseas, this kind of layout was once more common, but those stretches have since been rerouted or closed down”. But it is only after 13kms that you reach the first real sight of interest – the circular “Brusio Viaduct”. A few kms later the road and railway diverge, with the former entering the Bernina Tunnel whilst the road crosses the col with fine glacier views. It then drops to meet the railway which is still climbing to its highest point at Ospizio Bernina. For the next few kms road and rail follow the plateau from Lago Bianco through winter skiing country and there are fine views of the line and trains in “high mountain” scenery (Photo). Both then drop to the Upper Engadine valley.

At this point by road there is no need to take the “dog leg” into and out of St Moritz, instead we cut off East along the valley straight towards the Albula Pass. As far as we could identify, it wasn’t possible to see much of the railway from the road on the southern side of the Albula. So the next stretch which is visible is from where the railway emerges on the Northern side from the Albula Tunnel at Preda. On the way down towards Thussis there are fine views of the railway entering/exiting tunnels and crossing viaducts from a surprising variety of directions - you see an approaching train in one direction and then it disappears and reappears in a completely different area, having gone through spiral tunnels and across viaducts!

The 2007 AB evaluation recommended that “it would ….. be appropriate to consider the creation of an Interpretation & Documentation Centre of a quality commensurate with the outstanding universal value of the property”. The “pretty” alpine village of Bergün north of Preda and south of the famed Landwasser Viaduct must have been chosen for this job and a museum opened at its railway station in Jun 2012. With admission at 15CHF and us short of time, we didn’t bother, investing our time instead on walking to the Landwasser which is set around a kilometre back from the road. By then we were running out of inclination as well as time and felt that we had seen enough to “understand” what the Rhaetian had to offer!

So - does that “offering” stand up as a WHS? The Nomination File states that “The National Geographic Traveler rates the Bernina Express as one of the ten most beautiful railway lines in the world.” I have been unable to verify this claim on the Web though there are many similar “top train” lists by various publications – some of which do include the Bernina among others (though usually within a European comparison) and some of which don’t. It certainly passes through some fine scenery but is this primarily “a railway with some Alpine scenery” or “Alpine scenery with a railway running through it” or an equal element of both?

The Rhaetian Nomination file contains a comprehensive and Worldwide “Comparison” exercise with other railways including 3 already inscribed (Semmering, Darjeeling and Niligri) plus 6 others (Yunnan, Guayaquil/Quito, Massawa/Asmara (Eritrea), Denver + Rio Grande (USA), Gotthard and Jaune (Fr). It tries hard to justify inscription on the grounds of “technical innovation” but ICOMOS rejected this, asserting that “The nominated property is more of an original technical synthesis of high quality among others of the same period built in similar conditions, than a masterpiece of human creative genius, embodying outstanding universal value.” ICOMOS was however prepared to accept that the line constituted “an outstanding technical, architectural and environmental ensemble ….. in aesthetic harmony with the landscapes through which (it passes)”

This environmental/landscape aspect gained traction though through one of the main “comparison” factors which was “Railway lines within their surrounding landscape” thus - “Comparison of the surrounding countryside (buffer zone) ….. focuses on the countrysides that surround the railway lines or in which the latter are embedded”. And surprise, surprise, it concluded that the Albula/Bernina was very strong in this respect - “The visual qualities of the cultural landscape seen from the Albula/Bernina railway and the view of the railway from the cultural landscape are therefore of significant importance for the property."

So - we have an inscribed railway whose main “value” lies in its relationship with the cultural landscape through which it passes. That value operates in 2 directions - what it takes from the landscape and what it gives to it (including for instance the role it has played in the Landscape’s development – hotels, skiing, agriculture etc). All very good, and one would then expect to see that Cultural Landscape included within the Nomination – but this wasn’t the case!!

Instead, Switzerland came up (uniquely as far as I know) with a rather strange concept of multiple levels of “Buffer Zone” which contain the Landscape beyond the inscribed railway itself! So, the nomination identifies 4 different “zones”

a. A “Core Zone” defined simply as “The railway line with its structures, installations and systems” This is only 152ha in area across the lines entire Swiss length!

b A “Primary buffer zone” defined as containing “important and valuable cultural assets, places of interest (of national importance) and landscape elements.”

c. A “Near Buffer Zone”, defined as including “parts of settlement areas that are close to the core zone and lack the exceptional qualities of the primary buffer zone.”

d. A “Distant Buffer Zone”, defined as including “the entire remaining vista of the cultural landscape visible from the train as far as and including the horizon.”

It appears that the site was originally nominated as “Rhaetian railway in the Albula/Bernina Cultural Landscape” - and that, at some time, and for some reason, all aspects of the Cultural Landscape were removed and placed in buffer zones. This must have occurred quite early in the process since the Nomination file is entirely structured around this fact. Despite supporting an inscription on this basis, ICOMOS didn’t like the idea of a site being inscribed using the words “Cultural Landscape” when its core zone didn’t include any of it! The suggestion was made therefore that “It would be desirable to change the name of the nominated property, in view of the choice finally made by the States Parties to remove the cultural landscapes from the nominated property itself and instead include them in the buffer zone. A more appropriate name would be Rhaetian Railway in the Albula/Bernina Landscape. This name refers to the remarkable natural landscapes through which the railway passes, and which are included in the "Distant Buffer Zone.” A “fine” distinction which I am not really sure addresses the problem!