Original subtitles

♪ ♪ ♪

(Teddy) we're in switzerland

In the middle of winter where it's a constant battle

Against the elements

To keep the bernina express rolling down the tracks.

Every trip is an obstacle course.

It's a mountain train and mountains are never dull.

(Teddy) heavy snow fall.

(Teddy) massive ice build up.

(Teddy) and falling rocks.

It's a huge challenge for drivers.

(Teddy) but the scenery is out of this world.

We fight nature's fury, every step of the way.

Now we go avalanche blasting.

(Teddy) join me for a ride high into the swiss alps.

♪ ♪ ♪

(Teddy) majestic soaring landscapes as far as the eye can see.

This is switzerland in winter.

(Teddy) the railway was built through

These mountains over 100 years ago,

The steep grades combined with snow and ice made it

A constant battle to get the job done.

My adventure begins in chur

The oldest town in the country.

At the station skiers, tourists and our

Conductor are all keen to get going.

Hello. Patricia?

Good morning Teddy.

How are you?

I'm fine, thanks, how are you?

I'm excited.

I'm really, really excited to take this trip.

You're the conductor, you're responsible

For everyone on board.

Is it a full train today?

Yes, it's quite full.

We have around two hundred people.

(Teddy) passengers are expectng

One of the most picturesque journeys in the world.

But it's a punishing trek of mountain versus machine

So maintenace crews inspect every centimeter of our train.

Test one, two, three.

(Teddy) they replace a worn out

Contact strip so the pantograph will be ableo draw power

From the overhead lines.

Here you can see the reduced thickness.

(Teddy) work gets done on top, and in the pit below.

Looking that there are no cracks anywhere on the wheel,

If the wheel breaks it will end in a big disaster.

(Teddy) we'll be climbing up to

The highest railway crossing in the alps.

It's the last place you want to derail.

Today everything looks fine.

♪ ♪ ♪

(Teddy) it's official.

The bernina express is ready to roll.

(Teddy) it takes years of experience and nerves of steel

To conquer the alps.

Enter 40 year driving veteran, reto.

Hello reto,

Hello Teddy.

It's good to meet you.

What are the biggest challenges you face on in your job?

Oh, just look outside, the weather is action packed.

I am expecting snow storms on top and things will be happening.

It's turbulent and powerful.

The challenges are, it's a long route

And you have to be focused the whole time

And not lose your concentration.

Alright, I'll let you do your final checks.

Thank you.

Ciao.

Bye.

(Teddy) the final checks are done.

The train is full of tourists and we're ready

To start our world famous trip through the alps.

Like a lot of high-speed or commmuter trains

The bernina express uses an e.M.U. Or electric

Mutiple unit instead of a locmotive.

Between the trailer car and the two motorcars that

Power the train, it seats 100 passengers.

Each motor car is 16 point 5 meters long,

Three point 8 meters high

And 2 point six five meters wide.

(Teddy) attached are 6 extra passengers cars

Complete with panoramic windows.

We're scheduled to depart at 8:32.

And when the swiss say 8:32, they mean it.

(whistle blows)

And so we begin our 4 hour journey on two historic

Rail lines with unesco world heritage status.

(Teddy) from chur we'll travel to thusis

The start of the breathtaking albula line.

That will take us towards the jet set capital of st. Mortiz.

In pontresina, we'll switch over to the bernina line.

After ospizio bernina, the highest point on our journey

We'll descend through charming villages set in mountain valleys

Before arriving in tirano Italy.

So we've just left the station in chur

A few minutes ago and it already is incredible.

I mean just look at the scenery.

And this area is called the domleschg valley

And it's famous because it's got one of the highest

Concentration of castles in all of europe.

And also we've got the rhine river

Which we're tracking right now.

(Teddy) two hundred and thirty thousand passengers,

Ride the bernina express every year to enjoy

The impressive sights.

Danke schoen.

And they're not alone.

Every day I have fun at work.

Of course, safety is always paramount,

But fun is also part of it.

♪ ♪ ♪

(Teddy) starting work at 5 a.M.

This morning was anything but fun for track master, adam.

Today is cold.

We're used to being outside, we like to be warm.

But that's the job.

(Teddy) adam's worked on this line for 30 years.

He's responsible for the sixty one kilometer

Stretch from thusis to st. Moritz.

Part of the job is making sure trains can squeeze through tunnels.

Because of the profile, the tunnels are small,

The trains are wide.

The ice, do you see up there?

(Teddy) ground water seeps into the cracks of

The tunnels and freezes.

That shrinks the clearance on both sides.

(Teddy) so all winter, at least twice a week,

The team claws back the ice, armed with only pick axes.

(Teddy) they shovel the chunks

Into the wagon and then turn their focus overhead.

Falling icicles could hit the windshield and hurt the driver.

(Teddy) so the work crew takes one for the team.

Dam we are sturdy, we are strong, we can take it.

If the helmet does its job, nothing will happen.

(Teddy) ice buildup on the power lines could

Shut down our trip and every other train on this single track line.

The ice doesn't destroy the power lines,

But the pantograph that conducts the power

To the train will break and then it's done.

(Teddy) the overhead wires are live

Pulsating with eleven thousand volts of electricity.

The crew has to use special equipment made of carbon fibre.

These poles protect you from being electrocuted,

So nothing will happen to us and we can do the work

Without turning the electricity off.

Their price tag is 1,500 swiss francs.

(Teddy) a small price to stay safe in a job that

Could cost these men their lives.

My family does get scared for me every once in a while.

Last year I was almost hit by a train.

One of my colleagues grabbed me by the shoulder

And yanked me out of the way.

(Teddy) back on our train, we're riding the one hundred

And sixteen year old abula line.

Reto's behind the wheel and our conductor...

So good morning, hello again.

(Teddy) is making sure passengers are comfortable.

(Teddy) outside we pass homes

And stations dotted along the line.

But soon enough the landscape opens up

And it's all mountains,

All the time.

What are the biggest parts of your job as

The train keeps going all the way to tirano?

My biggest is to make sure that it is safe.

(Teddy) that's a priority shared by

Everyone at the train control center in lanquart.

This is bernina express coming from

Track sixty-eight to fifty-seven to track ten.

This is the brain of our train network system.

Here dispatchers and controllers monitor the rail lines.

They work for rhaetian bahn or r.H.B.

That's the company that owns the bernina express

And the largest alpine rail network in all of switzerland.

One third of our lines are over one thousand-five hundred meters

So we are in alpine area.

(Teddy) for trains high elevations

Come with even higher stakes.

When it snows heavy it can be possible to

Shutdown our traffic because of avalanche risk.

(Teddy) in the last 85 years

Swiss avalanches have killed nearly 2000 people.

That's why the rail company has sent out

A specialized team of snow profilers.

They're inspecting the pack above the tracks

That might be a problem.

We determine the stability of this slope to make sure

That it is safe for the train to pass.

We have this probe with a two kilo weight

And according to the denseness or the hardness of the layers

It sinks in more or less.

5 from 50, 106.

So, now we have really reached a hard layer.

If we have a big mixture of hard and soft layers

On the way, that created a very dangerous situation.

The whole slab can collapse and go down.

(Teddy) but trusting the probe isn't enough.

They analyze individual snow crystals, rounder ones

Bond together better and make the pack stronger.

At the moment it's good.

(Teddy) temperature factors into it as well.

The more difference we have in temperature

The more we have an active changing snow layer.

If there's a difference of more than one degree celsius over

10 centimeters they might have to take action.

Of course then we have to stop the train.

(Teddy) right now there's only a nine degree difference

In the whole section from top to bottom.

Today it looks all good.

(Teddy) so trains can keep running.

But only if the results are confirmed by a final test,

The rutschblock.

(Teddy) developed by the swiss in

The 1970's, they use a thin cord

To cut away a block of snow.

Now I exert my weight without jumping,

Just my weight which goes on the slab.

1,2,3, didn't release.

Next step is I step up on top of the cut and jump on the slab.

1, 2, 3. That's it.

It takes a jump that's already a very high

Stability and the crack happened on that layer

Where we expected it to crack.

(Teddy) and no surprises

Means the track can stay open,

Which we love we don't love surprises in this job.

(Teddy) but further down the line,

It's could be a different story.

♪ ♪ ♪

I'm taking the awe-inspiring

Bernina express over the swiss alps.

It was when the railway came to town over a

Century ago that this region really started to boom.

But laying the tracks across these mountains was

One of the most challenging problems

In the history of swiss engineering.

(Teddy) no one knows that better than jordan.

He's a rail fan with a p.H.D. In the history of tourism in the alps.

You didn't have a proper highway all the way to st. Moritz.

It took ages to get here, either from Italy or from chur,

It took over eight hours by horse.

It was very difficult.

So the railway changed everything.

(Teddy) construction on albula line began in 1898.

For 5 years more than 4 thousand workers dug

Forty two tunnels through sheer rock and built 144 bridges

And viaducts over mountain valleys.

Does it continue to blow you away that this

Train line exists here in this topography?

It does.

There are so many other mountain trains you know

Throughout the alps, throughout europe but most

Of the time they follow a valley.

The albula is so impressive

Because it goes through rivers, gorges, canyons.

And that's what makes it so interesting but also quite dangerous.

(Teddy) climbing over a thousand meters,

Tracks were laid at a shallow rise of 3 point 5 percent,

The most efficent for steam trains at the time.

When you think of how little safety,

How little technology they had available,

They still made it possible.

It's an absolute wonder.

(Teddy) as is the viaduct we're about to cross over.

I can see right up ahead we're coming up on the solis viaduct.

This is a really impressive structure, right?

It is the highest bridge, the highest viaduct

On this entire railway.

(Teddy) built in 1901 using local limestone,

The viaduct is eighty five meters high.

It spans the abula river below.

Something a dragon slaying martyr apparently didn't need.

And legend has it that st. George as he was being chased,

Actually jumped with his horse across the gorge.

It's a legend but I mean we can see that with a

Train it's possible now at least.

(Teddy) in the design engineers used eleven arches.

Those arches added support and the open spaces in

Them drastically reduced the amount of solid limestone required.

It's stood the test of time.

I got a bit of vertigo looking down.

I'm not ashamed to admit it.

Well, same here.

(Teddy) on the albula line,

One amazing feat of engineering follows another.

For instance on the landwasser viaduct

You didn't have scaffolding.

It was just all built from the bottom all the way up.

Scaffolding would have been washed away by the river.

So in 1901, steel towers were erected and then

The stone piers were built around them.

The landwasser took twice as long to build

As any other viaduct on the line.

This is really cool.

We're about to cross over the landwasser viaduct.

Here it is.

I mean just look at that.

It's one of the most impressive and famous

Railway landmarks on earth.

(Teddy) the landwasser got a facelift in 2009.

Repointing the mortar took 9 months, but 60 trains a day kept running.

As we continue on the line the snow is heavy.

This is the machine which is used to clear the snow and tracks.

It makes us proud, it has power.

(Teddy) the massive snow blower uses 8 cylinders

And six hundred horsepower to clear the tracks ahead of us.

We remove about 3,800 cubic meters of snow per hour.

(Teddy) in other words

They can remove enough snow to fill nearly

Two olympic size swimming pools in an hour.

Okay, perfect.

(Teddy) the tracks may be clear

But the crew's work is never done.

Our train is heading towards the rugnux tunnel.

It was built in 1903 close to an underground spring.

There's a lot of water entering the tunnel.

(Teddy) water used to seep into the tunnel.

When hit with the cold air inside, it would freeze

And turn to ice.

The bulk of the ice wound up shifting and lifting the tracks

Increasing the chance of derailment.

So in 1929, doors were installed at

Both ends of the tunnel.

These doors keep the temperature inside above

Freezing preventing ice build up.

The doors are controlled by signals.

That means, when the train approaches,

The signal turns green and then the tunnel doors open automatically.

(Teddy) as long as there's nothing in their way.

So adam and his team keep the path clear.

There is constantly snow blowing in this direction

And that's why we need to remove the snow manually,

So the doors have space to open and close.

(Teddy) once the doors are inspected

And the snow is cleared,

The signal turns green and we're in the rugnux,

The first of three corkscrew or spiral tunnels on this line.

So it's really all about getting the elevation in a short distance.

Exactly.

It's amazing.

It's really such a feat of engineering.

Think about it, we have to gain elevation but there's

Not much space around so we have to go around

And actually make an entire loop to go up the elevation.

(Teddy) we've completed one full

360 degree spiral coming out of the first tunnel.

We have a high climb ahead of us, almost as tall as

The empire state building.

But we don't have enough distance to do it in.

(Teddy) the solution?

Back to back three sixties.

In one mountain peak, workers bored through rock

To lay track for the 667 meter tuoa tunnel.

And then just 50 meters above that, in a feat of

Precision engineering they continued to dig out

The 535 meter long zuondra tunnel.

It's amazing, isn't it?

We are gaining elevation within a tunnel.

Basically we are going to do a loop and be above

Where we were a couple of seconds ago in a few seconds.

(Teddy) the albula line brings thousands

Of tourists to new heights.

Thank you so much, perfect beverage

For the perfect ride.

(chuckling)

(Teddy) but it also brings the threat

Of deadly avalanches closer.

That's where search and rescue expert hanseuli comes in.

Good to meet you.

Good to meet you.

(Teddy) born in the alps,

Hanseuli is a second generation helicopter pilot.

He's logged more than ten thousand hours working

In these mountains for over three decades.

I would say to fly in the mountains

You need a lot of experience.

He's hired by the railway company r.H.B,

To scout the line from above to keep the track safe.

Tell me about what we're flying over right below us here.

That's avalanche barriers to protect the r.H.B. Track.

So do you see a lot of these types of barriers in the mountains?

Everywhere.

Everywhere, yes because the whole r.H.B. Track is

Winding through valleys along mountain sides.

(Teddy) and those avalanches are

A constant threat to the trains.

Definitely.

Definitely.

You can see that we're in an avalanche

Corridor right here.

You can see where the avalanches come down

And that's an avalanche tunnel so the snow actually goes

Over the tunnel and the train passes safely inside.

Closer to the tracks we see the last line of prevention.

So you can see that right here the bernina express

Is passing just below avalanche fences

And there are fences everywhere including right

Up beside the tracks like we're seeing here.

(Teddy) not only does the railway

Work hard to deflect and contain avalanches,

They also go and start them!

Well, now we go avalanche blasting.

♪ ♪ ♪

The bernina express pits mountain against machine

As it carves a path through the rugged swiss alps.

A challenging trek that attracts passengers

From all over the world.

She's our relative from ukraine.

And this is my actually gift for the birthday,

This bernina express tour.

So this is very special for me.

Americans floyd and melissa are retracing

The back pack trip they took over two decades ago.

We finally got to switzerland tired and exhausted.

It was like, 'this is fun' but it was only a one day

Trip and we had to get back.

So twenty-five years later, we're like, 'we're going back'.

You're doing the trip in a little more style

Than when you were backpacking.

It's a lot better.

And we're not carrying as much luggage.

Such a cool story.

(Teddy) we're travelling through the engadin valley, st. Mortiz

Put this winter sports mecca on the map.

And we get to see it all from the tracks.

How did the arrival of the train affect tourism?

St. Moritz is a big town around here and the first

Winter season was in 1864.

The train was not here.

So the railway changed everything to popularize

St. Moritz as a place for winter sports.

Coming up, we'll be making the switch from the albula

To the bernina line.

Right now we're stopping at pontresina station

And this is a really important stop on the line because it's

Where the train and the electricity system

Changes from a.C. To d.C.

(Teddy) the albula runs on alternating current

But the bernina line uses direct current.

In the past, they had to switch from an

A.C. Locomotive to a d.C. One.

But the bernina express can handle both.

All reto has to do is lower the pantograph

To cut the power to the train.

Then the current is changed over to d.C.

With the flick of a switch.

(Teddy) the pantograph is raised back up.

We leave a.C. Power and the abula line behind.

Moving forward, it's the bernina line all the way.

It was made with less money and with less tunnels

And bridges but it's as impressive and of course

As you can see we're going very, very high.

(Teddy) not only is the berina line

Twice as steep as the abula, its curves are tighter.

After the next curve.

I once again increase the speed to 50 kilometers

An hour, after the slow speed stretch.

Since we left chur, the bernina express

Has climbed a gruelling 1300 meters plus.

Every day brings something new when driving this train.

One day it will be very windy and very icy,

Then in summer it's completely different.

(Teddy) a demanding ride for train and driver, pays off for

Passengers wanting to hit the slopes.

We're at bernina diavolezza.

There's a very good ski spot.

Fertig!

♪ ♪ ♪

(Teddy) this part of the route, heading to ospizio bernina,

Gets more snow than any other.

In the winter of 2001 they got

A record breaking 24.6 meters.

Our boss is the weather.

Every day the weather brings something different

And every day it brings something new.

(Teddy) stefano is the track master

For the bernina line.

He's responsible for keeping the train running

Out in the middle of nowhere.

So he brings out the big guns.

Okay.

(Teddy) his machine, nicknamed the beast,

Is so powerful and so big it has to be pushed by

A twenty five hundred horsepower work train.

They both ride on top of the rails,

Facing off against mother nature's worst.

If we did not do our job the train would

Not be able to go through and it is also thanks to

The ability of the drivers and the machinery operators

That we accomplish our job every day.

(Teddy) the large blades spin 460 times a minute,

Pulling snow into the machine.

And spitting it away from the track.

The beast can remove over 77,000 tons of snow in an hour.

Our problem is the wind and not the snow.

The wind carries the snow here and we have to clear it.

This is really our main problem.

(Teddy) but wind doesn't

Just blow snow onto the tracks.

It can blow a train right off them!

♪ ♪ ♪

(Teddy) twenty four hundred kilowatts

Of power is pushing the bernina express higher and higher as we

Cross the epic bernina pass in the swiss alps.

Never a dull day or dull moment on

The bernina express from the sounds of it.

Absolutely.

It's a mountain train and mountains are never dull.

I think in a way it's the most swiss of trains,

We're crossing a region that where three different

Languages are spoken, the three out of four

National languages of switzerland.

It crosses some of the most impressive areas of switzerland.

So in a way, if you have to pick one journey to make

In switzerland or in the world, it should be this one I think.

(Teddy) our train snakes along

The shores of lago bianco, frozen for most of the year

Fed by glaciers and one of the most beautiful sights for passengers.

(Teddy) we're up over two thousand

Meters nearing the summit of our journey.

We're reaching ospizio bernina, it's the highest point on the railway.

And it makes this railway the highest railway in europe

That doesn't use a cog wheel.

So it's really impressive.

(Teddy) to handle steep grades,

Most trains, like the bernina's sister train,

The glacier express

Use a rack and pinion system.

Attached to the undercarriage, a cog wheel turns and catches

The teeth of a rack between the rail lines.

(Teddy) the bernina express uses

Adhesion alone, relying solely the friction

Generated between the wheels and rails.

You have to stick to the tracks and it's not

As easy as it sounds.

(Teddy) adhesion works best on clean, dry rails.

Snow between the rail and the wheels lowers

The adhesion rate.

Accelerating on wet rails can cause the axels and wheels

To spin faster without catching and slip off the track.

So it is something that's a challenge for

The bernina express.

To help prevent this from happening

Crews must constantly monitor and remove ice and snow build up.

Especially where the trains switch tracks.

This point here where the train tracks merge

If it gets iced can make the train derail

As it slides on the ice.

So we need to keep it clean.

(Teddy) unlike regular sections of track,

Switches have moving parts that guide the train

From one track to the next.

It's imperative they're kept clear at all times.

So they've installed special heating systems at

103 critical switches along the line.

We have the automatic one, which we use this one

And this comes on when it snows

(Teddy) when moisture is detected

Or the temperature falls below 2.5 degrees celsius,

The tracks automatically heat up.

(Teddy) but there are some things

Technology just can't prevent.

Hurricane force winds are common in the alps.

Last year in lenk, a town just four hours away from us,

200 kilometer an hour gusts blew this train

Right off its track.

Eight passengers were injured.

(Teddy) we've reached the station at ospizo bernina.

There's not much wind up here today.

But the threat of an even bigger disaster is brewing.

Avalanches are a major concern for the bernina express.

So workers are taking control of the situation with dynamite.

At their base in samedan blasting experts jon and daniel

Prep one hundred and twenty five kilos of explosives.

We're building the charges, five kilos of charges.

These are the electric igniters.

They will start to burn the cord which then

Will start the explosive.

These hired guns work for local towns

And skill hills in the region, but today they're on a mission

For rhaetian rail to protect the tracks.

That's it so we can go now.

(Teddy) triggering avalanches has

Come a long way since the railway first opened in the early nineteen hundreds.

And so have the explosives themselves.

In the first days when we flew, we would just took any explosive

We could find and wrap them in plastic bags and put them in bottle boxes.

(Teddy) these days, they store the explosives

In a special lock box with a quick release

Just in case something goes terribly wrong.

If we had an emergency landing we can kick the whole box

With the explosives out.

The explosives are in the box and we're ready to go.

(Teddy) the team is off to conquer

A mountain of snow before it does any damage.

♪ ♪ ♪

(Teddy) we're on a trek

Through the swiss alps on the historic bernina line.

When it was built over a century ago,

It was meant to only be used in summer.

Could I check your tickets please.

(Teddy) today, even the state of the art bernina express

Needs all the help it can get to handle

The hazards of winter weather.

We are approaching our blasting place.

Experts have located an unstable section in the snow pack on this slope.

We're maybe one kilometer off now.

(Teddy) but before they blast...

We make a reconnaissance flight to make sure we don't have any

Animals or people in the way of our explosives or the avalanches.

(Teddy) after their scout is complete...

We wait for clearance from the swiss army.

(Teddy) they're going to trigger a small avalanche

In order to stop a larger one erupting out of blue.

And we're going to do a low drop first.

(cockpit chatter)

(Teddy) after the fuse is lit

They have just 90 seconds to get as far away as possible.

Now we fly into the safety area then we can observe.

(Teddy) the blast loosens unstable layers of snow.

They both started an avalanche so the mission was a success.

(Teddy) the bernina express heads

For the tiny station of alp grum

Located in the german speaking part of switzerland.

North of the italian border.

It's hard to know what language to speak here because everyone

Speaks to you in french, german, italian.

Yeah, but everybody speaks english.

(Teddy) outisde the train,

We're surrounded by impressive peaks.

The view is spectacular.

But inside things aren't so great.

Patricia's found an issue with the power.

It's not working at the moment.

I try to get the power back because there's

No reaction on here.

The toilet is also not working.

And that's strange, that's really strange.

Call it murphy's law because four kilometers ahead of us,

There's an even bigger problem.

The scala gallery is filling up with blowing snow.

The problem arises when the wind blows for days

And the train carries it further inside the tunnel as it runs through it.

Space is so tight they can't use a snow plow in here.

It's gotta be removed by hand, one shovel at a time.

As you can see the more snow we get in here on the sides

The less space there is for the trains to go through.

(Teddy) if they don't clear all 140 meters of this gallery.

It's not good.

The supply train won't make it to primo's restaurant, in alp grum.

That's where the passengers on our train

Are expecting to eat.

What would you like, you go in the restaurant and you don't have food.

(Teddy) stefano and his crew work hard and fast to clear the tunnel.

Before all the trains are forced to stop on this single track line.

We stay here, we are waiting and no supplies.

But what can I do?

Just waiting.

I hope the train will come.

The wagon packed with almost two thousand

Kilos of excess snow leaves the tunnel.

Just in time.

At the next station we are at alp grum

And at alp grum we have a photo stop for around fifteen minutes.

We go further at 11:22 so you can go out if you want to and take some pictures.

(Teddy) we eek through the freshly cleared tunnel

And come out the other side.

This is alp grum station.

It's home to a restaurant,

A small hotel and that's about it.

Right behind us, primo's supply train finally arrives.

(Teddy) the race to unload begins.

Primo, how's it going?

Perfect.

We have a lot to organize.

(Teddy) at two thousand and ninety one meters above sea level,

Primo relies on the rail line for his livelihood.

Danke.

(Teddy) there are no roads up here are there?

No roads up here, the any way to come to

Alp grum is by train.

(Teddy) while primo's staff serve

The passngers from our train, patricia and reto try to

Find out why the bathroom has lost power.

Before he became a driver, reto trained as a mechanic

So he checks the cables on the motorcar.

Now he's fixing the tube.

Yeah.

(Teddy) turns out one is loose.

Right, thank you very much.

Fingers crossed that does the trick.

(Teddy) and in the meantime

I get a special swiss treat.

It's called röteli, it's a liquor with cherry.

It's quite sweet.

Whoa, that's a pour.

The wind makes it more difficult though.

Alright, bottoms up.

Whoooo, it's nice it's strong.

Thank you.

(Teddy) we depart alp grum.

Everything seems like it's back on track.

Looks very good, works again, yay.

All the problems are away.

(Teddy) as we leave the mountains behind, the snow melts

Away and the valleys open up.

(Teddy) so usually things go smoothly but there's

Little issues like that sometimes, right?

Ya, it can be but it's not often.

Ya.

Just because you are here.

I think everybody is happy because today is a great day.

The sun is shining.

(Teddy) but further down the line.

You see this whole part here?

(Teddy) rock faces are teetering

On the edge of disaster.

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(Teddy) we've crested the bernina pass

On the highest adhesion railway crossing in europe.

It's all down hill from here as we leave the alps

Behind and descend into charming villages set in swiss valleys.

Does taking this train and working on it

Make you proud of your own country?

Of course.

I think this is one of the most impressive lines.

(Teddy) we're coming up on a hamlet of less than four thousand people.

I've jumped off the train to get a bit of fresh air.

This is poschiavo.

We're still in switzerland but this is a dominantly

Italian speaking town and italian speaking par t of the country.

And as you can see, I've ditched my winter coat.

It's spring like weather here.

The climate has changed a lot from just recently

When we were up in the snow and mountains.

It's beautiful.

(Teddy) soon we're rolling again.

And in good hands with our new driver gion behind the wheel.

I'm a driver for the rhatische bahn for almost forty years now.

You're out in the open but still you get to work with

Technical equipment, and I like that.

(Teddy) heading south,

We glide along the shores of lake poschiavo.

We may have left the threat of avalanches behind us

But danger is just around the corner near brusio.

And we had around thirty to forty thousand cubic

Meters of rock coming down.

None of it hit the train but it did close the

Line for almost three months.

(Teddy) did that completely destroy the train tracks?

Yes ya, the track was destroyed on a length of around three hundred meters.

(Teddy) ralph was instrumental moving

The tracks further from the slope and rebuilding

As quickly as possible.

Like 50 meters or so towards the valley we did

It in short time, one hundred and eleven days exactly.

(Teddy) to stop this from happening again, ralph

Scouts the line to identify high risk areas.

(ralph) we calculate the risk we have.

And we did that for every hundred meter for rock falls,

For water and mud flow and for landslides.

(Teddy) stone walls have been installed right beside the tracks

In unstable areas to prevent landslides.

On this whole part here, we put up some nets as well.

(Teddy) strong but flexible metal nets

Are installed in high risk areas near the tracks so

They'll trap any rock that breaks off.

The security of our passengers is most important.

(Teddy) ralph and his team keep

The bernina express protected and rolling.

(Teddy) just south of brusio

Is the landmark of the bernina line.

Here, the track needed to drop lower than the steep

Grade of 7 percent would allow.

But tunneling the unstable rock in the mountain

Wasn't going to work.

So engineers built a 110 meter spiral wonder on the valley floor.

Right now we're on the brusio viaduct.

I've been really, really excited to see this.

It's a single track overpass with nine arches

But the cool thing is, as you can see,

It does a full three hundred and sixty degree curve.

A full circle.

And it does this to allow the train to go

Up and down a major slope.

(Teddy) after the viaduct we keep rolling south

Through the small swiss towns of campascio and campocologno.

Right now we're in switzerland but in just

A few seconds we're actually going to be in Italy.

It's one of the really amazing things about this train.

You get to visit two countries in one trip.

Now we are in Italy.

After the border, our journey takes

An unusual turn.

Our mountain train becomes a city streetcar.

So we've just come into tirano.

The buildings are very close by the train and as

You can see there's the street right there,

Pedestrians and cars can come very close to the train.

Especially in the summer time, during the holiday season

There is a lot of traffic here, yes.

You've got to be careful.

That's the cathedral of tirano right there,

The main town square.

And it's really interesting to have

The train going right down the street.

As long as there are no accidents and no one

Gets hurt, it's also fun.

So there's the announcement right now that the trip's almost over.

I've had a great time.

How's it been for you?

It was a great day at my favourite line,

My favourite train, so what I want more?

It's been a remarkable journey through the alps.

Seeing first hand how machine mastered the mountains.

And with painstaking swiss precision, it comes to

An end right on time.

Well, this is tirano station and the end of the line for

The bernina express.

It was really fascinating to go through so many

Climates and altitudes in just a few hours.

And of course to cross over the highest railway

Crossing in the alps.

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