Rhaetian Railway: demand optimization on one of the world’s most popular rail routes

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The Rhaetian Railway (RhB) (opens in a new tab) , or better known as Bernina Express Line, is one of Switzerland’s most traditional railway companies and internationally renowned for its highly attractive tourist routes – especially the Bernina line. With steadily growing demand in tourist rail traffic, RhB increasingly faced structural and operational bottlenecks. 

To better understand peak demand trends on the Bernina line and identify effective measures for relief, our project team supported RhB with a detailed analysis and a structured solution approach.

The challenge

Growing demand on a highly frequented tourist route

Rail traffic along the “Bernina Express Line” is of central importance for RhB as well as for international tourism in Graubünden. The combination of commuter traffic, growing group tourism, seasonal peaks, and marketing campaigns regularly led to capacity bottlenecks, particularly on days with more than 7,500 travelers.

Against this backdrop, the challenge was to develop practical, controllable, and economically viable solutions. The focus was on smoothing demand, better managing group contingents, and ensuring service quality. At the same time, structural obstacles such as silo structures, complex operational processes, and a lack of consolidated data had to be considered.

With the upcoming 2026 Winter Olympics, a future-proof and data-driven solution was particularly critical.

The approach

Data-based analysis and cross-functional collaboration

At the outset, the project team systematically analyzed operational and organizational bottlenecks along the Bernina line. A key element was a comprehensive tourism data analysis, in which booking, counting, and production data were consolidated, cleaned, and evaluated.

This analysis revealed clear patterns in travel behavior, seasonal fluctuations, and specific stress points. It served as a fact-based foundation for prioritizing relevant action areas.

In addition, workshops were held with market, operations, and other stakeholders to identify root causes, operational interdependencies, and realistic levers for control. The combination of quantitative and qualitative insights created a solid basis for strategic capacity management in rail traffic.

Our solution and the results

A prioritized portfolio of measures for sustainable relief

Based on the analysis, a structured catalog of proposals was developed in the form of a solution framework. This includes short-, medium-, and long-term measures, clearly differentiated by impact, feasibility, and organizational effort.

The measures developed include, among others, the use of historic rolling stock to increase capacity, additional trains and double operations in regional passenger transport, the introduction of mandatory seat or train reservations, and targeted reduction of marketing activities on peak days. These were complemented by concepts for enhanced on-site customer guidance and maintenance optimization.

Implementation of the measures portfolio now lies with RhB.

Outlook
Foundation for future management and quality assurance

RhB now has a structured portfolio of proposals to relieve the Bernina line. The interdisciplinary collaboration and systematic approach have helped establish a new understanding of control, quality, and impact logic.

The proposals developed form a solid foundation for independent further development and for addressing future challenges – such as the upcoming 2026 Winter Olympics.