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Booking optional seatreservations on the Rhaetische Bahn

  • February 15, 2026
  • 6 replies
  • 52 views

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I just spotted a posting which has somewhat alarmed me.  It was referring to new restrictions that had come into place at Tirano if travelling toward St Moritz and Chur.  It would appear that there was a very long queuing system in place for people without seat reservations resulting in people not catching their planned train.

Admittedly we will not be travelling on this line until September, and it is not clear whether or not this was just a temporary arrangement.  Even so, we have very little flexibility in our journey plans and so don’t want to take any risks.  (Our intention is to take the 9.41 from Tirano to St Moritz and then the 12.47 from St Moritz to Chur.)

My question is how do I go about buying seat reservations for these trains.  I went onto Rail Europe to see how to book seat reservations.  (Not for our actual trips - as these are not yet available, but for comparable journeys in May).  However because reservations are optional all it said was ‘FREE’ and I could not see a way of purchasing a seat reservation.

I also tried to get a seat reservation from the Rhaetische Bahn site but it seemed you could only buy a seat reservation if you also purchased a ticket.

Best answer by thibcabe

This is a temporary measure on the Bernina line only (Tirano - St. Moritz). Not on the Albula line (St. Moritz - Chur). There was a sudden increase in passengers on that line over Christmas and New Year (mostly due to a trend on Italian social media) and RhB couldn’t cope with the number of passengers. Most are/were daytrippers from Milan.

I believe that after the Olympics and outside school holidays demand will be lower. Though RhB might keep the optional reservations system (only some carriages can be reserved, there are always reservation-free carriages).

As Danhiel said, Swiss people generally don’t book seats. I’ve never done that in my life haha

6 replies

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  • Full steam ahead
  • February 15, 2026

@petershotts 

It is possible to reserve seats on RhB site without ticket when you add the passengers:

https://tickets.rhb.ch/en/routing

Bookings can be made up to 180 days in advance.


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  • Author
  • Full steam ahead
  • February 15, 2026

Thank you.  I don’t know how I missed that!

 

Peter


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  • Author
  • Full steam ahead
  • February 15, 2026

Thanks for the previous answer.  I see now how to book a seat reservation for Tirano to St Moritz.  However I cannot work out how to book a reservation for St Moritz to Chur. I’ve tried both the Rhaetische Bahn and the SBB websites.   Bizarrely it seems to be quite straightforward to purchase them from Deutsche Bahn,

 

Peter


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  • Full steam ahead
  • February 15, 2026

@petershotts 

You can reserve seats only in the panoramic cars of the Bernina Express trains from Tirano to Chur, but not in regular Interregio trains from St. Moritz to Chur. Except for the panoramic trains or international journeys, no one reserve seats in Switzerland.


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  • Full steam ahead
  • Answer
  • February 15, 2026

This is a temporary measure on the Bernina line only (Tirano - St. Moritz). Not on the Albula line (St. Moritz - Chur). There was a sudden increase in passengers on that line over Christmas and New Year (mostly due to a trend on Italian social media) and RhB couldn’t cope with the number of passengers. Most are/were daytrippers from Milan.

I believe that after the Olympics and outside school holidays demand will be lower. Though RhB might keep the optional reservations system (only some carriages can be reserved, there are always reservation-free carriages).

As Danhiel said, Swiss people generally don’t book seats. I’ve never done that in my life haha


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  • Author
  • Full steam ahead
  • February 15, 2026

Thank you so much.  That is very reassuring.    I will probably buy seat reservations anyway for the Tirano to St Moritz journey just in case, by some bad luck, they need to implement the boarding pass system when we are traveling.