From glacier-carved Alpine passes to red-desert crossings and cloud-forest switchbacks to Machu Picchu, these are the rail journeys people build entire vacations around. The debate isn't just about pretty views — it's engineering audacity, altitude, history, and whether the ride justifies the price tag. Vote for the routes that actually earn their bucket-list status.
What counts: 'Best' blends landscape drama, engineering achievement (bridges, tunnels, altitude gained), historical pedigree, and overall reputation among rail travelers — not just raw distance. All figures (length, altitude, price) are approximate averages, since routes, seasons, and ticket classes vary.
Dubbed the 'slowest express train in the world,' it crawls across 291 Alpine kilometers and 91 tunnels so passengers can actually absorb the Oberalp Pass and the Landwasser Viaduct without blinking. Its panoramic glass-domed cars turned a Swiss postal route into the poster child
Scenic Rating: 9.5/10Route Length: 291 kmCountries: SwitzerlandLine/Service Opened: 1930UNESCO-Linked: ✓Approx. Ticket Price: $150Max Altitude: 2,033 m
added by IJRGlacier Express
This is the only train that crosses the Alps without a single tunnel through the main ridge, spiraling up the Brusio viaduct and over the Ospizio Bernina pass in open daylight the whole way. UNESCO gave the Albula-Bernina line World Heritage status specifically because the engine
Scenic Rating: 9.7/10Route Length: 144 kmCountries: Switzerland, ItalyLine/Service Opened: 1910UNESCO-Linked: ✓Approx. Ticket Price: $70Max Altitude: 2,253 m
added by IJRBernina Express
Glass-dome coaches, no night travel (so you never miss a view), and a route through the Fraser Canyon and Kicking Horse Pass that made this Canadian upstart a direct rival to Europe's grand trains. It launched in 1990 as a scrappy alternative to VIA Rail and turned into a luxury
Scenic Rating: 9.3/10Route Length: 1,000 kmCountries: Canada, USALine/Service Opened: 1990UNESCO-Linked: —Approx. Ticket Price: $1,000Max Altitude: 1,627 m
added by IJRRocky Mountaineer
Trans-Siberian Railway
At over 9,000 kilometers it's the longest rail line on Earth, rolling past Lake Baikal's frozen expanse and through seven time zones of birch forest and steppe. It's less about postcard drama in any single moment and more about the sheer, hypnotic scale of Russia unspooling outsi
Scenic Rating: 8.5/10Route Length: 9,289 kmCountries: RussiaLine/Service Opened: 1916UNESCO-Linked: —Approx. Ticket Price: $600Max Altitude: 1,040 m
added by IJR
Flåm Railway
In just 20 kilometers it climbs 863 meters through 20 tunnels, past the thundering Kjosfossen waterfall where the train actually stops so you can watch it. It connects to the Nærøyfjord, one of the most photographed fjords on the planet, making this arguably the highest scenery-p
Scenic Rating: 9.6/10Route Length: 20 kmCountries: NorwayLine/Service Opened: 1940UNESCO-Linked: —Approx. Ticket Price: $55Max Altitude: 863 m
added by IJR
Jacobite Steam Train
This is the train that flies over the Glenfinnan Viaduct — yes, the Harry Potter bridge — and it did it for real decades before the films made it famous. Puffing along the West Highland Line past Loch Shiel and out to the sea at Mallaig, it's Scotland's most-photographed rail jou
Scenic Rating: 9.2/10Route Length: 84 kmCountries: Scotland, UKLine/Service Opened: 1901UNESCO-Linked: —Approx. Ticket Price: $60Max Altitude: 350 m
added by IJR
Named after Afghan camel drivers who once guided caravans through this same red desert, it now hauls passengers nearly 3,000 kilometers from Adelaide to Darwin through the literal center of Australia. The outback stops at Alice Springs and Katherine Gorge turn a long haul into an
Scenic Rating: 8.8/10Route Length: 2,979 kmCountries: AustraliaLine/Service Opened: 1929UNESCO-Linked: —Approx. Ticket Price: $1,200Max Altitude: 600 m
added by IJRThe Ghan
It crosses the Nullarbor Plain in one of the longest straight stretches of railway track on the planet — 478 kilometers without a single curve. Coast to coast from Sydney to Perth, it trades mountain drama for pure, disorienting vastness. If the Ghan is about the desert's heart,
Scenic Rating: 8.6/10Route Length: 4,352 kmCountries: AustraliaLine/Service Opened: 1970UNESCO-Linked: —Approx. Ticket Price: $1,300Max Altitude: 500 m
added by IJRIndian Pacific
Restored 1920s and '30s carriages, white-glove dining, and a route through the Alps via the Simplon Tunnel make this less a train ride than a moving Agatha Christie set. It resurrected the glamour of the original 1883 Orient Express after decades of decline. No train on this list
Scenic Rating: 9.4/10Route Length: 2,000 kmCountries: UK, France, Switzerland, ItalyLine/Service Opened: 1883UNESCO-Linked: —Approx. Ticket Price: $3,500Max Altitude: 1,150 m
added by IJRVenice Simplon-Orient-Express
El Chepe (Copper Canyon Railway)
This line took nearly a century to complete because it had to cross a canyon system deeper than the Grand Canyon, using 37 bridges and 86 tunnels to do it. The view from the Divisadero stop, staring into the Copper Canyon's layered walls, is one of Mexico's most underrated travel
Scenic Rating: 9/10Route Length: 653 kmCountries: MexicoLine/Service Opened: 1961UNESCO-Linked: —Approx. Ticket Price: $150Max Altitude: 2,400 m
added by IJR
Hiram Bingham (PeruRail to Machu Picchu)
There's no other train destination on Earth quite like this one: the line ends at the literal doorstep of Machu Picchu, winding through the Sacred Valley and the Urubamba River gorge to get there. The luxury Hiram Bingham service adds brass fittings and pisco sours to a ride whos
Scenic Rating: 9.1/10Route Length: 112 kmCountries: PeruLine/Service Opened: 1928UNESCO-Linked: ✓Approx. Ticket Price: $500Max Altitude: 3,400 m
added by IJR
Nicknamed the 'Toy Train' for its tiny two-foot gauge, it zigzags and loops up to Ghum station using switchbacks so tight the train sometimes seems to pass itself. It was one of the first railways UNESCO ever designated for its mountain engineering, decades before anyone coined t
Scenic Rating: 9/10Route Length: 88 kmCountries: IndiaLine/Service Opened: 1881UNESCO-Linked: ✓Approx. Ticket Price: $20Max Altitude: 2,258 m
added by IJRDarjeeling Himalayan Railway
It crosses New Zealand's Southern Alps through Arthur's Pass, swinging from Canterbury's flat plains to snow-capped peaks and beech forest gorges in under five hours. Open-air viewing carriages mean you're not stuck shooting through glass when the Waimakariri River gorge opens up
Scenic Rating: 9.3/10Route Length: 223 kmCountries: New ZealandLine/Service Opened: 1923UNESCO-Linked: —Approx. Ticket Price: $130Max Altitude: 920 m
added by IJRTranzAlpine
California Zephyr
Amtrak's flagship crosses the Rockies through the Moffat Tunnel and clings to canyon walls along the Colorado River before dropping into the Sierra Nevada near Donner Pass. It's the closest thing America has to a true transcontinental scenic epic, running coast-adjacent from Chic
Scenic Rating: 8.7/10Route Length: 3,924 kmCountries: USALine/Service Opened: 1949UNESCO-Linked: —Approx. Ticket Price: $300Max Altitude: 2,874 m
added by IJR
Jungfraubahn
It tunnels straight through the Eiger and Mönch to reach Jungfraujoch, the 'Top of Europe' and the highest railway station on the continent, at 3,454 meters. Completed in 1912 after 16 grueling years of construction, it remains one of the most audacious mountain-rail projects eve
Scenic Rating: 9.2/10Route Length: 9.3 kmCountries: SwitzerlandLine/Service Opened: 1912UNESCO-Linked: ✓Approx. Ticket Price: $100Max Altitude: 3,454 m
added by IJR
Built in the 1850s, it was the first standard-gauge mountain railway in the world and proved that steam trains could conquer serious alpine terrain — a template every line on this list owes something to. Its viaducts and tunnels through the Austrian Alps look almost quaint now, b
Scenic Rating: 8.8/10Route Length: 41 kmCountries: AustriaLine/Service Opened: 1854UNESCO-Linked: ✓Approx. Ticket Price: $30Max Altitude: 898 m
added by IJRSemmering railway
Carved by hand through rainforest and along cliff edges above Barron Gorge, this line was originally built to service a goldfield and now exists almost entirely for the waterfall views it stumbled into. The Barron Falls lookout stop, with the train perched on a ledge above the ca
Scenic Rating: 8.9/10Route Length: 34 kmCountries: AustraliaLine/Service Opened: 1891UNESCO-Linked: —Approx. Ticket Price: $50Max Altitude: 328 m
added by IJRKuranda Scenic Railway
Golden Eagle Trans-Siberian Express
This is the luxury answer to the standard Trans-Siberian run, adding en-suite cabins, guided stops, and detours through Mongolia's Gobi Desert and China's Great Wall region to the same epic Russian backbone. It turns a grueling week of hard-sleeper travel into a curated, multi-co
Scenic Rating: 8.9/10Route Length: 9,289 kmCountries: Russia, Mongolia, ChinaLine/Service Opened: 2001UNESCO-Linked: —Approx. Ticket Price: $15,000Max Altitude: 1,040 m
added by IJR
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