It was built in by the Chur-Arosa-Bahn lit. Since , it has been integrated into the network of the Rhaetian Railway. The name of the former company is still used as a name for the line. The branch line starts on the forecourt of Chur station , where the trains to Arosa use tracks 1 and 2, each adjoining an outside platform. A rail track connects to the LandquartโThusis railway , although this is only used for the movement of rolling stock to and from the main Landquart workshop.
The railway traverses the urban area of Chur, initially on two tracks. This section is similar to a tramway and consists of grooved rails. At one point the line runs across a roundabout. After about one-half kilometre 0. Soon after, it reaches the right bank of the Plessur and a little later Chur Altstadt near the historic centre, which is now the only station on the line classified as a halt. Shortly before leaving Chur, the Sand depot and workshop is located on the left in the suburb of Sand.
Today, it is used to store the vehicles of a track construction company, but part of it can still be used as a crossing loop. About 1. For a few hundred metres, it now runs to the right of the considerably narrower road on Vignoles rails , until the line reaches the former halt of Chur-Sassal , which was abandoned in Immediately afterwards, the line crosses the Churs city limits from which the railway runs completely independently of the road as a mountain railway up the Schanfigg valley.
The rest of the line contains many civil engineering structures, including a total of 41 bridges, [ 2 ] 19 tunnels and 12 avalanche-protection galleries. Over its whole length, the line climbs a total of 1, m 3, ft in elevation and crosses the Plessur once and the Schanfiggerstrasse Schanfigg road three times.
There are two additional crossing loops at Untersax and Haspelgrube. The trains take just over an hour to complete the journey. A Regio service runs hourly, requiring three sets. In addition to the Regio trains, two additional RegioExpress pairs, which do not serve all intermediate stops, run in the winter season. Two pairs of regional services run in the summer season; these include open summer cars when the weather is good.
