I’ve been on plenty of trams in my travels around the world, but the Trogenerbahn is the first tram line I’ve seen with a first class section. The nearly 10km ride takes just over an hour with its highest elevations at its two termini at 780m and 906m.
It starts in the foothills of the Appenzeller Alps in Appenzell where you will pass through mostly flat agricultural land with a gradual downward include towards St. Gallen. When it enters St. Gallen, it acts as an urban tramway sharing street space with cars before grade separating when it winds up the mountains to Trogen.
On the way to Trogen, you’ll get a top-down view of St. Gallen as well as Lake Constance and Germany on the other side. Other amazing engineering feats make this the steepest narrow gauge railway without special funicular technology in Switzerland.