The UNESCO World Heritage Committee accepted the Swiss-Italian candidacy for World Heritage status of „The Rhaetian Railway in the Albula/Bernina Landscape“ in their meeting on July 7, 2008 in Quebec (Canada). It is the third railway worldwide to be placed on the UNESCO World Heritage List.

Switzerland now possesses nine World Heritage sites, including the “Swiss Tectonic Arena”, which has been accepted concurrently. Until now only two railroads were included in the World Heritage List: The Semmering Railway in Austria and the Darjeeling-Himalayan Railway in India. “The Rhaetian Railroad in the Albula/Bernina Landscape” is thus the third railway, which achieved the coveted label. Jean-Frédéric Jauslin, director of the Federal Office for Culture, emphasizes the unique character of the Rhaetian Railway: “As an elaborately constructed masterpiece of technology, the Albula Line represents an excellent example of a mountain railway from the Golden Age of Railroad Architecture."