World's Most Extreme Railways
May 16, 2025
•20 min read
All aboard for the world's most extreme railways!
There are millions of different train routes all over the world that passengers travel across every day. But not all of them are modern, reliable, or even safe! From tracks built across vertigo inducing canyons and cliffs, to trains that are so overcrowded they’re an accident just waiting to happen!
Ferrocarril Central Andino
First stop, Peru! Travelling almost 15,700 ft above sea level, the Ferrocarril Central Andino railway is a route that’s been meticulously blasted through the mountains and gorges of the Peruvian Andes. This makes the Trans-Andean track the second highest railway in the world, and while its altitude alone is impressive, it’s the railway’s extreme engineering that’s truly breath-taking!
Argo Gede Rail Route
Does crossing a bridge that doesn’t have any safety rails leave you feeling, quite literally, on edge? Then you’re going to want to avoid travelling on Indonesia’s Argo Gede rail route, which runs between Bandung and Jakarta. It may look like a lush forest journey, but right in the middle of this route lies the unbelievably unnerving Cikubang Bridge.
White Pass and Yukon Route
During the Klondike Gold Rush of the 1890’s, prospectors stopped at nothing to get to the precious gold reserves deep in the treacherous mountains of Alaska and Yukon. So much so, that they built an utterly insane, mountain rail route connecting Alaska’s Skagway with Yukon’s Whitehouse just to access them!
Sections of this narrow, winding route were built so precariously into the mountainsides that today, the very thought of travelling across it is enough to send shivers down your spine.Minami Aso
While some train routes run through amazing mountains or lush jungles, Japan’s Minami Aso route takes it to another level by running through an active volcano site! The line connects Tateno to Takemori in the Kumamoto prefecture, stretching right around the base of Japan’s largest active volcano: Mount Aso! And to make it even more daunting, part of the track passes over the almost 200 ft high, fragile, Daiichi Shirakawa bridge, which was first constructed back in 1928.
It may look pretty, but because of the area’s unpredictable tectonic activity, visitors risk witnessing a catastrophe at literally any moment! Like back in 2016, when sudden, violent earthquakes triggered huge landslides that damaged the line.
Outeniqua Choo-Tjoe Steam Train
Many people claim they can cope with stomach-churning drops and hair-raising bends, but few can handle South Africa’s Outeniqua Choo-Tjoe steam train, which travels over a seriously risky coastline route! That carriage is leaning so far over the cliff, it looks like it might tumble down into the water at any second! And it only gets worse the faster it steams on, like over this bridged portion of its ocean route.
Georgetown Loop
Colorado is home to some of the most beautiful scenery in all of the United States. But to balance it out, it’s also home to one of the most adventurous railways in the world, known as the Georgetown Loop. This 4.5-mile track was built back in the 19th century, and it’s been perilously laid over the treacherous ridges of the Rocky Mountains.
But why would anyone want to build a railway this dangerous? Well, silver mines in this area used to attract fortune-hungry prospectors, and the railway was the only way to transport them along with their equipment. But to reach these far-flung mines, the trains relied on bridges spanning huge canyons, like the 100 ft tall Devils Gate High Bridge!Kalka-Shimla Railway
The amazingly mountainous Himalayan route from North India’s Kalka to Shimla is one of the last places on earth you’d expect to find a train service. Yet, through some insane engineering, the Kalka-Shimla railway, which was completed back in 1903, still runs to this day! With a teeny tiny gauge of 2 ft 6 inches, the trains that run on these narrow tracks are adorably known as Toy Trains. But despite their name, they’re definitely not for playing!
Western Ghats
As you just saw, some of India’s train routes look as stunning as they do risky - and one route over the Western Ghats is no exception! This railway stretches 192 miles from the city of Hassan all the way to the coastal reaches of Mangalore, treating its travelers to a stunning range of scenery. From racing across cloud covered mountain tops to passing below the tumbling waters of the 1017 ft Dudhsagar falls!
Bergen Line
The Bergen line is a railway route that’s world-famous for its stunningly scenic views of Norway’s mountainous landscapes! But in the winter, this line changes from an otherworldly dream into a waking nightmare. The 310-mile railway from Oslo to Bergen can experience extremely frosty temperatures of 15° Fahrenheit, with more than 5 ft of snow falling on the tracks in any given month! But, even in this abysmal weather, the trains still run!
When Trains Meet Planes
Piloting a plane is no easy feat, but imagine the stress of landing a plane knowing a set of train tracks run right across the landing strip! That’s right! There are a handful of airports around the world that unbelievably share their runways with an active set of tracks!
Due to the geography of the island, the Manakara Airport and Fianarantsoa-Côte Est railway in Madagascar have to share their routes with one another. This often means that planes like this have to give way to oncoming trains scheduled to cross the runway throughout the day! Though it’s not the only airport with this terrifying track feature! New Zealand’s Gisborne airport covers an area of land close to the coast that’s about the same size as 300 football fields. But because it’s so large, it has to share space on its main runway with the Palmerston North to Gisborne railway line, resulting in this incredible crossover!
Today is #InternationalLevelCrossingAwarenessDay . So here's the railway line that crosses the runway at Gisborne Airport in New Zealand; the tracks of the Palmerston North – Gisborne Line run straight across it. Here, train stops plane.
Chennai-Rameswaram Route
If you look out over a typical harbor, you’ll probably see a couple of boats bobbing along. But if you looked out over the Pamban Harbor in India, you’d actually see a train riding the waves!
This is the Pamban Railway bridge, a 1.2-mile stretch of track that connects the island of Rameswaram to mainland India. Built into the seabed of the Indian Ocean way back in 1914, this sea bridge is supported by 145 concrete piers, with a middle section that opens up to let other sea-faring vessels through. While this journey may already look extreme, there’s a lot more going on beneath the waves. It’s located in the second most corrosive environment in the world and, in 2016, 27 severely corroded girders were discovered along its tracks. Many of them could have given way at any minute! Not only that, but because of the sea’s unpredictably high winds and wild waves, the trains on this track are only permitted to travel at a top speed of 27 mph!
Dawlish Station & Devonshire Coast
Now, it’s not just trains travelling over sea bridges that get battered by the waves. On the other side of the world in the UK, Devon’s Dawlish station also has to be wary of oncoming waves!
Underwater Bullet Trains
The United Arab Emirates, or UAE for short, is no stranger to extremely futuristic transportation. From sky taxi’s that can fly passengers from A to B, to the hyper-fast hyperloop that’ll eventually transport its passengers at a staggering 745 mph! But none of them can compare to the country’s conceptual underwater bullet train, which will connect the UAE’s city of Fujairah to the Indian city of Mumbai.
Obviously, it won’t just be diving into the sea like some sort of fish, so how exactly will it travel underwater? This unbelievable megaproject involves a long tube floating just beneath the surface of the Arabian Sea, suspended, and held in place by a network of floating rigs.Devil's Nose, Guayquil-Quito Railway
High up in the Andes Mountain Range of Ecuador is a railway that was once considered to be one of the most difficult in the world to engineer and construct. And when you take a look at it, you can see exactly why!
Skirting some near-vertical cliffs almost 9,000 ft above sea level, the tracks of La Nariz del Diablo, or, in English, the Devil’s Nose, certainly live up to their name. This is a section of Ecuador’s original 288-mile Guayquil-Quito railway, which consists of a series of staggering switchbacks, carved directly into the towering rockface of the Condor Mountain. It was completed way back in 1908, well before the time of health and safety. So, it wasn’t unusual to see passengers riding on top of the old train carts while making the near half-mile ascent up the mountain! These days, you’re not allowed to ride on top of the trains. But without any safety rails to keep the train from rolling off the tracks, just looking out the window to the vertical drop below is heart-attack inducing enough!
The Train To The Clouds
But on the other side of the Andes in Argentina, there’s yet another terrifying trip that steel-nerved adventurers can make by train! Known as ‘La Tren a Las Nubes, or ‘The Train to the Clouds’, this 134-mile train service connects Salta in north-west Argentina to La Polvorilla on the Chilean border.
To get over this amazingly mountainous terrain, the Trans-Andean tracks have been laid over 29 bridges, 21 tunnels, 13 viaducts, and even 2 spirals to reach their destination! But the crowning jewel of them all has to be the La Polvorilla Viaduct.Pilatus Railway
When it comes to mountain skirting railway lines, very few can claim to be as extreme as Switzerland’s Pilatus Railway. The line runs from Alpnachstad, on Lake Alpnach, to the Esel summit of Mount Pilatus. But to get there, the train has to clamber up an impossibly steep maximum gradient of 48%! That’s so steep that the carriages are shaped to the mountains slope, in order to keep their balance as they climb!
Maeklong Railway
At a glance, the Maeklong Market in Thailand looks like any other thriving hub of street vendors and bustling businesses. But it has one astonishing feature that’ll really make your jaw drop. This market amazingly shares its turf with the tracks of the Maeklong Railway! 6 times a day, vendors and visitors are given just 3 minutes to clear the street and get out of the way.
Bishwa Ijtema Special Trains
Every year, the small, peaceful township of Tongi in Bangladesh transforms into a thriving hub of life, thanks to the annual Muslim meeting of the Bishwa Ijetma! It’s one of the largest peaceful gatherings in the world, with around 5 million Muslims travelling from all over to pray by the banks of the River Turag.
The event is awe inspiring, but it’s the trains running to and from Tongi during this time that’ll really make your jaw drop!The Death Railway
As you can probably tell by its nickname, the Burma Railway, also known horrifically as the Death Railway, is a train route with a deeply disturbing past. The 258-mile track connects Ban Pong in Thailand to Thanbyuzayat in Myanmar, stretching across areas of jungle and winding dangerously over sections of the famous River Kwai.
The Bridges of the Death Railway – and the Truth Behind the Famous One Between 1942 and 1943, over 250,000 Asian laborers and 60,000 Allied POWs were forced to build the 415 km Thailand–Burma Railway under brutal conditions. One of the most staggering engineering challenges?
Gotiek Viaduct
Not all of Myanmar’s historic railroads have such horrendous past’s, and some are considered to be extreme for their feats of engineering, such as the vertigo-triggering Gotiek Viaduct!
This incredible railway trestle bridge in Nawnghkio forms part of the line from Mandaly to Lashio. Supported by 15 separate steel towers, the viaduct spans 2,260 ft over a huge gorge, which drops down a stomach-churning 335 ft below.
