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Before the construction of the Gotthard Railway there were no north-south rail connections to Italy. The railroad lines ended at the foot of the Alps - the VSB reached Chur in 1858, the SCB reached Lucerne and Thun in 1859, and in 1878 the Simplon Railway (part of the Western Switzerland–Simplon Company from 1881) reached Brig. The Swiss railway companies and regions competed to build a railway though various Swiss Alpine passes: the Lukmanier, the Splügen, the Gotthard and the Simplon. In view of the completion of the Brenner Railway to the east in 1867 and the commencement of construction of east and the Fréjus railway line in 1857 (completed in 1871) in the west, it was decided to build the Gotthard railway and contracts were signed with Swiss, German and Italian contractors in 1869. Despite financial difficulties the line was opened in 1882.[6]

In 1878 the Swiss approved in a referendum federal subsidies for an eastern and a western Alpine rail crossing. In 1913 a western Alps was completed, the Lötschberg railway line, but it was not a federal project, but instead it was an initiative of the canton of Bern. No eastern rail crossing has ever been built. Instead the Rhaetian Railway (RhB) opened the Albula line in 1903 and the Bernina Railway completed the Bernina line in 1910, providing a link to Italy. These lines were initially built for tourists, but they were later also used for freight.[6]