Google Streetview Hits the Swiss Alps, for What I Like to call Google Trainview

Back in October, PHM reported that Google had put a camera on a flat train car in Switzerland and travelled through the mountains on the Albula Bernina railway. I called this Google Trainview (for obvious reasons), but no official name has been given to it. Well, now these pictures have been made public on Google – hooray! This adds to the recent collection of awesome trips you can take from a computer in your parents basement, including the Great Barrier Reef, caves in Japan, and parts of the Amazon. And here I thought Google was just a search engine to help me find out what that rash on my stomach is.

The images cover 122km (78.5 miles) and was done in partnership with UNESCO and Rhaetian Railway in Switzerland. The CEO of Rhaetian Railway hopes this will inspire people to visit Switzerland, but why when I can have some beers and do it all from home?!

Google has also announced that they are going to start mapping a bunch of train stations here in London, England. Hmmm, Swiss Alps, or busy train lines in London – which is cooler?

Check out a video of the project in action, and then muck about with the embedded Google Maps from the Swiss Alps below (via Digital Trends).

You can play with the embedded map below, and scroll and zoom around the Swiss Alps, potentially killing 8 hours at work.

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