In 1890, the Davos hotelier proposed the construction of a rail link from Chur via Davos, and through a tunnel under the , to St Moritz, and then onwards via the Maloja Pass, to Chiavenna in Italy. Holsboer later had to abandon this planned Scalettabahn, in favour of a route through what was to become the Albula Tunnel. In 1895, the Zurich railway pioneer Adolf Guyer-Zeller presented the idea of an Engadine-Orient-Railway, which would have connected Chur, via Thusis and Engadine, and over the Fuorn Pass, with the Vinschgau and Trieste. Zeller planned this proposed route as a standard gauge line. It would have passed under the Albula Alps through a 12 km long tunnel from the mouth of the to the Inn Valley below Bever. As the , the Engadine-Orient-Railway would also have cut a connection through to the Val Müstair. It was only on 30 June 1898 that the Federal Assembly in Bern finally decided on the construction of the Albula Railway. The Federal Assembly thereby also decided against another standard gauge transit railway, and a similarly contemplated railway over the Julier Pass.