My week end, looking for Salanfe funicular!

Miéville, Valais (Switzerland).Last week end I received an email which informed me about an underground funicular at the Salanfe Dam, at 1920 m above Martigny (Switzerland).

I have an ambition to know all the funiculars of Switzerland and I have to confess that I had never heard about such a funicular ! Nobody told me anything about this funicular…!!

So I spent the entire week end to find out the truth about it !

Looking at the map of the area, I noticed an underground pressure pipeline linking the Salanfe Dam to the Miéville Power Station down in the Rhone Valley!

The underground pressure pipeline is quite 4800 meters long !

If there is a funicular along the pipeline it would be the longest funicular of Switzerland!

Today I received the answer of my question ! In fact there are two funiculars instead of one ! The two funiculars are linked together with an underground electric train !

The longest funicular of Switzerland is still the Sierre-Montana-Crans with a length of 4192 meters.

In 1985 for his movie “Les loups entre eux”, José Giovanni shot some scenes in the funicular and at the Salanfe dam !

Thanks to Jan D. Freienberg for telling me about this funicular !


(Poster of movie “Les Loups entre Eux”, José Giovanni, 1985)