Photo Amin Frih
The Gelmerbahn is not in use in winter and there was also snow on the track. So they could not use the funicular.
The Gelmerbahn in summer.
Engelberg, Switzerland.
“The decision was taken to do away with smoking compartments on all CFF-SBB-FFS trains! As of 11 December 2005 smoking will no longer be allowed… even if many of the old smoking compartments still have ashtrays. It will be some six months before the final ashtray has been removed.”
At last! This is a decision I was waiting for a while!!
Switzerland owns one of the most modern, useful, precise railway network. But all their trains have entire smoking wagons, or all the wagons are cut into two parts, smoking and non smoking!
This is really ridiculous… and obsolete!
Here is an example. I was in Engelberg on April 27, 2005. I took the Zentralbahnen train to Luzern. The train was composed of 3 wagons: 2 non smoking wagons and one smoking wagon. The train was really crowded! None exactly, the 2 non smoking wagons were crowded and noisy… the smoking wagon was… empty!
I don’t like crowd! I don’t like smoke either! So I decided to climb up in the smoking wagon because it was empty… I thought it was a chance for me…! Not a chance at all! The smoking wagon was full of a horrible smoke stench!!! Impossible to stay in the wagon like that…
Here is one of the non smoking wagons…
Here is the empty smoking wagon…!
Today, a delegation of the Villard-de-Lans Council met the Transport Lausannois managers to study the transfer of the rolling stock to France.
Villard-de-Lans is located on the top of the Vercors mountain, in France near Grenoble.
The Villard-de-Lans Council has a project to build a new cog wheel train to serve Villard 1300, a new sky ressort, which will be built, end 2008, above Le Balcon de Villard.
The cable was sawed and the two carriages were transported onto a truck to a warehouse. One of the two carriages is intended to be exposed in the Eisenbahn Museum in Vienna.
Note, under the carriage, the cable which was just sawed.
The 1,4km long funicular will start at the northern end of Innsbruck congress-center in a first tunnel section to the Loewenhaus station, crossing the Inn river on a suspension bridge, entering a second tunnel, leaving this tunnel east of the Weiherburg (with a station Alpenzoo on a approximatly 20m high tower) leading into the old Hungerburg funiculars trace via a 400m long curved steel bridge.
(Illustration Nordpark)
Unfortunately a direct connection with the towns centre (an the main tram-lines) is not possible due to plannings mistakes of the town. So the bottom station is separated by a 400m long (but nice) footwalk from the public transports main lines.
The funicular has got to stations underway, one near the Loewenhaus station, one near the Alpenzoo station. The halfway bypass it situated in the tunnel, but there is no station.
The longitudinal section of the funicular it remarkable, as there is a short section (in the Tunnel between the bridge and the Weiherburg) with counter-gradient. There special depression pulleys for the rope are needed. The section till the river is almost horizontal.
The funiculars cars are divided in separate cabins that are mounted moveable to the chassis frame. So all of the separate passengers cabins are horizontal at any place of the trace (so the system seems to be compareable to the Fun’ambule in Neuchatel).
All station buildings and the bridge are designed by the famous Iraqui architect Zaha Hadid. Especially the top station is an impressive landmark.
The new funicular is planned to start operation in spring 2007. Together with this venture the ropeways the the Seegrube and the Hafelecar will be modernized.
The cars will be built by Leitner.
(Illustration Nordpark)
The trace alignment ist planned bei ILF (“Ingenieurbüro Lösser -Feizlmair”, a large planning bureau near Innsbruck which is also planning sections of the Brenner-tunnel. The whole project (new funicular and renovation of the two sections of the ropeway) will cost between 51 and 70 million.
Length of the new funicular line: 1798m
(In orange: the new project, in red: the old Hungerburg Bahn)
Special thank to Martin Schönherr.