The
west side of the Bürgenstock is not so steep
and high as the north side where are the Bürgenstock
Hotels and their funicular but, at Fürigen,
the Fürigen Hotel operates its own funicular
since 1924.
The small funicular links Fürigen and the
hotel to the small cove of Harissen on the lake
of the Four Cantons.
At the height of the season, the funicular operates
each 20 minutes but off-season it operates on
request only! How it works? If you want to go
up to the top from Harissen the small wooden cabin
is waiting at the bottom of the track (see photo
on the right). You enter freely on the platform
of the cabin. Then you have to press a button
which is not the command of the funicular but
it is in fact a bell to inform the hotel at the
top that there is someone in the cabin who wants
to go up. The cabin is watched by video camera
and after several seconds the cabin goes up. When
you arrive at the top station just in front the
Hotel Fürigen, a person get out the hotel
and then you have to pay your ride at this person.
When I used the Fürigen Bahn, in 1992, I
remember that I found this "on request"
way to operate very original. Since that day I
have never retrieved such a way to use a funicular.
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