Funicular railways with intermediate stops

[eldomtom2]

I wonder if there are any actual cable cars (ropeways) with intermediate stops? The ones they've built to serve the favella areas in South America, perhaps?

The Hakone Ropeway that the aforementioned Hakone Tozan Cable Car connects to has one intermediate stop.

 

[stuving]

I wonder if there are any actual cable cars (ropeways) with intermediate stops? The ones they've built to serve the favella areas in South America, perhaps?

POMA's new Téléo thing in Toulouse has a third station part-way (not half-way).

 

[wellhouse]

There is an intermediate station on The Drachenfelsbahn above Konigswinter (Germany's oldest funicular)

 

[nwales58]

Drachenfelsbahn is a rack railway.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 16 Jul 2024 ==

According to wonkypedia, I didn't know, the oldest rope-hauled railway in Germany was part of the Altonaer Hafenbahn. The oldest still in operation, recognisably a passenger funicular, is the Turmbergbahn in Karlsruhe

 

[Alfonso]

I wonder if there are any actual cable cars (ropeways) with intermediate stops? The ones they've built to serve the favella areas in South America, perhaps?

This should probably be in a new thread but there are quite a few in Switzerland.

 

[BayPaul]

You wouldn't happen to know where they were, would you? I think I remember this from childhood?

Sadly no. I knew about the main intermediate stop, but found out about the old ones when checking on Wikipedia!

 

[DIW]

The Gurtenbahn (Switzerland) running from Wabern-bei-Bern to Gurten Kulm has an intermediate station at the central passing loop, Gruenenboden.

 

[MarkyT]

No one has mentioned cable-hauled people mover systems yet, like the recent DART at Luton airport. That's not technically a funicular as the cars move independently with their own cables in a twin shuttle arrangement rather than having the two connected to the same cable as in a traditional balanced inclined funicular, known as 'bypass mode' by manufacturer Dopplemayr, which also makes the more sophisticated 'pinched loop' configurations of its 'Cableliner' product where the cars can grip or release the cable, and transfer to different cables for different parts of the route with more than two cars running simultaneously. Station spacing may be more flexible with that system, but they're not funiculars in any traditional sense, being more like an automated derivative of San Francisco's cable cars.

Doppelmayr Group

Cable Liner® can be used in many ways and can relieve high visitor flows and offer a fast and convenient transport solution.

www.doppelmayr.com

The Cable Liner®, our premium product for Automated People Movers (APM), is an efficient and innovative transit solution used at airports and in urban applications for distances typically up to 6 km (3.7 miles).

 

[AlbertBeale]

I fear this may not be a funicular in the truest sense of the word, but the Stuttgart rack railway (Zahnradbahn, Zacke) has a number of intermediate stops.

Sadly the actual funicular, the Standseilbahn, doesn't! (Although it does have a passing loop)

Presumably all funiculars need a passing loop by the nature of the beast?

 

[MarkyT]

Presumably all funiculars need a passing loop by the nature of the beast?

Or two fully independent tracks but still with two cars balanced on the same cable.

 

[AlbertBeale]

Or two fully independent tracks but still with two cars balanced on the same cable.

Well - yes - though I've never seen one of those, as far as I can remember.

 

[MarkyT]

Well - yes - though I've never seen one of those, as far as I can remember.

Babbacombe Cliff Railway
Leas Lift Folkestone.
Saltburn Cliff Tramway.
The two remaining in Scarborough.
Probably others.

 

[Haywain]

Presumably all funiculars need a passing loop by the nature of the beast?

No, because a funicular can exist with only one car/track using a couterbalance, as at Southend-on-sea.

 

[Alpine Rider]

In France you can ride the Evian Funiculaire Metro (on the South side of Lac Leman(Lake Geneva) for free and it has several intermediate stops.

Calls at the intermediate stops result in the other carriage coming to a halt in the middle of nowhere, sometimes in tunnel with no adjacent platform. So far no one has died.

YouTube trip

 

[mailbyrail]

The Great Orme Tramway has a request stop on the lower portion at Black Gate only for residents use where the line crosses Tygwyn Road - don't know if the stop is still available these days. There is/was a special bell code from the driver to the winding house if the stop was needed. Source - North Wales Tramways by Keith Turner

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 17 Jul 2024 ==

And on cable cars, the Gibraltar line has a 'Middle Station'

 

[MarkyT]

No, because a funicular can exist with only one car/track using a couterbalance, as at Southend-on-sea.

That is technically an inclined lift or elevator. The classical definition of a funicular requires two cars counterbalanced and moving simultaneously. In popular use however many inclined lifts are understandably referred to as funiculars incorrectly, some because their operating method changed at a major refit in the past.

 

[nwales58]

Single car is a bit off-topic, but my memory of a video of the Gelmerbahn in Switzerland (claims to be steepest but Stoos claims that too) is that it is single passenger car but I don't recall seeing the counterweight vehicle. As it was built for hydro construction, maybe both vehicles are freight and only one has seats.

Has anyone been to the Gelmerbahn?

 

[bahnause]

The Gelmerbahn has only one car propelled by a winch, so it is not a funicular.

 

[nwales58]

The Gelmerbahn has only one car propelled by a winch, so it is not a funicular.

Thanks, that explains it. One hell of a winch to lift the load 450m.
So Stoos really is the steepest funicular as Gelmerbahn is a lift on steroids.

 

[trebor79]

I wonder if there are any actual cable cars (ropeways) with intermediate stops? The ones they've built to serve the favella areas in South America, perhaps?

The cable car at Alton Towers has (or had, it's a couple of decades since I was last there) an intermediate stop. You could stay in the gondola and carry on to the end.

 

[boiledbeans2]

I wonder if there are any actual cable cars (ropeways) with intermediate stops? The ones they've built to serve the favella areas in South America, perhaps?

Singapore as well, with the intermediate station, Harbourfront, being a hole in a tall building:

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/54/Pok%C3%A9_Ball_cabins_departing_from_HarbourFront_Station_in_May_2023..jpg

 

[AlbertBeale]

Babbacombe Cliff Railway
Leas Lift Folkestone.
Saltburn Cliff Tramway.
The two remaining in Scarborough.
Probably others.

Aha - thanks. I must get out more!! Though I'm surprised not to have remembered the Folkestone one from childhood holidays there...

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 18 Jul 2024 ==

Thanks, that explains it. One hell of a winch to lift the load 450m.
So Stoos really is the steepest funicular as Gelmerbahn is a lift on steroids.

Yes - the Stoos is seriously steep! And it's not far - just a few minutes on the bus - from the only British-style chippy I remember finding in Switzerland. So doubly worth the visit.

 

[bahnause]

Thanks, that explains it. One hell of a winch to lift the load 450m.
So Stoos really is the steepest funicular as Gelmerbahn is a lift on steroids.

Many of the cable cars in this region belong to the operator of the region's hydroelectric power stations and are marketed for tourism as part of the ‘Grimsel World’. There are also a few undergrond cable cars, which are accessible as part of guided tours. Some of them clearly show that they were not originally designed for tourism.

 

[DIW]

The village/town of Beatenberg (Switzerland) has both a funicular and a cable car which appear to meet the question of this thread and also the thread's tangent.
The Beatenbucht-Beatenberg funicular has an intermediate halt at Birchi, although I don't recall ever stopping there.
The cable car Beatenberg-Niederhorn (runs cars in sets of three) has an intermediate halt at Vorsass, serving the restaurant of the same name. I have been aboard a cabin which stopped here.