ADVERTISEMENTThe world’s steepest cable car has just opened in Switzerland’s Bernese Alps.
Connecting the village of Stechelberg on the valley floor with Mürren, the track has a gradient of 159.4 per cent.
The journey takes just four minutes to climb 775 metres over a track nearly 1,194 metres in length.
The two cars hang from an 11-metre-long arm to cope with the steep incline and have space for up to 85 passengers. The route is fully autonomous, with constant monitoring by cameras and sensors allowing it to operate without staff on board.
The first car made its journey up the cableway on the evening of Friday 13 December at an official opening ceremony. It began welcoming regular passengers on Saturday 14 December.
The new cable car is part of the ‘Schilthornbahn 20XX’ project which involves building a new route made up of three sections. It will eventually run from Stechelberg and Mürren via Birg up to the Schilthorn, cutting the current journey time from 32 minutes to around 18 minutes.
The Swiss mountain’s ‘Piz Gloria’ restaurant was made famous by the 1969 James Bond film On Her Majesty’s Secret Service.
This revolving restaurant is located at the peak of the Schilthorn and has 360-degree views of more than 200 other mountain peaks. If visibility is good, you can even see Montblanc.
Designed by Bernese architect Konrad Wolf, it claims to be the world’s first revolving restaurant.
Its name comes from Ian Fleming’s 1963 novel of the same name in which it is the mountain-top hideout of the villain Ernst Stavro Blofeld. The production team for the movie found the restaurant partially complete and contributed to finishing its construction in return for exclusive use for filming the 1969 movie.
A new cableway between Mürren and Birg also opened at the same time as the world’s steepest cable car. The final stretch from Birg to the Schilthorn is expected to open in March 2025 with the finalisation of the entire project in spring/summer 2026. This top section has been closed since mid-October because of the project.