They transport visitors to the Jungfraujoch (the “Top of Europe”), to the Gornergrat ridge and its view of the Matterhorn, and from the River Aare in Bern up to the parliament building. In Switzerland there are around 1,700 cable and mountain railways, 250 of which feature in a new book.
Every year a total of 300 million passengers board Switzerland’s cable and mountain railways, which smoothly climb steep cliffs on small and large mountains and reach peaks with breathtaking views. They cross bridges, fields and spectacular scenery in cantons Valais, Graubünden, Bern, Ticino and all other regions of the country.
The mountain railways are generally not an everyday means of transport. Most of their passengers are tourists, from within Switzerland and abroad, who have time to enjoy the nostalgic cog railways, chairlifts, cable cars and funiculars.
(Images: from the book 250 Swiss mountain and cable railways by Roland Baumgartner and Roman Weissen, text: Gaby Ochsenbein, swissinfo.ch)
Links
The citizens' meeting
How the Swiss are moving back to the mountains
