A 1.7 km funicular railway in the Swiss Alps, said to be the steepest in the world, has been brought into operation this week.
The railway cable car, which can carry 36 passengers, is being powered by a 1.2 MW low-voltage electric motor designed and built by automation company ABB.
The new funicular railway replaces one dating to 1933. Climbing a track that has a gradient as steep as 110% – an angle of nearly 48° – the vehicles link the valley station Schwyz-Schlattli with Stoos, a ski resort village.
The vehicles employ a futuristic design of cylindrical cabins that rotate to remain horizontal through even the steepest parts of the journey.
Operating at a speed of 10 m/s, and taking three to five minutes per trip, the train can transport as many as 1 500 riders an hour in each direction. Two energy-saving ABB frequency converters ensure continuous speed control.
“Compared to the old railway, this represents a doubling of the speed as well as the transport capacity,” said ABB key account sales and service head Ueli Spinner.
The extreme steepness of the railway, which runs through three tunnels and across two bridges, posed big challenges to the project, which took five years to complete.
“We are happy that we’ve installed two custom-made high-performance motors with ABB technology for our customers. The funicular requires an extraordinary amount of energy to start moving, because the route initially ascends both at the valley station and the mountain station,” Spinner added.
In addition to its importance for the local tourism industry, the funicular guarantees a basic supply system for the Stoos region and the 150 residents of the car-free village.
ABB motors and converters are also essential to the Urdenbahn, a cable gondola system that has served the vast Arosa-Lenzerheide ski resort since 2014.
One of the longest aerial cableways in Switzerland, spanning 1.7 km without a single mast, the system has a load capacity of 150 people per cabin and can transport 1 700 people an hour in each direction.
Operating as two cableways that run parallel with one another but function independently, the Urdenbahn can be flexibly adapted to passenger traffic, reducing costs and increasing energy efficiency.