Switzerland’s Bernese Alps have just welcomed a new landmark: the world’s steepest cable car. Connecting the Stechelberg village on the valley floor to the mountain village of Mürren, the journey has a gradient of 159,4%.
With an altitude climb of 775 meters spread over a 1,200-meter-long track, the newest cable car in Switzerland seems to be defeating gravity. The journey takes just 4 minutes in one of the two specially designed cars, which are suspended from an 11-meter-long arm in order to cope with the steep ascent. Each car can welcome 85 passengers at a time (up to 800 passengers per hour) and operates autonomously, with no staff aboard.
The new cableway was the first part of the Schilthornbahn 20XX project to be completed. The project aims to drastically reduce the time it takes to travel from Stechelberg over Mürren to Birg and the Schilthorn peak. Once completed, the journey should take 22 minutes instead of 32.
Alongside the world’s steepest cableway, a new cable car system between Mürren and Birg was inaugurated on December 13th. The last part of the route should be finished by March 2025, and the entire project is expected to be completed by 2026. Schilthornbahn AG estimates the project’s total cost of CHF90 to CHF100 million ($100-112 million).
The Schilthorn peak is one of Switzerland’s most famous tourist hotspots, as it featured in the 1969 James Bond film On Her Majesty’s Secret Service. The Piz Gloria restaurant, located at the peak, served as the hideout for Ernst Stavro Blofeld, the villain of the film.
Since the restaurant wasn’t finished when the film crew arrived, the funds generated from the privatisation of the site were partly responsible for completing the building. The restaurant was designed by Bernese architect Konrad Wolf and rotates 360 degrees, offering visitors views of over 200 mountain peaks, including Mont Blanc when the skies are clear.
Prior to the opening of the new cableway, the world’s steepest cable car was Norway’s Loen Skylift, which achieved a maximum gradient of 133%.
