The Seilbahn Zugspitze is an aerial tramway running from the Eibsee Lake to the top of
Zugspitze
The Zugspitze ( , ; ), at above Normalhöhennull, sea level, is the highest peak of the Wetterstein Mountains and the highest mountain in Germany. It lies south of the town of Garmisch-Partenkirchen in Bavaria, and the Austria–Germany border ...
in
Bavaria
Bavaria, officially the Free State of Bavaria, is a States of Germany, state in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the list of German states by area, largest German state by land area, comprising approximately 1/5 of the total l ...
,
Germany
Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...
. It holds the world record for the longest freespan in a cable car at as well as the tallest lattice steel aerial tramway support tower in the world at . Construction of the system began in 2015 and it opened on 22 December 2017.
This cable car replaced the original Eibsee Cable Car which closed on 2 April 2017 leaving no service for eight and a half months (access to Zugspitze was still possible via the rack railway and the Gletscherbahn Cable Car).
History
The original Eibsee Cable Car, which opened in 1963, was a
cable car which connected the lower station ( above
sea level
Mean sea level (MSL, often shortened to sea level) is an mean, average surface level of one or more among Earth's coastal Body of water, bodies of water from which heights such as elevation may be measured. The global MSL is a type of vertical ...
) near lake
Eibsee with the top station at above
sea level
Mean sea level (MSL, often shortened to sea level) is an mean, average surface level of one or more among Earth's coastal Body of water, bodies of water from which heights such as elevation may be measured. The global MSL is a type of vertical ...
next to the summit of
Zugspitze
The Zugspitze ( , ; ), at above Normalhöhennull, sea level, is the highest peak of the Wetterstein Mountains and the highest mountain in Germany. It lies south of the town of Garmisch-Partenkirchen in Bavaria, and the Austria–Germany border ...
,
Germany
Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...
's highest mountain on the border to
Austria
Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...
.
The cable car from Lake Eibsee was built to provide a faster access to the Zugspitze from its German side, as the
rack railway from
Garmisch-Partenkirchen
Garmisch-Partenkirchen (; ) is an Northern Limestone Alps, Alpine mountain resort, ski town in Bavaria, southern Germany. It is the seat of government of the Garmisch-Partenkirchen (district), district of Garmisch-Partenkirchen (abbreviated ...
does not go directly to the summit and takes much longer. Both the original ''Eibsee Cable Car'' and its replacement ''Seilbahn Zugspitze'' belong to ''
Bayerische Zugspitzbahn Bergbahn AG'', the company operating the rack railway and most cable cars, gondola lifts and chairlifts in the Garmisch-Partenkirchen area. It is thus possible to make round trips using both the rack railway and the cable car. On the Austrian side, there is the
Tyrolean Zugspitze Cable Car which starts at
Ehrwald and meets the Seilbahn Zugspitze at the top.
Technical
The technical details of the Eibsee Cable Car and the replacement Seilbahn Zugspitze are summarised in the following table.
Incidents
On 12 September 2018, during an emergency training exercise, the chain of the chain hoist used to lower the rescue vehicle onto the running ropes broke dropping the vehicle onto the ropes before the hoisting rope could be attached. Consequently, the rescue vehicle ran down the ropes unrestrained into the passenger gondola that was approximately below the mountain station. As both the rescue vehicle and the gondola were empty during the exercise, nobody was hurt. The gondola was damaged beyond repair (there is no information on the fate of the rescue vehicle).
The tramway remained closed until a replacement gondola was available. It reopened on 21 December 2018. It is not possible to operate the system with one gondola as each gondola counter-balances the other. Installing a temporary counter-weight would necessitate recertification of the system. This was a previously unknown failure scenario and has required other similar aerial tramway systems to review their safety assessments. In particular: to devise a method by which the rescue vehicle is restrained ''while'' being lowered onto the running ropes rather than ''afterwards''.
[https://zugspitze.de/en/winter/news/news/cable+car+zugspitze_n34366 Seilbahn Zugspitze website (in English)]
See also
*
Bavarian Zugspitze Railway
References
External links
Description and pictureson Seilbahngeschichte.de (German)
*
*
{{coord, 47, 27, 21.86, N, 10, 59, 30.25, E, region:DE, display=title
Cable cars in Germany
1963 establishments in West Germany