Marzilibahn 2010 Talstation und Strecke von aussen

The Marzilibahn, officially the Drahtseilbahn Marzili–Stadt Bern (''Funicular Marzili–City of Bern'') is a very short

funicular A funicular ( ) is a type of cable railway system that connects points along a railway track laid on a steep grade (slope), slope. The system is characterized by two counterbalanced carriages (also called cars or trains) permanently attached to ...

Bern Bern (), or Berne (), ; ; ; . is the ''de facto'' Capital city, capital of Switzerland, referred to as the "federal city".; ; ; . According to the Swiss constitution, the Swiss Confederation intentionally has no "capital", but Bern has gov ...

, the capital of Switzerland. Its of track lead from the ''Marzili'' neighbourhood to the '' Bundeshaus'', the seat of the Swiss federal government and parliament, in the

Old City of Bern The Old City () is the medieval city center of Bern, Switzerland. Built on a narrow hill bordered on three sides by the river Aare, its compact layout has remained essentially unchanged since its construction during the twelfth to the fifteenth ...

History

The Marzilibahn was proposed by a committee of seven Bernese entrepreneurs, who received an 80-year operating license by the

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on 13 December 1884. Construction began in March 1885 and was hastily completed to allow a start of operations on 19 July 1885, to coincide with the opening of the '' Eidgenössisches Schützenfest'', the Swiss marksmen's festival, in Bern. As originally built, the tracks had a length of and spanned a height difference of . The cars were water-powered: a tank in the upper car was filled with up to of water from the city stream (''Stadtbach''). This car, being heavier, then pulled the other one up the slope, after which the water would be drained and the process repeated with the other car. Up to thirty persons could be transported upwards in this manner. The descent was controlled by an operator on the forward platform on the upper car, who communicated with his colleague in the lower car by means of bell signals. The original green cars, built by the local machine company '' Pümpin & Herzog'' (later part of

Von Roll Von Roll Holding AG is a Swiss industrial group that operates worldwide that was founded in 1803. As one of Switzerland's longest-established industrial companies, Von Roll focuses today on products and systems for electrical applications such a ...

) were replaced in 1914 by a new set of cars on account of the

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in Bern, and the official name of the funicular was changed from ''Drahtseilbahn Aarziele'' to ''Drahtseilbahn Marzili-Stadt Bern''. Ticket prices ranged from 10 ''

rappen A Rappen (pl. Rappen) originally was a variant of the medieval Pfennig ("penny") coin common to the Alemannic German regions of Alsace, northern Switzerland and south-western Germany. As with other German pennies, its half-piece was a Haller, t ...

'' at the time of the opening (the Federal Council had to forbid charging non-locals twice that much) to 30 rappen in 1973. The area around and below the raised steel tracks was a garden, cared for by the conductors. In 1974, the line was converted to electric power, and a third generation of cars supplied. The two second generation cars are both preserved, one at the

Swiss Museum of Transport The Swiss Museum of Transport or ''Verkehrshaus der Schweiz'' (literally "Transportation House of Switzerland") in Lucerne opened in July 1959 and exhibits all forms of transport including trains, automobiles, ships and aircraft as well as communi ...

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and the other close to the lower station of the line.

Technical parameters

The funicular has the following parameters:

Records

The Marzilibahn is sometimes called the shortest funicular in Europe, but its operators are not certain about this, noting that similarly short funiculars exist in England and Hungary. The Zagreb Funicular in Croatia is at any rate shorter at .

Operator

The Marzilibahn is owned and operated by a private company, ''Drahtseilbahn Marzili-Stadt Bern AG'', which employs ten part-time staff. Its shares are held mostly by railway enthusiasts. In 2009, the company turned a profit of 175,000

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References

Bibliography

External links

*
Official web site of the Marzilibahn

{{Authority control Funicular railways in Switzerland Transport in Bern Former water-powered funicular railways converted to electricity 750 mm gauge railways in Switzerland Railway lines opened in 1885