Funicular railways
Funicular railways of the world
48 inclines · 27 countries · counterweighted since 1875
See them all on the world railway map →Two cars, one cable, and gravity doing half the work: funiculars are the shortest railways in the atlas and some of the most loved — the Peak Tram climbing above Hong Kong, water-ballast cars descending at Braga and Lynton, Pittsburgh's wooden inclines, and Stoos in Switzerland riding the steepest railway line on earth. Every notable cable-hauled incline in the TrainRouter atlas is listed here by country, each with its gradient story, stock and the year the cable first turned. On the interactive map they start switched off — the Funicular toggle lights them up.
🇦🇺 Australia
- Katoomba Scenic Railway
The Guinness-listed steepest passenger railway on earth: a 52-degree plunge into the Jamison Valley on an 1880s coal-mine incline.
🇦🇹 Austria
- Hungerburgbahn
A 2007 hybrid funicular with Zaha Hadid’s sculpted glass stations — cabins tilt to stay level from the flat river crossing to a 46% climb.
- FestungsBahn Salzburg
Austria’s oldest funicular in service (1892) rises into Hohensalzburg — one of Europe’s largest intact medieval fortresses — in 54 seconds.
🇧🇷 Brazil
- Plano Inclinado Gonçalves
Built in 1874 with Esslingen machinery, Salvador’s cliff-face inclined plane still links the Comércio to UNESCO-listed Pelourinho, free of charge.
🇨🇦 Canada
- Old Quebec Funicular
Scaling Cap Diamant at 45 degrees since 1879, it links Petit-Champlain’s boutiques to Dufferin Terrace beside the Château Frontenac.
- Falls Incline Railway
Niagara Parks bills it the world’s slowest funicular: a 62-second, 3.5 km/h glide linking Fallsview’s hotels to Horseshoe Falls at Table Rock.
🇨🇱 Chile
- Funicular de Santiago
A 1925 funicular and national monument rising to Santiago’s hilltop Virgin — Pope John Paul II rode it during his 1987 visit.
- Ascensor Concepción
Valparaíso’s oldest ascensor (1883) began on water ballast and still hoists riders 69 m from the Turri clock up to Paseo Gervasoni.
🇨🇴 Colombia
- Monserrate Funicular
Hauling pilgrims since 1929 up 460 vertical metres to Bogotá’s 3,152 m summit sanctuary — one of the world’s highest funicular rides.
🇭🇷 Croatia
- Zagreb Funicular (Uspinjača)
At 66 m one of the world’s shortest public funiculars, linking Zagreb’s Lower and Upper Towns since 1890.
🇫🇷 France
- Montmartre Funicular
Paris’s shortcut to Sacré-Cœur since 1900 — 108 m of track, 36 m of rise and about two million riders a year.
- Fourvière Funicular (la ficelle)
Lyon ran the world’s first urban funiculars from 1862; today’s F2 of 1900 lifts riders from UNESCO-listed Vieux Lyon to the Fourvière basilica.
🇬🇪 Georgia
- Tbilisi Funicular
Tbilisi’s 1905 funicular to Mtatsminda, the city’s highest viewpoint — derelict after 2000, rebuilt by Doppelmayr Garaventa and reopened 2012.
🇩🇪 Germany
- Nerobergbahn
Germany’s only surviving water-ballast funicular (1888), still climbing Wiesbaden’s Neroberg on 7,000 litres of tank water and no engine.
🇭🇰 Hong Kong
- Peak Tram
Asia’s first funicular (1888), climbing almost 400 m over the Victoria Harbour skyline — four million riders a year on 6th-generation cars.
🇭🇺 Hungary
- Budavári Sikló
Opened 1870 as Europe’s second funicular; destroyed in WWII and rebuilt in 1986, it climbs to Buda Castle inside the UNESCO Danube panorama.
🇮🇱 Israel
- Carmelit
Israel’s only fully underground railway and one of the world’s smallest metros: six stepped stations rising 274 m inside Mount Carmel.
🇮🇹 Italy
- Mendelbahn
Europe’s longest and steepest funicular at its 1903 opening, still climbing 854 m at up to 64% from South Tyrol’s wine country to the Mendel Pass.
- Como–Brunate Funicular
Since 1894 the link between Como’s lakefront and hilltop Brunate, ’the balcony of the Alps’, climbing at up to 55% above Lake Como.
- Funicolare Centrale
One of the world’s busiest funiculars — around 10 million passengers a year between Via Toledo and the Vomero hill.
- Capri Funicular
Capri’s main street since 1907: hoists ferry arrivals from Marina Grande harbour 138 m up to the island’s famous Piazzetta in four minutes.
🇯🇵 Japan
- Koyasan Cable Car
Nankai’s 1930 cable car hoists pilgrims up the final 328 m to UNESCO-listed Kōyasan, the mountaintop monastery town of Shingon Buddhism.
- Hakone Tozan Cable Car
Japan’s second-oldest funicular (1921) links Gōra with the Hakone Ropeway at Sōunzan — the cable-hauled leg of the classic Hakone circuit.
- Mount Takao Cable Car
Japan’s steepest railway — a 608 permil grade near the top — lifting hikers up Michelin three-star Mount Takao since 1927.
- Ikoma Cable Car
Japan’s first cable railway (1918) still climbs Mount Ikoma as the country’s only double-track funicular, famed for its animal-faced cars.
- Sakamoto Cable
Japan’s longest funicular — 2,025 m up Mount Hiei to UNESCO-listed Enryaku-ji, with Lake Biwa views — running since 1927.
🇲🇾 Malaysia
- Penang Hill Railway
Malaysia’s only funicular since 1923: the Swiss-rebuilt line climbs 691 m through what was once the steepest funicular tunnel in the world.
🇳🇿 New Zealand
- Wellington Cable Car
Wellington’s red icon since 1902, climbing 120 m from Lambton Quay to the Kelburn lookout — rebuilt as a true funicular in 1979.
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🇳🇴 Norway
- Fløibanen
Norway’s best-known funicular (1918): 844 m and ~300 m of rise from central Bergen to the Fløyen viewpoint above the fjord city.
🇵🇹 Portugal
- Bom Jesus do Monte Funicular
The world’s oldest water-balance funicular in continuous service (1882), climbing beside the baroque stairway of UNESCO-listed Bom Jesus do Monte.
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🇸🇮 Slovenia
- Ljubljana Castle Funicular
A glass funicular of 2006 rising 70 m in one minute from the old-town market square to Ljubljana Castle, the capital’s defining landmark.
🇿🇦 South Africa
- Flying Dutchman Funicular
Africa’s only commercial funicular, named for the ghost ship said to haunt Cape Point, lifts visitors 87 m toward the 1859 lighthouse.
🇪🇸 Spain
- Tibidabo Funicular (Cuca de Llum)
Barcelona’s 1901 summit line to the Tibidabo amusement park and Sagrat Cor temple, reborn in 2021 as the glass ’glow-worm’ trains.
- Montjuïc Funicular
Metro-integrated since 1928 and rebuilt for the 1992 Olympics — among Europe’s highest-capacity funiculars at 8,000 passengers an hour.
🇨🇭 Switzerland
- Stoosbahn
The world’s steepest funicular: a 110% maximum gradient climbed by barrel cabins that rotate to keep the floor level, 744 m up to car-free Stoos.
- Niesenbahn
Climbs 1,643 m over 3.5 km up the pyramid of the Niesen — and the service stairway alongside is the longest on earth at 11,674 steps.
- Gelmerbahn
An open-car ride up a 106% grade — Europe’s steepest funicular until Stoos overtook it in 2017 — built to serve the Gelmersee dam works.
- Funiculaire Sierre–Crans-Montana
Switzerland’s longest funicular: 4.2 km and 927 m of climb from the Rhône valley vineyards at Sierre to the Crans-Montana plateau.
- Fribourg Funicular
Europe’s last funicular driven by wastewater: since 1899 the descending car is weighted with up to 3,000 litres of city sewage.
🇹🇷 Türkiye
- Tünel
Opened 1875 — the world’s second-oldest underground urban railway after London’s, and the oldest underground funicular still running.
- F1 Taksim–Kabataş Funicular
A deep-bored 2006 funicular linking Bosphorus ferries and trams at Kabataş with Taksim Square — Istanbul’s modern echo of the 1875 Tünel.
🇺🇦 Ukraine
- Kyiv Funicular
Kyiv’s 1905 funicular climbs a 36% grade from riverside Podil to the St Michael’s monastery quarter — 2.8 million riders a year even in wartime.
🇬🇧 United Kingdom
- Lynton & Lynmouth Cliff Railway
The world’s highest and steepest fully water-powered railway (1890): gravity and 700-gallon tanks alone work its twin cars on a 58% grade.
🇺🇸 United States
- Monongahela Incline
Opened 1870, the oldest continuously operating funicular in the United States — still a fare-integrated everyday transit link up Mount Washington.
- Duquesne Incline
Original 1877 wooden Brill cars still climb the 30-degree grade to Grandview Avenue and Pittsburgh’s postcard skyline overlook.
- Lookout Mountain Incline Railway
’America’s Most Amazing Mile’ since 1895 — the 72.7% grade near the summit ranks among the steepest on any passenger railway.
- Angels Flight
Billed the world’s shortest incorporated railway since 1901, the 91 m Bunker Hill hop costs $1.50 and starred in film noir and La La Land.
- Fenelon Place Elevator
Built in 1882 so banker J.K. Graves could ride the bluff home for lunch — billed as the world’s shortest, steepest scenic railway.
Photos via Wikimedia Commons — each route page credits the author & licence