Mountain railways
Mountain railways of the world
84 rack & cable lines · 31 countries · climbing since 1854
See them all on the world railway map →Some gradients are too steep for a wheel on a rail, and there have only ever been two answers. Grip the mountain with a toothed rail and drive a cog into it, as the Jungfraubahn does inside the Eiger, Pilatus does on 48% grades, and Snowdon, Pikes Peak and the Nilgiri do on theirs. Or hang two cars from one cable and let the descending one pull the climbing one up, which is what the Peak Tram above Hong Kong, the water-ballast cars at Braga and Lynton, Pittsburgh's wooden inclines and Stoos, the steepest railway on earth, all do. Both are here, listed by country, each with its gradient story, its stock and the year it first climbed. What is not here is the aerial cableway: a gondola is not a railway, however steep the mountain.
🇦🇺 Australia
- West Coast Wilderness Railway
The 1896 copper railway hauls itself up 1-in-16 grades on Abt rack cogs, steaming once more from Queenstown’s bare hills into the King River rainforest.
Wikipedia ↗ - 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.
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🇦🇹 Austria
- Schlossbergbahn Graz
Up the Schlossberg through the trees since 1894, from the Mur embankment to the clock tower above Graz’s red roofs.
Wikipedia ↗ - Achenseebahn
Europe’s oldest still-working steam cog railway: its four 1889 locomotives haul open carriages up to the turquoise Achensee.
Wikipedia ↗ - Schafbergbahn
Austria’s steepest steam rack railway climbs 1,190 m in 40 minutes to a summit overlooking eleven Salzkammergut lakes.
Wikipedia ↗ - Schneebergbahn
Austria’s highest railway: the red Salamander cog train grinds 1,200 vertical metres from Puchberg to the Hochschneeberg terminus at 1,795 m, the Alps’ balcony over the Vienna basin.
Wikipedia ↗ - 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.
Wikipedia ↗ - FestungsBahn Salzburg
Austria’s oldest funicular in service (1892) rises into Hohensalzburg — one of Europe’s largest intact medieval fortresses — in 54 seconds.
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🇧🇷 Brazil
- Trem do Corcovado
Brazil’s first electrified railway (1884): a rack train climbing 700 m through Tijuca rainforest to Christ the Redeemer above Rio.
Wikipedia ↗ - 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.
Wikipedia (PT) ↗
🇨🇦 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.
Wikipedia ↗ - 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.
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🇨🇱 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.
Wikipedia ↗ - 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.
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🇨🇴 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.
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🇨🇿 Czechia
- Zubačka Rack Railway
Czechia’s only cog railway, climbing the Jizera Mountains on an Abt rack at a gradient of 58‰, a national record.
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🇫🇷 France
- Petit Train de la Rhune
A 1924 wooden cog train grinds up to the 905 m Basque summit of La Rhune, past pottok ponies and griffon vultures, with the Bay of Biscay spread out below.
Wikipedia ↗ - Montenvers Railway
A rack railway since 1908, climbing from Chamonix to a balcony above the Mer de Glace, France’s largest glacier, under the Drus and the Grandes Jorasses.
Wikipedia ↗ - Mont-Blanc Tramway
France’s highest railway grinds up the flank of Mont Blanc to the Nid d’Aigle at 2,372 m, where the climbers’ route to the summit begins.
Wikipedia ↗ - Panoramique des Dômes
A Strub rack railway spirals up the dormant Puy de Dôme volcano: 5.3 km and 500 vertical metres to the Roman Temple of Mercury at 1,406 m.
Wikipedia ↗ - 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.
Wikipedia ↗ - 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.
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🇬🇪 Georgia
- Tbilisi Funicular
Tbilisi’s 1905 funicular to Mtatsminda, the city’s highest viewpoint — derelict after 2000, rebuilt by Doppelmayr Garaventa and reopened 2012.
Wikipedia (KA) ↗
🇩🇪 Germany
- Bayerische Zugspitzbahn
Germany’s highest railway: cogwheels from Garmisch past the Eibsee, then 4.5 km of tunnel to snowfields at 2,588 m below the country’s highest summit.
Wikipedia ↗ - Heidelberg Bergbahnen
Two funiculars stacked end to end: a modern car to the castle, then 1890s wooden carriages on up to the Königstuhl summit — Germany’s longest funicular climb.
Wikipedia ↗ - Dresden Standseilbahn
From Loschwitz villa streets to the Weißer Hirsch heights since 1895, sister to the suspension railway one valley over.
Wikipedia ↗ - Wendelsteinbahn
Bavaria’s oldest high-mountain railway of 1912 racks up from Brannenburg through tunnels and 25% grades toward the Wendelstein’s summit cave, observatory and panorama over the Inn valley.
Wikipedia ↗ - Drachenfelsbahn
Germany’s oldest rack railway (1883) climbs 220 m in eight minutes from Königswinter past Schloss Drachenburg to the Drachenfels ruin above the Rhine — Siegfried’s dragon mountain.
Wikipedia ↗ - Nerobergbahn
Germany’s only surviving water-ballast funicular (1888), still climbing Wiesbaden’s Neroberg on 7,000 litres of tank water and no engine.
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🇬🇷 Greece
- Odontotos Rack Railway
An 1896 rack line climbs 700 m up the sheer Vouraikos gorge to Kalavryta, through tunnels and along ledges cut above the torrent.
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🇭🇰 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.
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🇭🇺 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.
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🇮🇳 India
- Nilgiri Mountain Railway
India’s only rack railway: X-class steam pushes the blue coaches up 1-in-12 grades from palm plains to Ooty’s tea hills; UNESCO-listed in 2005.
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🇮🇱 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.
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🇮🇹 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.
Wikipedia ↗ - 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.
Wikipedia ↗ - Funicolare Centrale
One of the world’s busiest funiculars — around 10 million passengers a year between Via Toledo and the Vomero hill.
Wikipedia ↗ - 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.
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🇯🇵 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.
Wikipedia ↗ - 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.
Wikipedia ↗ - 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.
Wikipedia ↗ - 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.
Wikipedia ↗ - Sakamoto Cable
Japan’s longest funicular — 2,025 m up Mount Hiei to UNESCO-listed Enryaku-ji, with Lake Biwa views — running since 1927.
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🇲🇾 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.
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🇳🇿 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.
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🇵🇹 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.
Wikipedia ↗
_(2).jpg/500px-Elevador_Hidr%C3%A1ulico_(14740970272)_(2).jpg)
🇸🇰 Slovakia
- Štrba–Štrbské Pleso Rack Railway
Slovakia’s only cog railway climbs 430 vertical metres up a 15% rack gradient into the High Tatras on hybrid EMUs delivered in 2021.
Wikipedia ↗
🇸🇮 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.
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🇿🇦 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.
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🇪🇸 Spain
- Funicular de Artxanda
Bilbao’s 1915 escape hatch: three minutes from the Casco Viejo edge to the Artxanda ridge and the whole Guggenheim skyline at your feet.
Wikipedia ↗ - Cremallera de Núria
The only way to roadless Núria: Abt rack rails climbing 1,000 vertical metres through the Freser gorges to a sanctuary at 1,964 m.
Wikipedia ↗ - Cremallera de Montserrat
A rack railway climbing the serrated massif to the Benedictine monastery at 720 m: the pilgrims’ way to Catalonia’s black Madonna since 1892.
Wikipedia ↗ - 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.
Wikipedia ↗ - Montjuïc Funicular
Metro-integrated since 1928 and rebuilt for the 1992 Olympics — among Europe’s highest-capacity funiculars at 8,000 passengers an hour.
Wikipedia ↗
🇨🇭 Switzerland
- Jungfraubahn
Tunnels INSIDE the Eiger to Europe’s highest station at 3,454 m, the “Top of Europe” since 1912.
Wikipedia ↗ - Gornergrat Bahn
Europe’s highest open-air railway climbs from Zermatt to 3,089 m: the Matterhorn framed in the window from the first curve to the summit ridge.
Wikipedia ↗ - Pilatus Railway
The steepest rack railway on Earth: 48 % grades since 1889, with Locher’s horizontal cog wheels gripping a ladder no ordinary train could climb.
Wikipedia ↗ - Rigi Railways
Europe’s first mountain railway (1871) still ratchets up from Lake Lucerne to the Queen of the Mountains. Mark Twain rode it and wrote home about it.
Wikipedia ↗ - Montreux–Rochers-de-Naye Railway
Climbs 1,700 m from Lake Geneva’s shore to a marmot-filled Alpine garden in under an hour, on Abt rack track dating to 1892.
Wikipedia ↗ - Wengernalpbahn
The world’s longest continuous cogwheel railway links Lauterbrunnen and Grindelwald over Kleine Scheidegg, under the Eiger’s north face.
Wikipedia ↗ - Furka Cogwheel Steam Railway
Volunteer-run steam locomotives claw over the 2,160 m Furka Pass past the Rhône Glacier on track abandoned when the base tunnel opened in 1982.
Wikipedia ↗ - Brienz Rothorn Bahn
A 25% steam rack line, Europe’s highest unelectrified railway, climbs from Lake Brienz to a 2,244 m summit in an hour.
Wikipedia ↗ - Schynige Platte Railway
Vintage 1914 cars grind up an Abt rack to a 2,000 m ridge, with the Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau lined up across the valley and an alpine garden at the top.
Wikipedia ↗ - Monte Generoso Railway
A rack line from the shore of Lake Lugano to a 1,704 m summit whose Mario Botta “Fiore di pietra” lookout takes in the Alps from Monte Rosa to the Apennines.
Wikipedia ↗ - 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.
Wikipedia ↗ - 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.
Wikipedia ↗ - 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.
Wikipedia ↗ - 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.
Wikipedia ↗ - 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.
Wikipedia ↗
🇹🇷 Türkiye
- Tünel
Opened 1875 — the world’s second-oldest underground urban railway after London’s, and the oldest underground funicular still running.
Wikipedia ↗ - 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.
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🇺🇦 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.
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🇬🇧 United Kingdom
- Snowdon Mountain Railway
Britain’s only public rack-and-pinion railway, Swiss-engineered in 1896: 950 vertical metres from Llanberis to the roof of Wales.
Wikipedia ↗ - 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.
Wikipedia ↗
🇺🇸 United States
- Mount Washington Cog Railway
The world’s first mountain-climbing cog railway (1869): still shoving trains up a 37% grade to New England’s stormiest, windiest summit.
Wikipedia ↗ - Pikes Peak Cog Railway
North America’s highest railway has climbed to the 4,302 m summit that inspired “America the Beautiful” since 1891; Swiss railcars took over the grade in 2021.
Wikipedia ↗ - Johnstown Inclined Plane
Built after the 1889 flood so Johnstown could flee uphill: one of the world’s steepest vehicular inclines, still hauling cars up Yoder Hill.
Wikipedia ↗ - Monongahela Incline
Opened 1870, the oldest continuously operating funicular in the United States — still a fare-integrated everyday transit link up Mount Washington.
Wikipedia ↗ - Duquesne Incline
Original 1877 wooden Brill cars still climb the 30-degree grade to Grandview Avenue and Pittsburgh’s postcard skyline overlook.
Wikipedia ↗ - 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.
Wikipedia ↗ - 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.
Wikipedia ↗ - 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.
Wikipedia ↗
Photos via Wikimedia Commons — each route page credits the author & licence