Funicular route
Wellington Cable Car
Lambton Quay → Kelburn · New Zealand
- Distance
- 0.61 km
- Fastest time
- 5 min
- Top speed
- 18 km/h
- Operator
- Wellington Cable Car Ltd
- Train
- Two 100-passenger Swiss Habegger cars (1979)
- Countries
- New Zealand
- In service since
- 1902
Page last updated 2026-07-23 · figures are published values, not live data · corrections log
Wellington’s red icon since 1902, climbing 120 m from Lambton Quay to the Kelburn lookout — rebuilt as a true funicular in 1979.
View on the world railway map →More funicular routes
- 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.
More train routes in New Zealand.