Seilbahn Zugspitze
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The Seilbahn Zugspitze is an aerial tramway running from the Eibsee Lake to the top of Zugspitze. It currently[update] holds the world record for the longest freespan in a cable car at 3,213 metres (10,541 ft).[1] 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 half months (access to Zugspitze was still possible via the rack railway and the Zugspitzeplatte cable car). The gondolas of the new cable car hold 120 passengers giving a capacity of 580 people per hour.[2]
The original Eibsee Cable Car,[3] which opened in 1963, was a cable car which connected the lower station (973 metres or 3,192 feet above sea level) near lake Eibsee with the top station at 2,950 metres (9,678 ft) above sea level next to the summit of Zugspitze, Germany's highest mountain on the border to Austria.
The cable car systems from Lake Eibsee were built to provide a faster access to the Zugspitze from its German side, as the cog railway from Garmisch-Partenkirchen 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 cog 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 cog 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.
The old Eibsee Cable Car (decommissioned in April 2017) had a length of 4,450 metres (14,600 ft) and an elevation gain of 1,950 metres (6,398 ft). It ran over two pylons, which were 65 metres (213 ft) and 85 metres (279 ft) high, respectively. The latter was the highest cable support pylon in Germany. The two cabins taking 44 persons each were suspended from two track ropes and were moved by two haulage ropes. The track ropes had a diameter of 46 mm (1.81 in) each, and the hauling cables had a diameter of 29 mm (1.14 in) each. It ran on 750 kilowatts (1,010 hp) of power, generated in the valley station. The route was normally traveled in 10 minutes at a speed of 36 km/h (22 mph). The tramway could accommodate 300 persons per direction each hour. The elevation gain of 1,950 metres (6,398 ft) was the highest of all aerial cableways achieved in a single section until the Seilbahn Zugspitz opened.
The new cable car has a length of 4,467 metres (14,656 ft) and an elevation gain of 1,942 metres (6,371 ft) running over a single 192 metres (630 ft) tower. The gondolas run on four 72 millimetres (3 in) ropes and are hauled by a single 47 millimetres (2 in) rope. The system is powered by a single 1700 kW motor located in the valley station which propels the gondolas at 10.6 metres per second (34.8 ft/s).
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 280 m 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, but there is no indication that a replacement is required).
The tramway will remain closed until a replacement gondola is available (expected to be the end of December 2018[update]). It is not possible to operate the system with one gondola as one 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.[4][5]
See also
References
- ^ "Zugspitze-Eibsee Cable Car — One Ropeway, Three World Records". Gondola Project. Retrieved 22 December 2017.
- ^ https://zugspitze.de/en/winter/news/seilbahn-zugspitze
- ^ Zugspitze Roundtrip, Accessed on 22 Jan 10.
- ^ Göttler, Dominik. "Nach Kollision bei Übung: Zugspitzbahn steht still - Kettenzug gerissen". Merkur.de. Retrieved 13 September 2018.
- ^ https://zugspitze.de/en/winter/news/news/cable+car+zugspitze_n34366 Seilbahn Zugspitze website (in English)
External links
- Description and pictures on Seilbahngeschichte.de (German)
- Pylon I on skyscraperpage
- Pylon II on skyscraperpage
47°27′21.86″N 10°59′30.25″E / 47.4560722°N 10.9917361°E
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