Fürigenbahn

Fürigenbahn Harissenbucht (Stansstad) - Hotel Fürigen

Fürigenbahn

Route length:

0.3818 km

Gauge :

800 mm ( narrow gauge )

Maximum slope :

730 ‰

Legend

		Harissen Bay (Stansstad)	437 m above sea level M.

		Fürigen	639 m above sea level M.

The Fürigenbahn (FüB) is a funicular in the municipality of Stansstad in the canton of Nidwalden in Switzerland . It was opened on April 20, 1924, initially as a private development between Lake Lucerne and the Hotel Fürigen, and in 1927 it was licensed for public operation.

history

On the initiative of the owner of the new Kurhotel Fürigen, which opened in 1910, a funicular was built between the hotel and the hotel's own lido on the lake in Harissen Bay near Stansstad on Lake Lucerne. With the connection, the way to the small bathing complex with bathing and boathouse should be made easier for hotel guests. The facility was opened in 1924 and approved for public transport three years later. With the construction of a road to the Hotel Fürigen, years of loss began for the company. The last time the train ran on October 31, 2005, on March 31, 2007 the concession expired. The Hotel Fürigen was closed in November 2010.

route

The single-track route with a turnout and an Abt switch overcame a height difference of 200 meters over a length of 380 meters. Above the turnout, a bridge made of stone masonry crosses a small gorge. At the time of commissioning, the railway was officially the steepest funicular in Switzerland and Europe.

The lavishly designed, filigree wooden buildings at the end stations with a waiting hall and one-sided entry staircase have been preserved unchanged (as of 2020).

business

The Fürigenbahn was the first funicular in Switzerland that can be remotely controlled from the car. This first Bell system with remote control based on the patent Brown, Boveri & Cie. was built mechanically and electrically by Theodor Bell AG in Kriens . In the first few years of operation, the funicular made 100 trips a day. In the high season the train ran every 20 minutes, otherwise it ran on request by means of a bell, which transmitted a request to the hotel, provided that one was in the car in the valley station. Payment was made when getting off at the mountain station. The carriages, made of a metal frame and a wooden cabin, held 16 people. The travel time was 4½ minutes at a speed of 1.6 m / s.

future

The recently founded association EFB Conservation-Fürigen-Bahn is investigating the possibilities of being able to put the railway back into operation on its 100th birthday in 2024.

literature

HH Peter: Electric cable car Harissenbucht-Fürigen , in: Schweizerische Bauzeitung SBZ, vol. 85/86 (1925), pp. 45-49.
The suspension railway for bathers in the Fürigen lido , in: Schweizerische Bauzeitung SBZ, vol. 115/116 (1940), p. 23.
Jakob Gabathuler: Development and economics of toboggan ropeways, ski lifts and chairlifts , dissertation, Bern: Stämpfli & Cie, 1947, in particular the chapter The Paternoster Suspension Railway in Fürigen, pp. 43–44.
Romeo Brodmann: The big bang for the future: Hotel Fürigen am Bürgenstock , in: Salz & Pfeffer, 5/99, pp. 64–66.
Marcel Just: “An ideal facility” - Hotel Fürigen on Lake Lucerne , in: Art + Architecture, No. 2/2011, pp. 68–77.