Hakone cable car
The Hakone cable car ( Japanese 箱根 ロ ー プ ウ ェ イ , Hakone Rōpuwei , English Hakone Ropeway ) is a cable car in Japan . It is located on the territory of Hakone Township in Kanagawa Prefecture . The Funitel system connects Sōunzan with Ōwakudani and Tōgendai within the Hakone volcano . The operator is Hakone Rōpuwei Kabushiki-gaisha ( 箱根 ロ ー プ ウ ェ イ 株式会社 ), a 100 percent subsidiary of Odakyu Hakone Holdings within the Odakyu Group .
Location and route
The aerial cableway is an important part of the sightseeing route between Odawara and Lake Ashi . The Hakone-Tozan Line begins in Odawara , ends in Hakone and connects to the Hakone Tozan Cable Car . This funicular in turn ends at Sōunzan station. From there, the aerial cableway leads over the volcanic Ōwakudani valley to Lake Ashi. The builder of the system is the Swiss company CWA Constructions , which belongs to the Doppelmayr / Garaventa Group .
Sōunzan and Ōwakudani
The valley station is in Sōunzan ( 早 雲山 , 767 m TP ), where there is a connection to the funicular. The first section of the cable car leads to the Ōwakudani mountain station ( 大 涌 谷 , 1044 m TP ). It was operated in the form of a gondola lift until 2001 , before being replaced by a Funitel in 2002. The rope length is 1.5 kilometers, with the cable car overcoming a height difference of 281 meters. It moves at a speed of 5 m / s (18 km / h) and has 18 cabins, each of which can accommodate 18 people. The mountain station is located directly in the Ōwakudani visitor center.
Ubako and Tōgendai
From Ōwakudani, the second section leads over the middle station Ubako ( 姥 子 , 878 m TP ) to Tōgendai ( 桃源 台 , 740 m TP ), the western valley station. There was also a gondola lift here until 2006, which was also replaced by a Funitel in the following year. The rope length is 2.5 kilometers, the difference in altitude 298 meters. 30 cabins with space for 18 people each also reach a speed of 5 m / s. The Tōgendai valley station is located at the northern end of Lake Ashi, in the immediate vicinity of the ship landing stage of the same name.
Data
| Sōunzan – Ōwakudani | Ōwakudani – Tōgendai | |
|---|---|---|
| system | Funitel (since 2002) gondola lift (until 2001) |
Funitel (since 2007) gondola lift (until 2006) |
| length | 1512 m | 2516 |
| Height difference | 281 m | 298 m |
| Max. Incline | 25 ° 33 ′ | 19 ° 42 ′ |
| speed | 5.0 m / s | 5.0 m / s |
| capacity | 1440 people / h | 1440 people / h |
| Cabins | 18 (18 people each) | 30 (18 people each) |
history
The cable car was opened on December 6, 1959 between Sōunzan and Ōwakudani, followed by the section between Ōwakudani and Tōgendai on September 7, 1960. It was built in the form of a continuous gondola and at that time, with a length of over 4 km, it was one of the longest cable cars in the world. Around four decades later, the plant no longer met modern requirements, especially since its capacity was comparatively low. So the decision was made to replace the gondola lift with a Funitel with two separate sections. After a year of renovation, operations on the Sōunzan – Ōwakudani section were resumed on June 1, 2002, and exactly five years later on the Ōwakudani – Tōgendai section. After the Hashikurasan Cable Car , the Hakone Cable Car is the second Funitel in Japan.
In 2008 the Hakone cable car received the certificate for the busiest cable car in the world based on the number of tickets sold. In the years that followed, the cable car set the record again. Between April 2012 and March 2013, over 2.1 million passengers took the train.
Web links
- Hakone Cable Car website (Japanese)
Individual evidence
- ↑ ロ ー プ ウ ェ イ の 乗車 案 内. Hakone Ropeway Kabushik-gaisha, 2018, accessed December 28, 2018 (Japanese).
- ↑ Hakone Ropeway Guide. (PDF, 8.2 MB) Hakone Ropeway Kabushiki-gaisha, 2018, accessed on December 28, 2018 (English).
- ↑ Hakone Ropeway as "Sky-Walk" bettered its own Guinness record of World's Busiest Gondola lift, Surpassing 2.1 Million Passengers a Year! (No longer available online.) The Ashigara Net Times, May 16, 2013, archived from the original March 4, 2016 ; accessed on December 28, 2018 (English). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
Coordinates: 35 ° 14 ′ 40 ″ N , 139 ° 1 ′ 11 ″ E