Brülisau – Hoher Kasten cable car
The Brülisau – Hoher Kasten aerial cableway is a mountain railway in the eastern Swiss canton of Appenzell Innerrhoden . It is operated by the Hoher Kasten rotating restaurant and cable car AG in the village of Brülisau in the Rüte district . The cable car has a length of 2693 meters and connects the hamlet of Brülisau with the Hohen Kasten , a 1794 meter high summit in the border area between Appenzell Innerrhoden and the Rhine Valley of the canton of St. Gallen . The lift was officially opened on August 11, 1964. The travel time to the summit is 8 minutes. In doing so, it overcomes a height difference of 857 meters. The aerial cableway is the fourth aerial cableway for public passenger transport to be built in the canton of Appenzell Innerrhoden. 189,629 people were transported in 2017.
Technical specifications
The Brülisau – Hoher Kasten aerial cableway is a two-lane aerial tramway with two supports. It was built in 1964 by the Swiss company Habegger in Thun in the Bernese Oberland. The railway operates two cabins with a capacity of 50 people plus a guide. The cabins had to be replaced after an accident in 2010. The maximum travel speed is 7 meters / second and the maximum transport capacity in one direction is 300 people per hour. The drive is located in the valley station. The supports are 35 and 55 meters high. The suspension cable has a diameter of 40 millimeters and the pull cable has a diameter of 31 millimeters.
history
The first primitive mountain inn was built on the Hohe Kasten in 1848. Hikers were given drinks, soup and, if necessary, a place to stay for the night. In 1892 the mountain inn was replaced by a new three-story building. Before the First World War , foreign customers, especially from Germany , formed the economic basis of the mountain inn. But due to the war and the economic crisis, the foreign customers stayed away. The trend was towards short-term tourism. Swiss tourists in particular had to be acquired. But they hardly had the time to climb the Hohe Kasten from the Rhine Valley or from Brülisau.
This is why the idea for the cable car arose in the early 1950s. But the idea got off to a difficult start. A concession had already been awarded to the Ebenalp mountain railway and the responsible authorities feared grueling competition between the railways. Since the Ebenalp Railway was very well received by tourists, the Swiss Federal Government approved a second application on April 13, 1959. But this concession was not without controversy. In the same year a Rheintaler Initiative Committee also submitted an application for a concession in Bern. A cable car was supposed to lead from Lienz to the Hohe Kasten. There was even the idea of realizing both tracks if necessary. The responsible authorities decided against it and the approval for the Rheintaler Bahn was not granted. However, this decision led to annoyance among the Rhine Valley communities, as parts of the summit of the Hohe Kasten are located in the St. Gallen area. To make matters worse, the summit area was owned by the private alpine cooperative Oberkamor, whose headquarters were in the Rhine Valley. In 1961 the municipality of the canton of Appenzell Innerrhoden agreed to an expropriation law, the alp cooperative was to be expropriated. But this fought against the Swiss federal court . On April 30, 1962, the appeal was rejected by the federal court.
On September 8, 1962, the founding meeting for the Bergbahn Gesellschaft took place in the Kurhaus Weissbad. Construction work began in the spring of 1963. The lift was officially opened on August 11, 1964. In 1989 the cabins were replaced. In 2010 the construction of a new valley station started and the cabins had to be replaced after an accident. The reopening of the converted valley station will take place on March 31, 2011. In 2014 the drive and control of the cable car were replaced.
accident
On March 24, 2010 there was a serious accident. During an inspection drive, a cabin raced unbraked into the valley station, which was significantly damaged as a result. The cabin was unoccupied. A senior employee of the cable car company was seriously injured. The canton police identified an operating error as the cause of the accident. The cable car was in maintenance operation at the time of the accident and was operated manually from the valley station.
activities
In addition to the mountain railway, the Hoher Kasten Drehrestaurant und Seilbahn AG has been operating a revolving restaurant with 450 seats and several catering areas on the summit of the Hohen Kasten since May 1st, 2008. The old mountain inn was demolished. On the summit there is a Swisscom transmission tower which broadcasts radio and television programs. The mountain station is a popular starting point for paragliders . The company maintains a 5,000 m² alpine garden with 300 different, mostly native, plant species. For this purpose, a support association was founded, the association Alpengarten Hoher Kasten .
Web links
References and comments
- ↑ The canton of Appenzell Innerrhoden has no municipalities
- ↑ 1955 to 1964 - opening of the Innerrhoder suspension railways. Retrieved August 26, 2018 .
- ↑ a b Annual Report 2017. Accessed August 26, 2018 .
- ↑ Technical data. Retrieved August 26, 2018 .
- ↑ Transports with pack animals instead of by train. Retrieved August 26, 2018 .
- ↑ The high box was fought over. Retrieved August 26, 2018 .
- ↑ Chronicle of the cable car. Retrieved August 26, 2018 .
- ↑ View of the cable car races unchecked into the valley. Retrieved August 26, 2018 .
- ↑ View of the railway accident on the Hohe Kasten cleared. Retrieved August 26, 2018 .
- ↑ An operating error leads to an accident on the Brülisau - Hoher Kasten cable car. Retrieved August 26, 2018 .
- ↑ Appenzell Innerrhoden Association of Alpine Garden Hoher Kasten. Retrieved August 26, 2018 .
- ↑ Alpine garden - the plant paradise. Retrieved August 26, 2018 .