A new period begins
Cable cars for passenger traffic
Until now, the cable cars were mainly used for the transport of raw materials or other materials that had to be transported up or down a mountain. There were no cable cars for passenger traffic yet. People were generally of the opinion that it was irresponsible to let your life depend on a single cable.
In 1898, the Milan firm Cerretti & Tanfani showed at a fair in Vienna that passenger traffic could indeed be reliable. For this fair they had built a simple cable car especially for people transport.
Because people in Europe were still very reluctant to use cable cars for passenger traffic, in the beginning only cable cars were built with multiple wire cables. This provided an extra bit of security and made using a cable car more reliable.
Cable car Bozen - Kohlern
Because people were afraid to use a cable car, various complicated systems were developed at the time that turned out to be very difficult to use. Because these systems were so difficult, they could not easily be used everywhere. The only cable car that used a simple system, the cable car from Bozen to the Kohlern (1908) had to be demolished again and replaced by a “more reliable” system. Bleichert was commissioned to build this cable car. However, thanks to endless testing by the Austrian government, the new cable car could only be put into use on May 10, 1913. This cable car consisted of 2 cabins, 2 carrying cables and 2 pulling cables. The first variant from 1908 used wooden supports while this new variant used iron supports. Both cabins could hold 22 people. The mountain station was located at an altitude of 1608 meters and a height difference of 834 meters had to be overcome.
First World War Cable Cars
In the period during the First World War, there was, of course, no longer a demand for cable cars for passenger traffic. Production came to a complete standstill. Even in the years that followed, the years of crisis, the production of cable cars no longer got off the ground. The first gondola for passenger transport was built again in 1924. A number of new cable cars followed during this period, but that was the end of it.
- Germany – Schwebebahn Fichtelberg (22-12-1924)
- France – Chamonix (1924)
- Italy – Meran – Hafling (30-10-1923)
The cable car between Meran and Hafling was particularly special because it only used 1 carrying cable and 1 pulling cable.
The development of new cable cars therefore almost came to a standstill during this period. However, the construction of new funiculars and transport cable cars came to a complete standstill. More and more trucks were used for freight and buses for passenger transport, making funicular railways redundant.
In the period between the First and Second World Wars, there was sporadic demand for cable cars. If there was any demand for it, it was for cable cars for the high mountains.
Cable cars after the Second World War
After the Second World War it was time to assess the damage. The cable cars were also not spared during bombings and shelling. Some cable cars were completely destroyed and had to be rebuilt and those that had fared better had to be refurbished due to the lack of maintenance. The demand for cable cars for transport had disappeared, but the demand for cable cars for passenger traffic increased enormously.
Winter sports
People had more and more time for leisure and thus a new market emerged, that of holidays. People were spending more and more and in addition to the traditional summer holidays, there was a demand for winter sports holidays. To meet the rising demand and to respond to the new trend, the Alpine municipalities had to invest in cable cars. It was a matter of joining or dropping out. In the period from 1960 to 1985, shuttle cable cars and chair lifts were built in the various valleys.
