The land of cable cars
Cable cars belong to Austria as pasta belongs to Italy. The world's largest cable car manufacturer, Doppelmayr, comes from Austria and is based in Vorarlberg. It took until 1926 to build the very first cable car in Austria. You would expect the first cable car to be built in Tyrol or Salzburg, due to the ski resorts, but that is not the case.
Raxseilbahn
In 1926, the Raxseilbahn was opened near Hirschwang an der Rax, in Lower Austria. The cable car took passengers from the valley station to the Rax plateau at 1,600 metres. The Rax is more or less Vienna's house mountain. Austria's capital is less than 100 kilometres from the cable car, making the location a nice holiday spot for the capital's residents.
Cable railway fortress Hohensalzburg
So although it took until 1926 for the first cable railway to be built in Austria, the first funicular was opened much earlier, in 1892. This funicular connected Salzburg with the fortress of Hohensalzburg. This is 30 years after the first funicular in Lyon was put into operation.
Chair lift Markbachjoch
It took until after the Second World War before the first chairlift also went into operation. Austria's first chairlift was opened in 1947 in Niederau, the Wildschönau. This chairlift took passengers to the top of the Markbachjoch.
Statistics
Currently (2019), there are more than 2,900 lifts in operation in Austria, including 1,820 drag lifts and 1,110 cable cars (funiculars, circular cable cars, pendulum cable cars, chair lifts). All these cableways make the mountains accessible to tourists and residents. The cable car industry is big business in Austria. The winter of 2017/18 saw a turnover of more than €1,400 million. More than 599 million rides were taken on cable cars during this period and more than 600 million euros were invested.
Source: wko.at
Cable cars are a vital means of transport in Austria. Because Austria considers the safety of cable cars incredibly important, and therefore strictly monitors safety, the use of cable cars is one of the safest means of mass transport in the Alpine country.
If you want to know all the different kinds and types of cable cars, download the free Cable Car Overview.
