World’s steepest cable car opens in...

The cableway leads to a mountaintop restaurant made famous by James Bond

The world’s steepest cable car has opened in Switzerland’s Bernese Alps.

With a gradient of 159.4%, the Schilthorn Cableway connects Stechelberg on the valley floor with car-free alpine village Mürren, and marks the first section of a three-stage journey to the summit of Mount Schilthorn.

Carrying 85 passengers each, the two cars rise to 775 metres in a mere four minutes via the vertical walls of the Murrenfluh. To cope with such an incredibly steep incline, each gondola-style car hangs from an 11-metre arm.

The new cable car is part of the ‘Schilthornbahn 20XX’ project, which involves building a new route made up of three sections. The second section between Mürren and Birg is also now open, with visitors able to ride the Funifor cable car – the first cableway of this type in Switzerland.

Once the final stretch from Birg to Schilthorn opens in March 2025, the entire journey time to the top will be cut from 30 minutes to just 18 minutes.

Stopping in Birg, visitors can stroll the 200-metre-long Skyline Walk on a rocky path for sweeping alpine views, or join the Thrill Walk, an adventure into the walls of the rock massif that features a crawl-through tunnel and glass-bottomed floor.

The final destination, the summit of Schilthorn soaring to 2,970 metres, is home to Piz Gloria, a rotating restaurant that gained worldwide fame after making an appearance in the 1969 James Bond film On Her Majesty’s Secret Service.

From here, visitors can enjoy panoramic views of more than 200 mountain peaks and on a clear day spot Montblanc in the distance.

Switzerland is no stranger to high-altitude record-breaking cable cars, with the steepest funicular railway in the alpine village of Stoos rising 743 metres at a gradient of 110%. Meanwhile, the Stanserhorn Cabrio in Lucerne is the world’s first cable car with a roofless upper deck.

For more information, visit schilthorn.ch

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