The Gardena Ronda Express is a funicular

Funicular

A funicular, also known as an inclined plane or cliff railway, is a cable railway in which a cable attached to a pair of tram-like vehicles on rails moves them up and down a steep slope; the ascending and descending vehicles counterbalance each other.-Operation:The basic principle of funicular...

 situated in the Val Gherdëina near Santa Cristina Gherdëina, connecting the Col Raiser lifts to the Sasslong/Ruacia and Ciampinoi lifts.

Trains

Two funiculars operate on the system. Both were built by Gangloff, and the cable system was manufactured by Leitner Ropeways and Poma Italy. The funicular trains each have four seating cabins capable of seating around 10 and standing around 25. The total capacity is 140 people per train. The trains are 15.5 meters long and 2.3 meters wide, and weigh 15,500kg.

Track

The whole line runs in a tunnel, which connects two aerial ropeways and through them two ski resort

Ski resort

A ski resort is a resort developed for skiing and other winter sports. In Europe a ski resort is a town or village in a ski area - a mountainous area, where there are ski trails and supporting services such as hotels and other accommodation, restaurants, equipment rental and a ski lift system...

s. The maximum speed is 36 km/h and the slope is 100‰. 2000 persons can be transported par hour from one terminus to the other.

History

Planning started in 1990 and after some changes on the track to avoid buildings, in the year 2003 the construction started. So today, after nearly forty years without a railway (the Val Gardena Railway

Val Gardena Railway

The Val Gardena Railway or Klausen-Plan was a narrow gauge railway operating in the Val Gardena in the Dolomites of northern Italy. The railway was constructed in 1915 when the region was part of the Austrian Empire. It was 32.5km long, and operated 0-8-0T steam locomotives constructed by Krauss....

was closed in 1960), the valley has a train again.

External links

• http://www.funivie.org/pagine/speciali/gherdeinaronda_inaug/ Construction of the funicular
• http://www.funivie.org/pagine/speciali/gherdeinaronda/ Official Technical Relation, photos and videos
• http://www.gardenaronda.com/ (only German or Italian language)