Tourists evacuated from Swiss mountain after funicular breaks down
The Local - [email protected]
Published: 11 Jul, 2019 CET.
Updated: Thu 11 Jul 2019 10:42 CET
Around 300 tourists had to be evacuated from the summit of Niesen Kulm near Lake Thun in the canton of Bern on Wednesday after the funicular that took them there suffered a technical issue.
Most of the tourists were able to descend on the upper section of the funicular to the Schwandegg mid-station before taking a 20 minute walk to reach minibuses which delivered them back to the valley floor at Mülenen, reported news agencies.
Around 30 tourists who were not able to walk that distance were evacuated from the summit by helicopter.
At no point was anyone in danger, said the funicular’s operating company.
The Niesen funicular, which dates from 1910, takes passengers from Mülenen at 693m to Niesen Kulm at 2,336m on a cableway divided into two sections. The maximum gradient is 68 percent in the second section and the 3.4k route takes around half an hour to ascend.
The funicular is expected to be working normally again by Friday.
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Most of the tourists were able to descend on the upper section of the funicular to the Schwandegg mid-station before taking a 20 minute walk to reach minibuses which delivered them back to the valley floor at Mülenen, reported news agencies.
Around 30 tourists who were not able to walk that distance were evacuated from the summit by helicopter.
At no point was anyone in danger, said the funicular’s operating company.
The Niesen funicular, which dates from 1910, takes passengers from Mülenen at 693m to Niesen Kulm at 2,336m on a cableway divided into two sections. The maximum gradient is 68 percent in the second section and the 3.4k route takes around half an hour to ascend.
The funicular is expected to be working normally again by Friday.
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