SCHILTHORN, Switzerland – European cable car systems are often quite a bit more impressive than anything we have in the United States. For one, there’s a lot more of them, especially given their prominence and use in the European Alps. But they also just seem to be more extreme, taking people to the tops of some crazy peaks for skiing, snowboarding, and general fun.
The Schilthornbahn 20XX project, while nowhere near complete, is a pretty impressive cable car system going up in the Bernese Alps of Switzerland. A traditional cable car, with a capacity of 800 people per hour, is set to be built between Stechelberg and Mürren. This could wind up being the steepest cableway in the world.
From there, highly wind-stable Funifor cable cars will connect Mürren to Birg and Birg to Schilthorn. The design behind the project is impressive, and if and when it’s completed, the whole thing will be quite an experience. But the logistics behind building something like this, behind getting materials where they need to be without room to store them, might be the wildest part.
“A large construction site but little or no space for all the logistics and material handling. To prevent chaos from breaking out and bringing everything to a standstill, daily and meticulous coordination and planning is required from the Schilthorn Cableway internal office.”
Related: Producing And Transporting 700 Tonnes Of Steel Cables For New Chairlifts