Doppelmayr Garaventa Builds New Cable Car To Highest Mountain In Lucerne

Garaventa has comprehensively renovated the Sörenberg–Brienzer Rothorn aerial tramway. In addition to installing a modern control system, rail travel was made faster and more efficient.

Since 1971, an 80-seater cable car has connected Sörenberg with the highest excursion mountain in Lucerne, the Brienzer Rothorn. After more than 50 years of operation, the railway has reached its service life and has been completely modernized: the drive, supports, ropes, cabins and controls have been brought up to date. The alignment of the path axis and the positions of the supports remained unchanged. The station infrastructure was architecturally rebuilt to meet today's operational and guest flow requirements. In keeping with the retrofit idea, some components such as the roller chains, the tension weights or the cabin guides were taken over from the original railway and integrated into the new railway technology.

The new cabins from CWA enable efficient operation thanks to double-wing sliding doors on both sides and substantially shorten entry and exit times.

Innovative control technology

A central aspect of the modernization is the implementation of the latest control generation “Connect”, developed and produced by Frey Stans in central Switzerland. The Connect cable car control is characterized by its uniform operating concept across all different cable car types. Connect enables central control and monitoring of the cable car system from a selectable control point (valley, mountain station or vehicle). The system is equipped with cameras and intercom systems, which enables unaccompanied operation.

80-ATW Sörenberg–Brienzer Rothorn, Sörenberg