As Hong Kong Peak Tram reopens, 10 other fabulous funicular railways around the world to ride
- After a year out of service, the Hong Kong Peak Tram reopens on August 27, to rejoin the ranks of the world’s most celebrated funicular railways
- Across eight countries in three continents, they include the second oldest subterranean railway, in Istanbul, and funiculars in Tokyo, Budapest and Lisbon
Just as one iconic Hong Kong attraction bites the dust (or more accurately, the seabed), another has been restored and resuscitated.
Unlike the Jumbo Restaurant, which mostly catered to tour groups, the Peak Tram is relied upon by commuters and other locals. To celebrate its reopening on August 27 let’s take a look at a few famous funicular railways, beginning with a definition.
The word itself derives from the Latin funiculus, meaning “rope” or “cord”, from which the cables were originally made. A funicular is an inclined railway with two counterbalanced cars (the weight of the car going down pulls the other one up). They are usually built to run on a single track with a passing loop.
Hong Kong’s much loved Peak Tram opened in 1888 and was the first of its kind in Asia. The coal-fired, steam-powered marvel carried 800 curious colonials on its first day of operation, compared with about 11,000 daily passengers more recently.
Reaching the uppermost station at the Peak Tower involves a 1,350-metre ascent from the lower terminus, on Garden Road, and includes four intermediate stops (Kennedy, MacDonnell, May and Barker roads). The new, sixth-generation dark green tramcars have larger windows and are able to accommodate 210 passengers, a 75 per cent increase from the previous capacity of 120.