Steepest funicular

The world’s steepest funicular railway is the Schwyz–Stoos funicular in the Alpine resort of Stoos, Switzerland, where gradients reach 47.7 degrees (110%). Opened in December 2017 at a cost of CHF52 million (£39.5 million; $53 million), the four 34-person carriages are designed as rotating cylinders, which allow passengers to stay upright throughout their four-minute journey.

The funicular opened on 15 December 2017 and carries passengers – 136 per trip – on a 1,740-m (5,708-ft) journey through an elevation of 744 m (2,440 ft) from Schwyz-Schlattli to the mountain resort of Stoos.

This record title is restricted to true funiculars – where a pair of linked vehicles which are pulled by the same cable looping over a pulley at the top of a track – and does not include inclined elevators (such as the Scenic Railway in Katoomba, Australia, with its 128% incline), which are single carriages operating singly or independently.

The Gelmerbahn funicular at Bern was previously the world’s steepest true funicular, with a maximum gradient of 106%.