Schauinslandbahn

Geschichte

The Schauinslandbahn is a gondola lift in the Black Forest area of Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It links a lower station in the municipality of Horben, near the city of Freiburg im Breisgau, with an upper station near the summit of the Schauinsland mountain. The line is operated by VAG Freiburg, the city transport operator for Freiburg. The same company operates that city's tram and bus network, including bus route 21 that links the lower station of the Schauinslandbahn to the terminus of tram route 2 at Günterstal.At in length, the line is reportedly the longest gondola lift in Germany. It was the first suspended cable car in the world to provide continuous operation of multiple cabins, as opposed to the shuttle style operation of the aerial tramway.HistoryIn the first years of the 20th century, several proposals were made to link Freiburg to Schauinsland. The extension of city tram route 2 on segregated track to Günterstal in 1913 was intended as the first section of a high speed tramway that would connect with a proposed rack railway to the mountain's summit. Other proposals included an aerial cableway, proposed by Professor Georg Benoit of the University of Karlsruhe, and a much longer adhesion railway from Freiburg Hauptbahnhof via Schauinsland to Todtnau. The outbreak of the First World War stopped any further progress on these plans.