Monte San Salvatore Funicular

Here’s an attractive vintage brochure for a famous funicular railway in the Swiss city of Lugano. To this day it connects the suburb of Paradiso with the summit of Monte San Salvatore, 912 metres in height. Spectacular panoramic views can be enjoyed from the top. Like most funiculars, this was conceived as a tourist attraction and with careful and regular updating it has flourished and survived into the present. Funiculars retain their antiquarian character better than most other transport methods while continuing to be economically viable. More than 50 funiculars are still in operation in Switzerland launching carloads of visitors high into the Alps. For a previous post on Lugano, please follow this link.

Lugano

Since 1886 this funicular railway (Funicolare Lugano-Stazione FFS) has connected the city centre of Lugano with the mainline train station. The insolent manner in which it penetrates the buildings in its path is remarkably uncompromising. There are three other funiculars in the Lugano area and the image below comes from the cover of a pamphlet publicising the Funicolare del Monte Brè that has been offering passengers a spectacular mountain climb since 1912.