Grütschalp is a
railway station
Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a pre ...
on the
Bergbahn Lauterbrunnen-Mürren, a hybrid
cable car Cable car most commonly refers to the following cable transportation systems:
* Aerial lift, such as aerial tramways and gondola lifts, in which the vehicle is suspended in the air from a cable
** Aerial tramway
** Chairlift
** Gondola lift
*** Bi ...
and rail link that connects the villages of
Lauterbrunnen
, neighboring_municipalities= Aeschi bei Spiez, Blatten (Lötschen) (VS), Fieschertal (VS), Grindelwald, Gündlischwand, Kandersteg, Lütschental, Reichenbach im Kandertal, Saxeten, Wilderswil
, twintowns =
}
Lauterbrunnen is a village and M ...
and
Mürren
Mürren is a traditional Walser mountain village in the Bernese Highlands of Switzerland, at an elevation of above sea level and it cannot be reached by public road. It is also one of the popular tourist spots in Switzerland, and summer and wi ...
in the
Bernese Oberland
The Bernese Oberland ( en, Bernese Highlands, german: Berner Oberland; gsw, Bärner Oberland; french: Oberland bernois), the highest and southernmost part of the canton of Bern, is one of the canton's five administrative regions (in which context ...
region of
Switzerland
). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...
. Grütschalp is the point of interchange between the cable car from Lauterbrunnen and the high-level railway from Mürren.
The Lauterbrunnen-Mürren line opened in 1891, but until 2006 the connection between Lauterbrunnen and Grütschalp was effected by
Seilbahn Lauterbrunnen–Grütschalp, a
funicular railway
A funicular (, , ) is a type of cable railway system that connects points along a railway track laid on a steep slope. The system is characterized by two counterbalanced carriages (also called cars or trains) permanently attached to opposite en ...
. The current cable car replaced this when the funicular was damaged by landslides, and uses the same route and adapted terminal stations.
The Lauterbrunnen-Mürren line also handles goods traffic to and from Mürren. This is done by carrying the goods in
pallet
A pallet (also called a skid) is a flat transport structure, which supports goods in a stable fashion while being lifted by a forklift, a pallet jack, a front loader, a jacking device, or an erect crane. A pallet is the structural foundat ...
s that are carried under the cable car and on flat cars towed by the railcars. The pallets are transferred between the two by a complicated machine, part
fork lift truck
A forklift (also called lift truck, jitney, hi-lo, fork truck, fork hoist, and forklift truck) is a powered industrial truck used to lift and move materials over short distances. The forklift was developed in the early 20th century by various ...
and part funicular, within the Grütschalp station complex. The complex also houses the workshops of the line.
[
The station is served by the following passenger trains:]
Gallery
File:Muerrenbahn-01.jpg, The cable car
File:Grütschalp Freight Transfer Machinery.jpg, The transfer machinery
File:Gimmelwald-Grütschalp 29.07.2009 17-14-19.JPG, Car in the workshops
References
External links
*
*
Video of the transfer machinery at Grütschalp in operation
Railway stations in the canton of Bern
{{Switzerland-railstation-stub