The Flying Dutchman Funicular, also known as the Cape Point Funicular, is 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 ...

located at

Cape Point Cape Point ( af, Kaappunt) is a promontory at the southeast corner of the Cape Peninsula, a mountainous and scenic landform that runs north-south for about thirty kilometres at the extreme southwestern tip of the African continent in South Af ...

, near the Cape of Good Hope in the

Western Cape The Western Cape is a province of South Africa, situated on the south-western coast of the country. It is the fourth largest of the nine provinces with an area of , and the third most populous, with an estimated 7 million inhabitants in 2020 ...

province of

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the Atlantic Ocean, South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the ...

. The line runs from a lower station at the Cape Point car park, up an incline through dense fynbos to the upper lighthouse. It was the first commercial funicular of its kind in Africa, and takes its name from the legend of the Flying Dutchman ghost ship.

History

The route that the line follows was originally serviced by a 16-seater ''Flying Dutchman'' bus. Due to the increasing number of visitors to the Cape,

Cape Metropolitan Council The City of Cape Town ( af, Stad Kaapstad; xh, IsiXeko saseKapa) is the metropolitan municipality (South Africa), metropolitan municipality which governs the city of Cape Town, South Africa and its suburbs and Commuter town, exurbs. As of the 2 ...

put out a call for proposals to replace the bus service in early 1995. The proposal by

Concor Concor Holdings (Proprietary) Limited. is a South African construction and mining services company. It is active throughout Southern Africa, involved in mining, civil engineering, building and road projects. Concor returned as an independent br ...

to install an electrically powered funicular was accepted as an environmentally friendly and novel means of transport. It was the first commercial funicular railway of its kind in Africa, and was produced entirely using South African resources. The diesel bus ran the route for the last time in December 1996, after which time the funicular replaced it. The funicular cars were refurbished in June 2010. The name of the line comes from the legend of the Flying Dutchman ghost ship.

Route

The funicular has two stops: it runs between the Cape Point parking area and the viewing point below the lighthouse. The line follows the line of the road previously used by the bus to minimise the environmental impact; due to the width of that road, the funicular has a

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with a

passing loop A passing loop (UK usage) or passing siding (North America) (also called a crossing loop, crossing place, refuge loop or, colloquially, a hole) is a place on a single line railway or tramway, often located at or near a station, where trains or ...

at the midway point. The track is long, and rises from the lower station (at above sea level) to the upper station (at above sea level), with a maximum

gradient In vector calculus, the gradient of a scalar-valued differentiable function of several variables is the vector field (or vector-valued function) \nabla f whose value at a point p is the "direction and rate of fastest increase". If the gr ...

of 16%. The route travels through dense fynbos. The two cars on the line are drawn along the track using ropes, and is powered by electricity. Each car can carry 40 passengers for a journey that lasts around 3 minutes. The overall capacity of the line is around 450 passengers per hour. The cars are named "Nolloth" and "Thomas T. Tucker" after vessels that sank in the area. The funicular is suitable for

wheelchair A wheelchair is a chair with wheels, used when walking is difficult or impossible due to illness, injury, problems related to old age, or disability. These can include spinal cord injuries ( paraplegia, hemiplegia, and quadriplegia), cerebr ...

s. The route can also be walked. It runs from 09.00 until 17.00 each day (17.30 between October and March). , a return journey on the funicular costs R55 (Adult) or R23 (Children and pensioners), and is free for children under the age of 6.

References

{{coord, -34.351692, 18.487051, region:ZA_type:landmark, display=title Funicular railways in South Africa Transport in the Western Cape

History

Route

See also

References