Funiculaire Saint-Imier – Mont-Soleil

Funiculaire Saint-Imier - Mont-Soleil
aerial view (1930)
Overview
Other name(s)	Funisolaire; Chemin de fer funiculaire Saint-Imier - Sonnenberg; Funiculaire du Sonnenberg; Sonnenbergbahn
Status	In operation
Owner	Funiculaire Saint-Imier - Mont-Soleil SA
Locale	Saint-Imier, Switzerland
Termini	St-Imier (funiculaire) at Rue des Roches 31 Mont-Soleil (funiculaire)
Stations	2
Website	funisolaire.ch
Service
Type	Funicular
Operator(s)	Funiculaire Saint-Imier - Mont-Soleil SA
Rolling stock	1 for 60 persons (since 2003); 2 (before, for 54 persons in 1969)[1]
History
Opened	August 10, 1903 (1903-08-10)[2]
Technical
Line length	743 m (2,438 ft); before 2003: 728 m (2,388 ft)[1]
Number of tracks	1 (before 2003: with passing loop)[1]
Track gauge	1,000 mm (3 ft 3+3⁄8 in)[1]
Operating speed	5 metres per second (16 ft/s); before 2003: 2.5 metres per second (8.2 ft/s)[1]
Highest elevation	1,179 metres (3,868 ft) (since 2003)[1]
Maximum incline	60% (min. 39%)[1]

Funiculaire Saint-Imier – Mont-Soleil is a funicular railway in the Jura Mountains, Switzerland. The line leads from the village of Saint-Imier at 828 m to the station Mont-Soleil at 1179 m,^[1] on Mont Soleil (1291 m). The line of 743 m in length has a difference of elevation of 351 m at a maximum inclination of 60%.^[1]

Built in 1903^[2] as a single-track line with two cars and a passing loop, the track was lengthened and converted to a single car operation in 2003.^[1] The line includes several bridges and a tunnel.^[1][3]

The base station is ca. 800 m from St-Imier railway station.

The railway is owned and operated by Funiculaire Saint-Imier - Mont-Soleil SA.^[4]

Further reading

• 1903-2003: un siècle d'allers-retours (PDF) (in French), archived from the original (PDF) on 24 June 2019

References

1. Quelques données techniques (in French), archived from the original on 25 October 2009
2. Mathys, Ernst (1942), Hundert Jahre Schweizerbahnen, historisch und technisch dargestellt, 1841-1941; Les chemins de fer suisses au cours d'un siècle, aperçu historique et technique, 1841-1941 (in German and French), Bern, pp. 20, 68, 254
3. Smallenburg, F. W. (1903–1904), "Le funiculaire St-Imier-Sonnenberg", Bulletin Technique de la Suisse Romande (in French), 29/30 (22/6): 293–298, 156–158
4. Organisation - Funiculaire Saint-Imier--Mont-Soleil (in French), archived from the original on 19 September 2021

External links

• Funisolaire