A novel set in Dresden starts with a detailed description of the main character travelling up the steep bank of the Elbe using the funicular railway. Ever since I read that introduction, I wanted to travel on that funicular.
The system to buy tickets has changed a little since the novel’s description, the ticket machine accepts cards these days, there remains a barrier to enter the platform.
The first stretch is a single track through a tunnel, after which the journey continues upwards, still on a single track. Around the middle, the support widens and there is a short section of two tracks. This is where the only two carriages on the line cross paths.
At the top, there is another short tunnel and the upper station platform.
The Standseilbahn, as it is called in German, was completed in 1865. It still provides a convenient way to travel to Weißer Hirsch, which is 95m higher than the station at Körnerplatz at river level.
travel tales 