A new ABB-powered cable car system now serves visitors to Zugspitze, the Bavarian Alps peak that is 
The cable car system operating at Zugspitze, the Bavarian Alps peak that is Germany’s highest. Source: ABBGermany’s highest. The system operated by Bayerische Zugspitzbahn Bergbahn AG can carry as many as 580 passengers an hour, three times as many as the 50-year old line it replaces.
The cableway is also notable for breaking several world records, such as having the longest span of 3,213 m (2 miles) from base station to peak. It also features the tallest steel column — 127 m (416 ft) — for a hanging cable car system, and covers an elevation distance of 1,950 m (1.2 miles).
The power required to pull gondolas such distances and at gradients of as much as 104 percent is supplied by two 800-KW three-phase AC motors from ABB that are housed in the cableway’s Valley Station.
The world’s steepest funicular railway also recently went into operation in Stoos in the Swiss Alps. The 1.7-km (1 mile) route with two 136-passenger cable cars is powered by high-efficiency electric motors designed and built by ABB. The company also supplied other key components for the system.
