Long queues waiting to ascend Germany’s tallest mountain may now be history, thanks to a new ABB-powered cable-car system that can take 580 people an hour to the Zugspitze (in the Bavarian Alps).

Moreover, the cableway breaks three world records for a pendular (hanging) cable car system: at 127m, its single steel support column is the tallest; at 1,945m, its elevation difference is the largest; and with a total run of 3,213m from base station to peak, it has the longest span.

It replaces the 50-year-old Eibsee cableway and will end the latter’s notoriously long waiting times by transporting nearly three-times as many people per hour.

Making the record-breaking new cableway feasible for the operator (Bayerische Zugspitz-bahn Bergbahn AG) is an array of innovative technology from ABB, which has extensive experience solving transportation challenges in the Alps.

The project was particularly challenging, as the operator required a system capable of operating 365 days a year, regardless of wind and weather.

Pulling the gondolas over such a long distance and up gradients of 46deg at a speed of 10.6m per sec requires significant power, which is supplied by two ABB 800kW three-phase AC motors that are housed in the cableway’s Valley Station.

ABB (www.abb.com) has built a lasting reputation for safe, reliable and energy-efficient transportation in the Alps.

In the case of the world-famous Jungfrau Railway — a 9km-long cog railway that began operation in 1912 — ABB was responsible for the electrification that made the route possible; and today ABB technologies still ensure that this railway can carry more than 1 million passengers a year — even during heavy snowfalls — to the Jungfraujoch, which at 3,454m above sea level is Europe’s highest train station.