Funiculars of Lyon - History

History

No less than five funicular lines, nicknamed ficelles ("threads") were built.

  • The first line opened in 1862 and linked Rue Terme and Boulevard de la Croix Rousse. The funicular was closed and converted to a road tunnel in 1968.
  • The second line opened in 1891 and served the Butte de la Croix Rousse. The line was converted into a rack railway in 1972 and rebuilt and extended at both ends to become Line C of the Lyon Metro in 1978.
  • The third line opened in 1878 linking Saint-Jean to Saint-Just with an intermediate station at Minimes, climbing the Fourvière hill. The line was converted to a rack railway in 1901 and back to a funicular in 1958.
  • The fourth and fifth lines were opened in 1900, linking the Tour Metallique on Fourvière hill to Saint-Paul and the Basilica on Fourvière with Saint-Jean. The first was closed in 1937 and the second was modernised in 1970 with a change of gauge from 1,000 mm (3 ft 3 3⁄8 in) to 1,300 millimetres (4 ft 3 in). The Fourvière - Saint-Jean line is 431 metres (1,414 ft) long with a 30% incline.

Both lines still in service were modernised again in 1986 and 1987. A new station at Saint-Jean was built in 1991 to serve the new Line D of the Metro and both funicular lines, and the whole complex named Vieux-Lyon.

Read more about this topic:  Funiculars Of Lyon

Famous quotes containing the word history:

    “Culture, the acquainting ourselves with the best that has been known and said in the world, and thus with the history of the human spirit.”
    —Matthew Arnold (1822–1888)

    “My good friends, this is the second time in our history that there has come back from Germany to Downing Street peace with honour. I believe it is peace for our time. We thank you from the bottom of our hearts. And now I recommend you to go home and sleep quietly in your beds.”
    —Neville Chamberlain (1869–1940)

    “It is my conviction that women are the natural orators of the race.”
    —Eliza Archard Connor, U.S. suffragist. As quoted in History of Woman Suffrage, vol. 4, ch. 9, by Susan B. Anthony and Ida Husted Harper (1902)