As already announced, the new valley station of the First Aerial Cableway to be replaced is to be built at Grindelwald railway station (Fuhrenmatte). This will result in a new route. In future, the railway is to run directly from Grindelwald railway station to First, with the intermediate station in Bort. Schreckfeld station will be connected to the First summit station by a separate gondola lift. An Isch-Bodmi chairlift is needed to ensure that winter sports enthusiasts can return to the valley station via the valley descent. The total costs are currently expected to exceed CHF 100 million, including the valley station at Fuhrenmatte and a new mountain lodge on First. At the same time, the current snowmaking system will be expanded.
Doppelmayr/Garaventa to build all three lifts in the First area
A “Triline” tricable system has been chosen as the railway system from Grindelwald station to First. The innovative ropeway system from Doppelmayr/Garaventa has an impressively high level of transport comfort, smooth running, energy efficiency, high wind stability and load-bearing capacity, as well as long spans for the cable bays. The system enables an optimal route from the railway station via Bort to First, with only six cable car supports and no forest paths. Only the first one is located in a residential area. Thanks to the high cable guide, the best possible distance from affected residential buildings can be achieved.
With its small number of supports and the avoidance of forest paths, the system is also impressive from a landscape perspective. Around 70 cabins offer twelve seats and standing room for an additional five people at peak times. In future, queues at stations will be a thing of the past and the quality of transport will be significantly improved. The same type of cable car as the Grindelwald-Männlichen Gondola Cableway with 30 cabins, each with ten seats, is planned for accessing the Schreckfeld junction from First. The attractive connection enhances the overall experience of First in both summer and winter. Like the new Isch-Bodmi chairlift, this gondola lift is being built by Doppelmayr/Garaventa.
Direct public transport connections
The First Aerial Cableway needs to be updated as its concession expires in 2034. The decisive factor in favour of the variant from Fuhrematte/Grindelwald was the short, direct connection to public transport.
There is enough space at the new First Aerial Cableway valley station to build an underground parking garage in addition to the new cable car. This will be accessed via the Grindelwald west bypass. In future, there will no longer be any feeder traffic through the village of Grindelwald to the First Aerial Cableway. This will relieve pressure on the village centre from the railway station to the church.
Test planning is currently underway together with those responsible at the Grindelwald local authority and a team of experts. The spatial planning and architectural issues for the location of the valley station and the summit station will be analysed and clarified so that the public can receive the best possible information at a later date.
Determining the railway system is central to further planning. Together with test planning, this provides the basis for the adaptation of the utilisation planning, which will also be voted on by the citizens of Grindelwald. The next step is to inform the landowners of the details in advance and clarify the cable car corridor.
Leitner wins contract for new Wixi-Fallboden chairlift
The Leitner company has been awarded the contract to build the new Wixi-Fallboden chairlift. The concession for the old chairlift expired at the end of October 2022. For reasons of age, it was no longer possible to extend the existing system. The replacement project for the Fallboden chairlift with a summit station on the Eigergletscher, which had already been considered in 2010 and taken into account during the construction of the Wixi chairlift, was cancelled during the approval process in 2021 due to a negative ENHK report.
Experience in the past two winter seasons has now shown that the discontinuation of the Fallboden chairlift has created a bottleneck in the Wixi Valley at the Wixi chairlift. The newly snow-covered “Black Rock” slope is proving very popular. The mountain station of the newly planned railway is to be located to the east of the existing mountain station, directly next to the Jungfrau Railway tracks. Thanks to a double subway with a gradient, guests can travel towards Grindelwald on one side and to Wengen on the other.
Assuming a speedy construction planning process, the railway could go into operation as early as the 2026/2027 winter season. It is a modern six-seater chairlift from Leitner, with weather protection bonnets and a transport capacity of 2,000 passengers per hour. The costs for this are estimated at CHF 13 million.
