Koliba – Kamzík funicular
The view of the landscape from a bird’s eye view combined with a nice walk does not belong only to hills such as Lomnický štít or Malinô brdo. Although Bratislava does not belong to the captured mountain regions, it also has its own funicular. It has experienced years of glory and decay, and today you can take it again from the Koliba station to Kamzík and back for a few Euros.
The manufacturer Transporta Chrudim put the SL-2 funicular into operation in July 1972 and the press of that time reported that it transported around 20,000 visitors during the first two months of its operation. The suspended single-seater chairlift is driven from the lower Koliba station and the rope tensioning is solved by a weight located in the upper Kamzík station. The elevation (difference in altitude of the lower and upper station) is 184 metres, the lower station is at an altitude of 236 m above sea level, the upper station is at 420 m above sea level. The funicular takes the horizontal route with a length of 970.7 metres in about eight and a half minutes. It is interesting that it was built as the last two-seated funicular of this type, all the others were only one-seated. It was closed in April 1990 and has been dilapidated for almost 16 years since, although efforts have been made to reopen it. The chance for renewal came in 2004 when the city decided to buy the funicular together with land and adjacent buildings from Západoslovenský Zdroj for 19.5 million crowns. Reconstruction work began with the removal of overgrown trees from the funicular route and the dismantling of the tension rope, weights and seats. Many parts had to be made to measure and adapted to the older structure, due to the demanding terrain, many works were also done by hand. At that time, the Nové Mesto district invested approximately one million Euros in repairs and was ceremoniously put into operation again in September 2005.
In 2008, it was included in the List of Monuments of the Bratislava – Nové Mesto District and at the same time proposed as a national technical monument but it did not make it to this second list.
It is working today all year round, it can take up to 342 people in one hour and, if necessary, a bicycle or a baby coach.