Leitner Installs Fleckalmbahn In Kitzbuhel: Austria’s First Ropeway To Travel At 7 M/S And Featuring World’s First Heated Cabin Seats

The “Fleckalmbahn” is indisputably sensational: LEITNER ropeways’ new gondola lift, built this year in the popular Tyrolean winter sports resort of Kitzbühel, features technological and design innovations that guarantee unprecedented comfort and sustainability. 

The 27.5-million-Euro project is the largest-ever individual investment by Bergbahn AG Kitzbühel. On 18 October, Josef Burger, managing director of BBAG Kitzbühel, presented the innovative product during a press conference in Munich. Following 35 years of accident-free service, 90,000 hours of operation and more than 30 million satisfied customers, the old Fleckalmbahn was respectfully retired on 14 April 2019. LEITNER ropeways will put its replacement, the new Fleckalmbahn, into operation on 6 December 2019, after less than eight months of intensive construction work. 

The Symphony 10 cabin with its elegant Pininfarina design will offer the greatest passenger comfort currently available on the market. Its dimensions – depth, width, height, and door width – exceed both those of the old cabin and those of comparable models offered by competitors. The cabin is equipped with ergonomically designed single seats with leather covers and another world’s first: heating elements at lower-back height. 

Like the cabins, the stations are designed in the Pininfarina style and equipped with an extensive array of functions powered by LEITNER ropeways technology. The new Fleckalmbahn also proves the company’s commitment to sustainability once again. Its LEITNER DirectDrive system, for instance, saves considerable amounts of energy. 

The company has also implemented a resource-friendly, speed-driven capacity management system, reduced the number of support towers by a quarter and the amount of gondolas by a half while maintaining the same transport capacity, and used compacted and smoothed ropes and rollers with a larger diameter. These measures cut the energy requirements of the system by 75,000 kWh per year, effectively demonstrating technological progress and real-life sustainability.

LEITNER ropeways celebrates its new installation as yet another chapter in its successful partnership with Bergbahn AG Kitzbühel. Martin Leitner, member of the Leitner Board of October 2019 Directors, said: “The new Fleckalmbahn is a significant technological milestone in our longstanding partnership with Bergbahn AG Kitzbühel. It is the 18th system we have realized together. This gondola lift epitomizes individuality and elegant design. It is Austria’s first ropeway that can reach a speed of 7 m/s and its newly developed gondolas feature additional heating elements in the seat back, which are unique on the market. They guarantee unprecedented ride comfort in the cabin.”