Ritom funicular
funicular railway in the north of the canton of Ticino, Switzerland
The Ritom funicular (Italian: Funicolare del Ritom) is a funicular railway in the canton of Ticino, Switzerland. It links a lower terminus at Piotta, in the valley of the Ticino River near the southern portal of the Gotthard Tunnel, with an upper terminus at Piora, a 1 kilometre (0.62 mi) walk from Ritom Lake. There is also an intermediate stop at Altanca.
History
The Ritom Lake is in fact a reservoir, constructed in 1917 in order collect the waters of the Saint-Gotthard Massif for a power station at Piotta, in order to produce electricity for the Gotthard railway. The funicular was originally constructed to facilitate the building of the pipeline carrying this water, which it parallels, but was opened for public use in 1921.
The line was extensively rebuilt in 1977/8, and the original car was replaced by a new one in 1985. The original car, replaced in 1985, is displayed at the lower station.
At its opening, and until the opening of the Gelmerbahn funicular, the Ritom funicular was the steepest funicular in Switzerland.
Operation
The line has the following parameters:
See also
List of funicular railways
List of funiculars in Switzerland
References
External links
Web site of the Region Ritom-Piora with information on the funicular and surroundings
"61.043 Piotta - Ritom, Quinto, Funiculare". Schweizer Seilbahninventar = Inventaire suisse des installations à câbles = Inventario svizzero degli impianti a fune [Swiss Inventory of Cableways] (in Italian and German).
The public source identifies “Ritom funicular” as funicular railway in the north of the canton of Ticino, Switzerland. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Ritom, funicular and railway.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jan 25, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7336774. Authority coordinates are 46.517, 8.675. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1917, 1921, 1977 and 1985.
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This entry incorporates text from “Ritom funicular” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.