Austrian Railway Group

Tauernbahn
Bad Hofgastein Schlossalmbahn
Funicular

At the end of the 1983/4 skiing season, the line was closed for refurbishment, and reopened in the October with two new cars, still made by Waagner B, but capable of holding 120 people each at busy periods. The cable and motor were both replaced, and the metre-gauge track was renewed. One result of the renewal was that the maximum speed of the line was increased to 8.5 metres / second, allowing a 5 minute service to be operated when needed.

The line leaves the western side of the main road through Bad Hofgastein (the car park is on the eastern side of the busy road, with an undepass for pedestrians and skiers). The line steepens from 20% to 48% on leaving the talstation (843 metre above sea level). The line, unusually, then passes under a main line railway, for the Tauernbahn crosses the Schlossalmbahn on a high stone bridge. Because the track under the Tauernbahn is nearly level, the Schlossalmbahn is carried here on a curios single-sided bridge. The Schlossalmbahn then climbs straight up the mountainside to the top station, Kitzsteinalm, 1,302 metres above sea level. Here the line terminates, walkers and skiers continuing their journey up to the top of Klein Scharte, nearly 2,000 metres high, by cable car.

The nearest railway station is not, as may be suspected, Bad Hofgastein, which is some way outside the town it purports to serve. The halt, Bad Hofgastein Bahnhofhallstadt (Bahnhst.) is close, but above the town, and is served by a steep road, fortunately downhill to the town centre and Schlossalmbahn.