Green politician calls for extension of funicular up the Zugerberg to Oberwil

Patrick Steinle, a member of the Alternative Green Party, is calling for the city council to consider extending the Zugerbergbahn, the funicular railway which goes up Zug’s own mountain, to the suburban railway stop in Oberwil.

The councillor thought that it was no longer appropriate for people to embark on their journey up the mountain solely from the Schönegg area where the lower station is located.

He mentioned how getting to the Zugerberg was not easy by public transport, several changes needed if starting off from Zug station, for example, even then the connections were not the best and the number 11 bus was often overcrowded at peak times. “It is only to be expected that people prefer to drive there themselves,” he said.

However, the problem of leaving the car in the Schönegg area means that they often go on to drive up to Blasenbergstrasse, this road extending as far as Vordergeissboden and providing a number of car-parking spaces, the drive itself accentuating environmental problems.

It was mentioned that, at peak times in winter for example, when people wanted to go skiing and sledging up there, congestion built up, a situation which has led to a call for Blasenbergstrasse to be closed to traffic altogether. However Steinle thinks it better to concentrate on an extension to the funicular itself, either by additional funicular track, or cable car connection, thereby having a lower station by the S-Bahn stop in Oberwil, leading to an improved connection to public transport, the current Schönegg station becoming an intermediate station for locals and link to bus routes. As to an underground connection, he ruled this out on account of the protected zone between Zug and Oberwil. It was thought this would also be an attractive approach for the many people who go up there to go mountain-biking or hang-gliding.