the territory around the hungerburg was populated by middle of the
19th century. since the city of innsbruck showed little interest in the construction of a transport connection, the tourism pioneer sebastian kandlers and the builder josef riehl decided on private initiative to create a connection between the city and the hungerburg. they planned the hungerburg funicular together with industrialist rafael von meinong.
the route of the first hungerburg funicular ran from the valley station near the riesenrundgemälde (the gigantic panoramic painting) in the district of saggen (572 m) through the later built middle station at the alpine zoo to the mountain station on the hungerburg (858 m). the construction works of the 158 m long bridge over the inn began in 1906, in february. during 7 months the rails for the 825 m long route were installed with an average inclination of 36%.
on september 12, 1906 both funiculars became operative. they consisted of wooden coaches with an iron undercarriage and five compartments. the hungerburg funicular could transport 300 people every hour for 11 minutes with a speed of 1.2 m/s.
in january 1907 the ?local railway company? of the city innsbruck acquired the hungerburg . in the years 1930, 1933, 1949 and 1951 many rebuilding and reconstruction measures were started in order to increase the transportation capacity and to shorten the ride time. in 1954 the new valley station of the hungerburg funicular planned by construction engineer larwin was built.
in 1957 the ?innsbruck transportation companies? decided to start a general reconstruction. this project wanted to rebuild and relocate the mountain station of the hungerburg funicular according to the plans of architect prachensky and to decrease the route inclination angle. these reconstruction measures let the route become longer of 15 meters. with two new funiculars the transportation capacity reached 1100 people per hour. on july 23, 1958 the second hungerburg funicular became operative with a speed of 4 m/s and a journey time of 4 minutes.
the third reconstruction of the hungerburg funicular with the commission of two more coaches was performed in the autumn of 1982. on december 8, 2005 the heritage-protected hungerburg funicular was suspended.
after only 2 years construction time, a new era was starting in the history of the innsbruck nordkette cableways.
on december 1, 2007 the new 'section i hungerburg? was inaugurated.
the new funicular starts in the heart of the innsbrucks old town, not far away form the famous ?goldenes dachl? (golden roof) just beside the innsbruck congress center. planned and designed by star architect zaha hadid (already popular in innsbruck because of the bergisel ski-jump), the hungerburg section l funicular with its unique stations sets new standards in international architecture. the funicular also sets technical standards thanks to the complex route (always changing inclinations, over ground and underground route, two intermediate stations).
