On the night of January 1st, around 200 guests were stranded on the cart due to the failure. At around 1:30 a.m. the mouse may have tampered with the cable, which led to the interruption of operations. The emergency protocols were started automatically and the gondolas drove into the stations in emergency mode.
Due to the failure, the guests at the New Year’s Eve party on the cart were stuck in the mountain station for a few hours before they could be driven down to the valley by cart cable car, fire department and mountain rescue vehicles. In some cases the waiting time was up to five hours, said those affected in an interview with ORF Vorarlberg.
Modernization planned
According to the city of Dornbirn, the damaged parts were replaced yesterday and the railway was back in operation from 4 p.m. The facility is also scheduled to be modernized next year. The plan is to completely replace the electrical control of the cart cable car, replace the tension cable and move the support cable if necessary.
