The city of Wuppertal is not particularly famous – a string of towns joined together administratively in 1929. However, it does boast one tourist attraction: the Schwebebahn – or suspension railway. This is the world’s oldest suspended railway and the only one in Germany.
The 13 km railway runs mostly above the Wupper river, with a part above a street (above left and right). The cars are not huge (below) but manage to transport about 25 million passengers annually.
The first part of the railway opened in 1901 (with the whole track ready in 1903), although the kaiser had already been on a trial run the year before. The cars have been reguarly replaced and the current ones are only a couple of years old. They hang from the wheel and motor set (below left). Some stations are new, some are original and one is inside a building (below right). Overall, an imaginative way of avoiding traffic jams.
Rails, wines, worlds 