By Julie Power
A 1.5-kilometre funicular similar to other cliff railways rising to the peak of Hong Kong, the slopes of Switzerland and the hill at Montmartre in Paris, is being considered to transport tourists up and down the steep hills of the Jenolan Caves World Heritage Site in NSW’s Central West.
It is one of the “aerial” transport options proposed by consultants that would ban vehicles from entering the popular Blue Mountains tourist destination. This would protect the 300 million-year-old karst limestone caves, the oldest cave system in the world, and historic Caves House, from further environmental degradation.
The Angels Flight funicular railway in the Bunker Hill district of downtown Los Angeles.Credit: Getty Images
The proposal for a funicular comes more than 20 years after a recommendation by Jenolan Caves and others to build a $20 million gondola that did not get funded.
The preferred option of Jenolan Caves Environment Protection Committee is an elevated funicular travelling at 14 metres a second.
The committee says it would take two minutes to carry visitors down the slope from Jenolan Caves Road near Mountain View on the Oberon side of the mountains to the Cambridge car park on Surveyors Creek in the Jenolan Caves Karst Conservation Reserve.
Committee chairman Bruce Welch said a funicular railway was “quiet, energy efficient, environmentally friendly” and would deal with the “environmental repercussions” of road traffic through the Grand Arch.
With both roads shut because of weather damage, closing the site to visitors for at least 18 months, a funicular would provide safe all-weather transport down to the caves. Welch said existing roads could not provide the same stability.
The committee said there was a “need to strike a balance between protection and inappropriate tourist developments”.
The funicular was one of a range of solutions contained in a Jenolan Caves Options Analysis by Riser + Gain, Sydney consultants who have also evaluated the viability of the Illawarra Gondola for Wollongong, and Tasmania’s Mount Wellington Cable Car. They also investigated the possibility of an aerial tramway or a gondola.
A 15th-century innovation, funiculars can operate on steep slopes unable to be traversed by normal rail. Two cars are permanently connected to the opposite ends of the same cable, known as a haul rope, which pulls one car up while the other descends.
A landslip at the Five Mile Hill section of Jenolan Caves Road.Credit: Transport for NSW
Welch estimated a two-car funicular would carry about 600 people an hour, servicing the peak visitor rate.
A NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service spokesperson confirmed a funicular railway or gondola were among the options being considered, pending cost and feasibility.
The NSW Department of the Environment announced this week the caves would be closed for at least 18 months to repair the Two Mile Hill section of Jenolan Caves Road, the only road operating since 2021.
During this time, the caves’ trust also planned to upgrade the infrastructure and historic Caves House.
It is not the first time aerial access has been considered. In 1993, the Jenolan Caves Reserve Trust commissioned a study of alternative options to reduce or eliminate cars.
In 2023, Transport for NSW prioritised investigating aerial access, instead of the construction of another road.
Start the day with a summary of the day’s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up for our Morning Edition newsletter.