Hong Kong Victoria Peak funicular

green car days: 1956 to 1989

red cars since 1989

Usually called the Peak Tram, this has been in operation since 1888, except during the Japanese occupation from 1941-1945.  It ascends 368 metres over a distance of 1.364 km, thus an average gradient of 28% (but the minimum is 4% and maximum is 48%) on 1520 mm or 5 ft gauge.

Until 1926 the tramcars had three classes (!):
First Class: British colonial officials and residents of Victoria Peak;
Second Class: British military and the Hong Kong Police Force personnel;
Third Class: Other people and animals.

In the 1908-1949 period the first row seats were reserved for the Governor of Hong Kong, and a bronze plaque stated "This seat reservation to His Excellency the Governor" (Reserved for the Governor of Hong Kong).

In 1926 the steam worked cable winding machinery was replaced with an electric motor.  In 1956, the  system was equipped with a new generation of lightweight metal bodied cars, each of which seated 62-seat passengers. Unusually for a funicular line, three such cars were provided, only two of which were in use at any one time. The third spare car was kept in a car shed near Kennedy Road station. In 1989 the system was comprehensively rebuilt in 1989 by the Swiss company, Von Roll, with new track, a computerized control system and two new two-car trams with a capacity of 120 passengers per tram. By the time of the handover in 1997 it carried some 2 million passengers annually. Today this figure has doubled.