The development
The first projects concerning the establishment of a cable car for transporting people to Dachstein from the southern side already began in the Thirties. The infrastructure on Ramsau Plateau was basically undeveloped, which is why the people wanted to build the base station in Schladming. This large-scale project could not be carried out due to economical and technical problems. Thus, during the reconstruction period after the Second World War, the development of Dachstein railway began from Obertraun in 1947. By 1961, the upper-Austrian Dachstein Fremdenverkehr (Tourism) AG established three partial aerial tramways lines to the Dachstein massif. On the south side of Dachstein, the plateau of Ramsau developed into a leading tourism region of Styria during this time period. After the construction of a Dachstein street to Türlandhütte and after examining numerous alternatives, it was decided that the base station should be built in the middle of Mautstrasse. The preliminary work of the Styrian cable car development company was replaced by the DAG in the mid-Sixties. The ambitious goal of the DAG was to build a cable car cross line over Dachstein was realized with the start of the Dachsteinsüdwandbahn construction in 1966.
Facilities of the Dachstein glacier railway
The building of the mountain station on Hunergkogel represented a technological tour de force at the time. Both the geological, structural, as well as the logistical problems could be solved due to good cooperation of all planners and companies involved. Thus, e.g. 70 m deep gaps on Hunerkogel could be filled with cement after the summit area was previously demolished.
At the same time of the completion of the Dachstein glacier railway in 1969, two glacier cable lifts facilities were created on the Schladming glacier. At the end of the Sixties, the building of cable lifts with founded supports on the glacier was quite a challenge and very difficult to convert into reality (a glacier is constantly moving).
Image: Building of the endless rope haulage base station.
With the endless rope haulage, all kinds of material for the construction of the mountain station could be transported.
In June 1969, the glacier railway Ramsau was opened for the first time after a 2,5 year construction period by President Franz Jonas. 3 years later, the railway made the 1 million passenger mark. The largest attraction of the cable car facilities was confirmed by the increasingly large transportation frequency. The Schladming glacier lift was expanded by a parallel left in 1974.
From the start, the glacier surfaces were also sued for cross-country ski run tracks. This offer was further maintained and developed so that today, the Dachstein glacier can be used in both summer and autumn as a leading international training centre.
The alpine offers were considerably improved in 1980 with the development of the double chair lift in Mitterstein, which was an extension of the Schladming Lifts.
A short tunnel under the Austriascharte facilitated the entry to Edelgrieskar. This enables the guests to enjoy one of the most spectacular free ride runs in the Alps.
Image: Creation of the endless rope haulage mountain station
In 1992, the development of the Panorama Restaurant atop Hunerkogel mountain station with approx. 200 seats, brought the gastronomy to a very high point.
Image: The construction of the base station begins
Image: Next to the endless rope haulage is a passenger transportation, which went over the endless rope haulage under sporty conditions
Purchase of the Dachstein glacier railway by Planai Rails
On March 7, 2002, the Planai Hochwurzen Railway from Schladming officially took over Dachstein. The southern part of the Dachstein glacier was extracted by DAG (Dachstein Tourism AG Upper Austria). Thus, Dachstein once again is firmly back in Styrian hands.
Unfortunately, since the previous owner did not react to changing market conditions, the transportation number went downhill in the Nineties. The technology was also hopelessly outdated so that the new owners had to invest over EUR 8 million during the first two years of operation in order to provide offers that were conform to market conditions.
Goal of the Planai Hochwurzen Railway GmbH, who is the new owner, is to bring Dachstein glacier back to its top market position and to give it back its previous fame as the “Roof of Styria”.
A thorough investment concept, new product policies (in addition to the basic offers) as well as a new marketing concept with Planai Railway as Austria’s leading cable car company should guarantee that the mountain of the Styrians receives new energy in order to position themselves on the European market. All of these are the criteria of a true businessman, which has been practiced by Planai Hochwurzen Railway for over 30 years.
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History
