The Salève cable car, a great story
« It was like a plane : the houses became flat, the countryside got wider second by second, the aerial raft climbed up, sliding on this incredible wire which carried our life. Huge blue lake with sinuous bends, a nourished and tender countryside, hills which become uncovered level by level and, all around, the cloudy sky, which offered itself to me while I was lying on the shaking planks, bending over into a beautiful hole which was getting bigger and bigger each instant, I questioned the space (…). Nearer the top of the Salève which was the first buttress rising up vertically its eight hundred metres of rock onto the Geneva countryside, one could see a white mass, a block which set itself apart from the dark backdrop, which lifted itself up with the vigour and precision that only man can make and which looked like a huge blind lighthouse. In reality the view of this incredible monument was for me the prize of such a beautiful day. » Joseph Kessel, Le Messager, 29 octobre 1932)
A pioneer creation
The Salève cable car, inaugurated in August 1932 was saluted as an avant-garde creation as much as for its technical details as for its architecture. It was the fruit of a collaboration between the builder Auguste Fournier, the Geneva architect Maurice Braillard, a civil-engineer also from Geneva, Georges Riondel, and the Parisian engineer André Rebuffel, a specialist in cable cars. This work was to replace the Salève electric train created in 1890 and which was part of the extension of the Geneva transport system ; a system which didn’t limit itself to the canton frontiers, but spread out in several directions right up to the main localities in neighbouring France.
A real architectural work , the Salève cable car creates the countryside around it, by organising it between town and mountain and setting itself apart from the equipment which covers the ski areas. It is more like an urban lift or one of the old-fashioned funicular whose only aim was not only to transport people, but also to put into value a territory and its perception. The town can be seen by others (tourists and visitors) as well as by itself : thanks to the aerial vision, its territory is defined and enlarged at the same time. Thanks to the cable car, Salève’s mountain setting becomes a tourist attraction for the town thanks to the reinforced contrast it makes its urbanism.
The upper station, with its hotel project, was designed as a volume with precise lines which overflow and block the dynamic elements, throwing themselves into the emptiness. The architectural expression (concrete, glazed panels, false doors) of this object is written in the huge line of industrial projects (modern train stations, dams, factories) where all mountain romanticism is missing. However, the upper station stayed unfinished due to lack of funds. Thus the hotel, its staircases and attached service areas was never built, and even the panoramic restaurant (200 covers) was never put into use. The lower station, even though it was less spectacular than the upper station, also has great architectural qualities. The building is composed of a main portion grouping the machinery, the ticket service, the getting on area and a lateral cantilevered tower.
Operating usage and evolution
The busiest period of operations was that of the five years that followed the inauguration of the work , during which is was not rare to wait one hour before getting into the cabin. On some Sundays there were up to 2000/2500 passengers. With the opening of the access road to Treize-Arbres (1936) a first drop in use was registered. During the Second World War the Salève, used by the German troupes as an observation post, was deserted and the cable car activity suspended for eight years. In 1947, the cable car was put back into use and participated in the beginning of Swiss Romand television with the filming of an experimental production which could be heard by the Geneva radio studios.
In 1951, the cabling and the technical system of the cable car were changed for the first time. This offered a combined tram and cable car ticket. In 1962 the cable car celebrated its thirty years of existence and its 3 million passengers, but its use didn’t stop dropping like that of the adjacent restaurant which shut in 1973. By order of the security services, the running of the cable car was suspended in 1975.
In 1984, important work to make the infrastructure respect the norms needed the complete change of all the technical elements. The cabins, which had a capacity of 60 people, were also planned to carry delta plane wings and transport, on its floor, a reservoir which could carry 2000 litres of drinkable water up to the restaurant each journey. The journey wouldn’t take more than three minutes for a turnover of about 900 people per hour.
During this work, the demolition and reconstruction of the lower station was undertaken as well as the purchase of the adjacent land to create parking places (140 places). At the upper station, the renovation would preserve the whole of the original volume, but its evocative aspect was diminished: the concrete was rendered and painted, the glass and iron work in the corridor accessing the embarkation area were entirely replace. The belvedere room was covered with a metal casing into which the technical installations were fitted.
At the same time as this work on the infrastructure, a games area for children on a terrain of 5000 m2 and a botanical footpath were created aimed at increasing the attractiveness of this mountain.
A new start for a new future
In January 2008, the cable car changed manager . It is now managed, for a duration of 5 years, by Veolia Transport on behalf of GLCT (The local group of trans-frontier cooperation) the new owner of the Salève cable car.
To continue the dynamic approach already started, in 2008 the GLCT worked towards the opening of the cable car’s restaurant. This will happen at the beginning of March 2009 with a completely new restaurant, whose interior architecture has been entirely redone and with a very promising menu.
Everyone will thus be able to get away from urban reality, go up to appreciate the exceptional view over Geneva and the Alps, while at the same time enjoying a simple coffee or a gourmet menu !
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