Funicular

A funicular is a cable railway that carries two counterbalanced cars permanently attached to opposite ends of a single haulage cable looped over a pulley at the top of a steep slope, so that one car descends as the other ascends at the same speed; this counterbalancing means the system's engine only has to supply the energy needed to move any extra passenger weight and the cable itself, plus friction losses, unlike an inclined elevator's single, independently powered car. The world's first funicular line opened in Lyon, France in 1862, and the type spread quickly across Europe: the Budapest Castle Hill Funicular was built in 1868 and 1869, Scarborough's funicular of 1875 remains Britain's oldest still operating, and Istanbul's Tunel, also opened in 1875, was both the first underground funicular and the second-oldest underground railway in the world.