The is a facility that traverses a steep incline in a residential area of Kobe

Kobe

, pronounced , is the fifth-largest city in Japan and is the capital city of Hyōgo Prefecture on the southern side of the main island of Honshū, approximately west of Osaka...

, Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

. It can be considered as a sort of small funicular

Funicular

A funicular, also known as an inclined plane or cliff railway, is a cable railway in which a cable attached to a pair of tram-like vehicles on rails moves them up and down a steep slope; the ascending and descending vehicles counterbalance each other.-Operation:The basic principle of funicular...

. In Japan, however, it is legally classified as an , not a funicular railway. There are many other similar facilities in the country, although they are relatively unknown. http://www.geocities.co.jp/SilkRoad-Ocean/5869/others.html

Residents of Hanayama use this funicular to quickly reach the nearby train station. It is reliable and convenient. It's of the functional type and doesn't tend to attract tourism; save the odd visitor unfamiliar with funiculars.

See also

• Slope car
  Slope car
  A is a small automated monorail, or a fusion between monorail, people mover, and rack railway. It is a brand name of Kaho Manufacturing. Since this mode of transportation is relatively unknown, it lacks widely accepted generic name, other than the simple "monorail". The system, however, is...
  
  
• List of funicular railways