Portugal has declared a day of national mourning after at least 17 people were killed and 21 others injured when one of Lisbon’s famous funicular cars derailed and crashed into a building on Wednesday evening.
Those killed on the Glória funicular were all adults, according to Margarida Castro Martins, the head of the city’s civil protection agency.
She said the victims’ families would be informed before any names or nationalities were released, but confirmed that those injured in the crash included Portuguese people as well as two Germans, two Spaniards and one person each from Canada, Cape Verde, France, Italy, Morocco, South Korea and Switzerland.
This saddens me greatly. I was in Lisbon about a year ago and rode one of these.
If you don’t know what a funicular is, it’s a very short-range tram that’s specifically designed to take you up or down a certain hill. Lisbon has a lot of steep hills and even cliffs. There is at least one vertical pedestrian elevator that takes you up from one street to another.
Because each hill is different, each funicular is a little different. The incline differs so the shape of the tram car body differs, and the track may curve up the hill or not. They go for different lengths and have different sizes. So each is special and they end up being quite charming and emblematic of the city. If you know the celebrated cable cars of San Francisco, it’s not far off.
Really terrible to hear this news. And as far as I can tell, I rode the very one that crashed with my brother and 8yo son while I was there. My heart goes out to the city and to the families of the victims.
