The things you learn: cable cars / aerial tramways / gondola lifts / aerial lifts / funiculars

[pne]

By chance, I was pointed to the Wikipedia entry on "funicular".

I'd been using that word for something I've used in Switzerland a few times, but it turns out that it refers to something else; specifically, a system on rails where one vehicle goes up and another goes down at the same time, nearly balancing one another out so that the motor moving the transport cable doesn't have to do as much work. (German: Standseilbahn.)

Apparently, the thing I was thinking of (where the cabin hangs from a cable overhead, and no rails are involved) is a "Standseilbahn" in German and a "cable car" in UK English or, more generally, an "aerial tramway". Slightly similar systems with gondolas are "Gondelbahn" and "gondola lift", respectively. "Luftseilbahn"/"Aerial lift" is, apparently, the generic term.

The things you learn.