The steepest rack railway
48%, on a horizontal rack system invented for it in 1889.
Johnny Chicago at Luxembourgish Wikipedia — CC BY-SA 3.0 · Ermell — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Reinhold Möller Ermell — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Ikiwaner — CC BY-SA 3.0
**Pilatus** if you want drama: vertical rock, the world's steepest railway, and a summit where you feel you are on the edge of something. **Rigi** if you want a gentle mountain to walk across meadows without effort — or if you hold a Swiss Travel Pass, since Rigi is fully included while Pilatus is only half price. For families with small children, Rigi is easier. For one unrepeatable day, Pilatus.
On a clear day: yes, because you pay once for four different modes of transport and three different views of the lake, and never retrace your steps. On a cloudy day: no — postpone it. The cheaper alternative if time or budget is tight is to go up and down by gondola and cableway from **Kriens** alone on a plain return ticket, which saves a real amount while the summit view is identical. Do not confuse this with Pilatus's official "Silver Round Trip": that is the same full circuit, with the Lucerne–Alpnachstad train in place of the boat.
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Pilatus is the limestone massif that closes off Lucerne's skyline to the south-west, and the city's most famous mountain. Its highest peak, **Tomlishorn, reaches 2,128 m**, while **Esel (2,118 m)** stands directly above the upper station and is climbed in minutes. Several stories compete over the name and none is settled: that Pontius Pilate's grave lies in a lake on its flank, or that it comes from a Latin word for "capped", because cloud sits on it like a hat. Medieval legend filled it with dragons. Getting there is half the point: **a cogwheel railway from Alpnachstad, opened in 1889, with a maximum gradient of 48% — the steepest rack railway in the world.** A special horizontal rack system was invented for it by the engineer Eduard Locher, because conventional cogs would have slipped free on that pitch. Two decades before the railway, Queen Victoria rode to the summit on horseback in 1868. The "Golden Round Trip" strings it together: a boat from Lucerne to Alpnachstad, the cogwheel railway up, then cableway and gondolas down to Kriens. At the top are two hotels, restaurants, short cliff-edge paths and tunnels cut through the rock; at the middle station, **Fräkmüntegg**, there is a rope park and a long summer toboggan run for children. All of it depends on the weather: nothing is worse than paying around 120 francs to stand in white fog and see nothing at all.
48%, on a horizontal rack system invented for it in 1889.
Boat, then cogwheel railway, then cableway, in one loop.
A rope park and summer toboggan run at the middle station.
Pilatus Kulm, above Kriens and Alpnachstad, Lucerne