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Skitube Alpine RailwayThe Skitube Alpine Railway is a rack-driven, electric railway in the Kosciuszko National Park in New South Wales, Australia. The Swiss-designed railway provides easy access between the Alpine Way, Perisher Valley, and the Perisher Blue and Blue Cow Mountain ski resorts, passing through two tunnels and three stations, two of which are underground. The railway is open 24 hours a day during the ski season but no longer open at all over summer due to low patrionage. The Skitube was built to provide better access to the skifields and resorts in the area during winter. The single road which provided the only access before the construction of the railway was (and still is) often blocked by adverse weather conditions. The 8.5 km-long, standard gauge railway was built between October 1984 and March 1988. The majority of the railway is underground, comprising the Bilston and Blue Cow tunnels, being 3.3 and 2.6 km long respectively. The depth of the tunnels varies from between 4 and 550m, and their diameter between 5 and 5.5m. Each of the carriages, which typically make up a 4-carriage train, is 16.8m long, 3.8m wide, and can carry 225 passengers at once. This provides for the movement of around 4,500 people per hour. The rack system Skitube operates on was designed by the Swiss engineer Roman Abt, and was first used in Germany's Harz Mountains in 1885. List of stations - Bullocks Flat
- Perisher Valley
- Blue Cow
See also External links *Perisher Blue resort website
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