Broken cable caused fatal Lisbon funicular derailment, says investigation
A snapped steel cable caused Lisbon’s Gloria Funicular derailment, killing 16 and injuring 22. Victims include Britons and foreign nationals, as investigators probe design flaws and oversight gaps in the historic railway.
Lisbon: Portugal’s transport accident authority has confirmed that a snapped steel cable caused the Gloria Funicular derailment in downtown Lisbon, killing 16 and injuring 22.
The Office for the Prevention and Investigation of Aircraft and Railway Accidents (GPIAAF) said on Saturday that the cable broke at a hidden fixation point inside Cabin No. 1. Routine visual checks earlier that day could not have detected the flaw.
Although the operator engaged both pneumatic and manual brakes, the system’s design meant they could not stop the cars once the balancing cable failed, Xinhua news agency reported.
Investigators noted that the emergency mechanism cut power and triggered brakes but may not have worked on each car as intended.
The failed cable, installed less than a year ago and still within its service life, had been maintained by an external contractor.
The Gloria Funicular is not directly supervised by the national transport regulator, with independent inspections only every four years.
Reconstruction showed Cabin No. 2 recoiled at about 60 km per hour before derailing.
Theatre director Kayleigh Smith and her partner Will Nelson, a lecturer at Manchester’s Arden School of Theatre, were named as two of the three Britons who died on Wednesday night.
The third British victim has yet to be identified.
Also among the dead were five Portuguese nationals, two Canadians, two South Koreans, one American, one French, one Swiss, and one Ukrainian.
A further 21 people were injured, including five seriously.
Portugal’s Prime Minister Luis Montenegro described the incident as “one of the biggest tragedies of our recent past”.
A US State Department spokesperson told CNN that the American embassy in Lisbon is “working closely with local authorities to assist US citizens in the affected area”.
A preliminary report is due within 45 days, with final conclusions expected in about a year.
The 140-year-old funicular is designed to travel up and down Lisbon’s steep slopes and is an important form of transport for the city’s residents — and a popular tourist attraction.