Peak Tram
Interesting facts
- From 1908 to 1949 the two front seats were reserved for the Governor of Hong Kong under a bronze plaque, released to others only two minutes before departure.
- Until 1926 the tram ran three classes: colonial officials and Peak residents rode first, soldiers and police second, and everyone else, including animals, third.
- Builders hauled most of the heavy machinery and rails up the mountainside by hand, without mechanical help, during its three years of construction.
- Floods twice washed away steep stretches of track between Bowen Road and Kennedy Road, first in 1899 and again on 12 June 1966.
- Unusually for a funicular, the 1956 generation came with three cars, two in service and one kept spare in a shed near Kennedy Road.
- The Swiss firm Von Roll rebuilt the whole system in 1989, laying new track and installing computer control.
- Two cars run on a single track and pass each other on a loop above May Road, where the line briefly widens from two rails to four.
- The upper terminus sits at Victoria Gap, around 150 metres below the actual summit of Victoria Peak.
- Before its 2019–2022 upgrade the line carried more than 4 million riders a year, about 90 per cent of them tourists.
- The 1919 Barker Road station, oldest on the line, has a canopy believed to have sheltered the bearers of sedan chairs and rickshaws.
Why it is worth it
The Peak Tram has been hauling passengers up the steep north face of Hong Kong Island since May 1888, which makes it the oldest funicular railway in Asia. Its line runs about 1.4 kilometres from Garden Road in Central, near St John's Cathedral, up to Victoria Peak, climbing close to 400 metres with gradients as steep as 48 per cent. From the lower terminus to the top, the city falls away beneath the cars, and the ride offers one of the most dramatic ways to see the skyline, the harbour and Kowloon beyond open up.
The idea came from Alexander Findlay Smith, an entrepreneur who had studied mountain railways in Europe and America and saw how such a line could open up the slopes of the Peak. Work began in 1885; on its first day the line carried 800 people, and some 150,000 in its first year. For almost four decades a static steam engine drove the haulage cable, until an electric motor replaced it in 1926. The line stopped once for a long time: on 11 December 1941, during the Battle of Hong Kong, the engine room was damaged, and service did not resume until 25 December 1945.
The trams have been replaced several times, but the line keeps its character: two cars on one cable, counterbalancing each other, pausing at small stations along the way — Kennedy Road, MacDonnell Road, May Road and Barker Road, whose 1919 station building is a listed Grade I historic building. The latest generation of cars, the sixth, entered service in August 2022, each carrying 210 passengers, and the line now moves millions of people a year.
Getting there
The lower terminus is on Garden Road in Central, Hong Kong, an easy walk uphill from the business district. Hong Kong International Airport (HKG) is about 25 km away in a straight line.
Plan your visit
We have no confirmed visit data yet. Once it is confirmed, this block also carries the date it was checked.
Nearby places
- Bank of China Tower 1.0 km · skyscraper
- Victoria Peak 1.2 km · scenic-viewpoint
- High Island Reservoir 23.2 km · rock-formation
On these lists
From the encyclopaedia
The Peak Tram is a funicular railway in Hong Kong, which carries both tourists and residents to the upper levels of Hong Kong Island. Running from Garden Road Admiralty to Victoria Peak via the Mid-Levels, it provides the most direct route and offers good views over the harbour and skyscrapers of Hong Kong. Operated since 1888, it was the first funicular railway in Asia.
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