cliff lift

plural cliff lifts

1. UKtransportA funicular that runs between the top and the bottom of a cliff, usually at a seaside location.

   1 more example

   A branch of rail transport that seems to been rather neglected by historians is that concerned with cliff railways, of which a fair number exist in Great Britain. This is probably because these lines are overshadowed by the more spectacular funicular railways in Switzerland and other mountainous regions; perhaps, too, because of the general habit of referring to them as "cliff lifts," which tends to associate them with the vertical indoor type.

   1951 August, P. W. Gentry, “Cliff Railways”, in Railway Magazine, page 514

   Synonyms: cliff railway

2. A vertical lift or elevator serving the same purpose at some locations.