To add funicular’s into the game would certainly be different but would also be quite fun to operate different funicular’s around the world. It could also include different scenarios ranging from evacs to a routine timetable.
I'm not sure that a funicular would make for much of a route- they tend to be pretty short, the journey is perforce always the same and they're usually controlled by someone in a cabin at one end or other or automatic. Not shooting this down though- a funicular railway or rope-worked incline (much used by industry with the Bowes Railway having an example not far from me- must go one day) would add scenic and possibly operational interest to a route that included one if it could be implemented.
I know it isn't a funicular, but maybe the Pikes Peak Cog Railway? It's really steep like a funicular plus it's decently long and uses steam engines sometimes if I'm not mistaken.
Well long for a cog railway imo. I'm pretty sure it takes a decent amount of time to get to the top anyway.
IIRC on a school trip to Switzerland* we traveled on a narrow gauge railway that was cog but only on steeper inclines. If my memory serves, there could be some scope for fun on a funicular railway. *I was travelling incognito.
