What is a funicular railway?

In the news about the recent accident at a ski resort in Austria, the reporters called the cable car that carried the skiers up the mountain a "funicular railway." What is that and how does it work?

World's steepest funicular rail line to open in Switzerland

Funicular Railway Cabins - Doppelmayr Group

14 Fabulous Funiculars From Around the Globe

Train on the Rigi funicular railway, Lake Lucerne available as

File:Funicular Railway (16401269228).jpg - Wikimedia Commons

Water Powered Cable Trains

What Is a Funicular Railway - Incline Railway

Look out below! Europe's steepest funicular railway has a gradient

140 evacuated from mountain restaurant after funicular malfunction

Funicular Railways - Doppelmayr Group

Experience some of the best funiculars in the world

Funicular : Mobility