The Guindais Elevator is a funicular type installation for transporting people whose vehicles, pulled by a cable, move on rails. The traction cable is permanently tensioned by a system of counterweights connected to the vehicles by another cable of smaller diameter (tension cable).

The installation serves two stations connected by a single track: the upper one known as "Batalha station", where the traction unit is installed and the lower one known as "Ribeira station" or return, where the counterweight system is located.

The vehicles are connected by the traction cable so that at the beginning and end of each trip, one of them is in the mountain station and the other in the valley station. The junction between the two is on a double track section, located on the downhill side of the route, before entering the access tunnel to the mountain station.

The track is laid out in areas of different slopes reaching a maximum of 36.1% and a minimum of 2.8% respectively in the uphill direction.

The installation was designed to operate automatically, without a driver on board the vehicles and has a control and surveillance post at Batalha station.