A quick look at some of the things that happened this week in the world of cable cars, urban gondolas, and cable propelled transit:
- Findings from the Emirates Air Line polls conducted last year reveal mixed results. While there was high user satisfaction, less than 50% of users surveyed were planning to ride the system again in 6 months.
- Several recreational and religious destinations around the world may soon see the implementation of a cable car including ones for Shiv Khori in India’s Jammu and Kashmir state, Peru’s Huancavelica, and Vietnam’s Fansipan Mountains.
- Graz, Austria is reportedly one of the latest cities to examine the feasibility of an urban cable car.
- Skyrail the 7.5km long cable car system in Cairns, Australia is selected as the world’s most breathtaking gondola ride.
7 Comments
I’m not sure having mostly tourists ride the London line is necessarily a bad thing. It’s not as if the Olympics are still going on and they expect the tourist market to dry up. In London, tourism is a continuous source of riders.
There are many transit system in the world that cater to both tourists and locals. If 50% will use the system again in the next 6 months this implies ridership isn’t only from tourists.
I agree. A tourist line have its advantages and the system has already brought about positive changes and will continue to in the future. If the system is able to fully support itself financially, then I don’t see what the big fuss is about. However, that is yet to be seen, and hopefully we’ll see some hard figures come sooner out rather than later.
I wouldn’t even limit it to supporting itself financially (though that would probably be quite achievable if priced well considering that tourists have deep pockets). Tourism generates $179B in the UK every year, which is around 9% of its entire GDP. Attracting tourism is an important goal in itself.
And back to combining tourism and locals. They seem to complement each other nicely, as locals will have “rush hour” peaks, whereas tourists tend to spread out their activity throughout the day.
Hi. I’m a french city planner working on ropeway. I’d like to know if you have more information of Graz project, is it going to be built or is it just a reflection ?
Thanks a lot
Hi Maryam,
I’m not really sure. I will get our French colleague Charlotte to look into it.
Hi Maryam, idea to implement a Gondola in Graz came out few years ago.
In 2010, a feasibility study was conducted for a cable car along Mur river, about 9 km, connecting airport and city center.
In 2013, two gondola projects are examined. The first project talk about 6,2 km along Mur river and connecting also airport. The second project talk about connecting new district Reininghausstraße and planned “Smart City” to central station.
For now, it’s an idea, carried by the mayor and the chief executive of city-owned infrastructure company. But the idea receives as much support as skepticism, so it’s hard to say if the gondola will really be build.
Hi Charlotte and Steven,
thanks a lot for your reply and all those information which really helped me.