Purple Line. Image by Mi Teleférico.
In a span of just five years, La Paz has built over 27km (16.2mi) of rapid transit. That’s faster or nearly the same amount of time it takes to complete infrastructure review processes in some North American jurisdictions.
The new Purple Line (Spanish: Línea Morada) which saw its first passenger on Thursday last week marks the third line that directly connects El Alto and La Paz (after the Yellow Line and Red Line) and the second “next-generation” gondola in the Bolivian city (after the Sky Blue Line).
This means that unlike some of the previous cable cars (e.g. Red, Green, Yellow, Blue, Orange and White), the new 4.3km urban cable car has upgraded performance abilities with capacities reaching 4,000 passengers per hour per direction (pphpd) and speeds of 6m/s.
Comparatively speaking, most of the older systems operate with capacities of a thousand persons less and speeds of 1m/s less than the Purple Line.
President Morales once again became the first passenger to board the Purple Line. Image by Cesar Dockweiler.
Purple Line. Image by ATB.
The speed of implementation is mind-boggling at times as some readers might remember that the Sky Blue Line (Spanish: Línea Celeste) was inaugurated less than 30 days ago. For planners who work in North America, it can be hard to imagine how a city can construct so many new rapid transit lines in such short period of time.
Without a doubt, this is a testament to the professionalism of both local decision-makers and the ropeway manufacturer, Doppelmayr, to consistently meet their deadlines and commitments.
Master plan for all 11 urban gondola lines. Image from Mi Teleferico.
With the Purple Line, residents can travel the entire stretch system in just eight minutes. However, the system will be somewhat of an “orphaned” line for about half a year until it the Silver Line (Spanish: Línea Plateada) is opened sometime in Spring 2019. Once that happens, it will significantly enhance connectivity and allow Purple Line passengers to transfer to the rest of the network via the Blue Line, Red Line, and the Yellow Line.
Readers should note that while President Morales has ridden the cable car, the system will not be officially inaugurated for commercial operations until September 26. During his speech, the President promised to construct even more cable car lines to continue improving the lives of its residents.
It’s not clear what that means at this time, but the entire planned network (Spanish: Red de Integracion Metropolitana) is now over 80% and less than 6km (3.7mi) of cable cars are left.
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