We told you about the Floriade Kabelbaan in Venlo, the Netherlands a while back. Well, the system is now operational and open to the public. Take a look:
Installations
31
May
May
2012
Video: The Floriade Kabelbaan
29
May
May
2012
World’s Steepest Funicular Coming to Stoos
The Stoos Funicular. Image by Steven Dale.
I love when I stumble across these kind of things . . .
Over the weekend I was visiting some friends in the alpine village of Stoos - a village I’d never been to.
I figured there’d be some form of cable-propelled transit system we’d need to use in order to get up the mountain and sure enough there was – an old inclined funicular built by Von Roll.
These moments always hold a special degree of intrigue for me.
See, the thing about the cable industry is that there are roughly 20,000 installations in the world. Couple that with numerous industry mergers, acquisitions and bankruptcies over the last 30 years and you have a severe record-keeping problem.
Meanwhile, the handful of websites dedicated to the subject tend to be in different languages and aren’t great at sharing information. This presents a rather difficult problem in that dossiers of individual systems are almost non-existent. Even if you wanted to learn about every cable system in the world, you probably couldn’t.
On the flip side, it means there’s always plenty of mystery and anticipation which is always good for a curious spirit and inquisitive soul.
When I approach a system I’ve never seen before the inevitable question that races through my head is “will there be something interesting and/or useful about this one?” More often than not the answer is yes. The flexibility, peculiarity and context specificity of cable systems means almost everyone has at least something interesting to say about it; some more than others.
So what’s so important about the Stoos Funicular?
It’s steep. Like as in, really, really, really steep. The picture above doesn’t really do it justice, but the effect of riding this thing is pretty overwhelming. Depending upon the degree of inclination, one feels as though one is about to fall forward out of one’s seat or leaning backwards at a precarious angle.
Befitting it’s age, it’s overall kind of thrilling, but not the most safe feeling trip in the world.
But that’s not what caught my eye.
What caught my eye is this:
Marketing materials for the new Stoos Funicular. Image by Steven Dale.
That’s a poster from the lower station of the Stoosbahn. Apparently, the old system is being replaced by the new one pictured above, – it looks like something wholly original.
According to Funimag, this new Garaventa-designed and built system will be the steepest 2 vehicle funicular in the world with a maximum gradient of 110%. That’s important because if you notice in the pictures above and below, the individual vehicle pods are hinged in such a way that the floors will remain horizontal at all times, no matter the vehicle’s degree of inclination.
You know you want to ride this right now. Image via Funimag.
In essence, this is the Doppelmayr-Garaventa group’s answer to Leitner-Poma’s Hungerburgbahn Hybrid Funicular technology - a very impressive project in it of itself.
The new Stoosbahn is due to open in 2013.
16
May
May
2012
Emirates Air Lines – Mayor Still not ready to commit to deadline
During testing phase, 700 kg weights are being placed into cabins to replicate 10 passengers. Image by thisislondon.co.uk.
Despite undergoing testing at the moment, a recent interview by ITV News with London Mayor, Boris Johnson, indicates that he is still not willing to guarantee that the cable car project will be ready in time for the Olympics.
However, he did agree that it would be unfortunate should the system be not completed by that time. Who knows, I guess we’ll see and keep our fingers crossed because as of today, there’s only 72 days before the Games start!
15
May
May
2012
Chongqing Cable Car – More Urban Than Originally Thought?
The Chongqing Cable Car. Image via flickr user Edward Jung.
We’ve known about the Chongqing Cable Car for a while now but have always lacked good information about it. We know it was an Aerial Tram, was around 1 km in length and it served for 29 years. But that’s about it.
Sadly, we’ll never have a chance to witness it in person as the system was officially retired in February of last year.
A new video of the system, however, sheds additional light on this little known oddity of public transportation. The video shows the systems clearly navigating several skyscrapers and dense urban form.
Most interestingly: One of the stations is located on what appears to be the top floor of an approximately 10 storey residential building. Even though the Singapore Cable Car did something similar a decade earlier, this is still an incredibly rare and unique feature with clear implications for urban public transit.
Too bad we’ll never get to see it. Take a look:
07
May
May
2012
New Urban Gondola Opens in Nizhny Novgorod, Russia
The Nizhny Novgorod Urban Gondola was put into operations last month. Image via ropeways.net.
Last month ropeway manufacturer Poma officially completed an urban gondola lift crossing the Volga river in Russia. We first mentioned the Nizhny Novgorod gondola last year and while the completion was a little bit behind schedule, we’re certainly happy to see it finished and in operation.
From the specs available, it’s a curious system. Both impressive in some ways and utterly bland in others.
The system is built on a standard off-the-shelf MDG configuration and operates at a standard 5 m/s or 18 km/hr. It currently offers a limited capacity of only 500 pphpd but is to be expanded to 1,000 pphpd later this year. While only having two stations, those stations are integrated into the public transportation network – and those stations are separated by 3,660 meters! That’s impressive considering the length of other comparable MDG systems.
More impressive is this: Two of the gondola towers reach heights of 82 meters allowing for a 900 m span between those towers. That’s a remarkable feat very uncharacteristic of standard MDG installations. Spans like that are more typical of Funitels or 3S systems. Always nice to see advancement and innovation.
Given the time, distance and cost involved to get a tour of the system, I highly doubt we’ll have any first-hand information anytime soon, but in the meantime, you can checkout ropeways.net to learn a little bit more about the system.
(Interesting side note: Take a look at the image above and the other images available on ropeways.net. Focus on the stations. Now compare those to the images and renderings we published last year. A little bit different, no?)
18
Apr
Apr
2012
Emirates Air Line (London Cable Car) – CONSTRUCTION photos
Emirates Air Lines and Docklands Light Railway. Image by Flickr User mwmbwls.
We just created a new gallery on our Flickr Account – CUP Projects - which displays the ongoing construction progress of the Emirates Air Line (as of April 5-6, 2012). To access the gallery, click here or the picture above.
A big thanks goes to Bob for informing us and allowing us to share these photos!
16
Apr
Apr
2012
Underground Gondola In Livigno, Italy
A while back we discussed the challenges associated with finding information and images of specific gondola systems around the world. In that post, we made particular note of a ski resort installation in Livigno, Italy. That system had an underground station which (obviously) has dramatic implications for urban environments.
As luck would have it, people with Carosello 3000 (the ski resort where the underground gondola lives) contacted us over the weekend and offered us a handful of images that we could use on the site. Take a look:
Image courtesy of Carosello 3000.
Image courtesy of Carosello 3000.
Image courtesy of Carosello 3000.
Image courtesy of Carosello 3000.
Thanks again to Bertolini Camillo and the folks at Carosello 3000!
