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Jan 08, 2014
Cable Cars, LINK Train

LINK Train Operates Trouble-Free at Pearson Airport Despite Extreme Cold

In case you didn’t hear, Canada’s largest airport basically shut down for 8 hours yesterday due to extreme frigid conditions (-30 degrees celsius to be exact). This immediately caused a massive backlog at the terminal and utter chaos with flight delays and cancellations. So while nearly every form of transport was affected in Toronto this past week...

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Jun 14, 2011
Cable Cars

Cable Cars Module, Lesson 5: System Capacity & Line Length of Fixed Grip Cable Cars

For our new readers: Despite the fact that systems like the planned London Thames Cable Car are often officially called “Cable Cars,” they are more often than not Gondolas. This can be confusing to cable transit novices. To make it easier: Cable Cars are supported from below (like cars) and Gondolas are supported from the top...

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May 24, 2011
Cable Cars

Cable Cars, Lesson 4: Dual By-Pass Shuttles

For our new readers: Despite the fact that systems like the planned London Thames Cable Car are often officially called “Cable Cars,” they are more often than not Gondolas. This can be confusing to cable transit novices. To make it easier: Cable Cars are supported from below (like cars) and Gondolas are supported from the top...

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May 17, 2011
Cable Cars

Cable Cars, Lesson 3: Dual Loop Cable Shuttles

For our new readers: Despite the fact that systems like the planned London Thames Cable Car are often officially called “Cable Cars,” they are more often than not Gondolas. This can be confusing to cable transit novices. To make it easier: Cable Cars are supported from below (like cars) and Gondolas are supported from the top...

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Mar 23, 2011
Cable Cars, Installations, Mexico City Aerotrén

Cable Cars, Lesson 2: Single Loop Cable Shuttles

For our new readers: Despite the fact that systems like the planned London Thames Cable Car are often officially called “Cable Cars,” they are more often than not Gondolas. This can be confusing to cable transit novices. To make it easier: Cable Cars are supported from below (like cars) and Gondolas are supported from the...

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Jul 09, 2010
Cable Cars

Cable Cars, Lesson 1: Introduction

The first and most important thing necessary to understand about Cable Cars as opposed to aerial cable technologies is this: The two technologies are not fundamentally different. Knowing your way around Gondolas and Aerial Trams will help your knowledge about Cable Cars immensely. Both are characterized by passive vehicles being propelled along guideways for support....

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Jul 03, 2010
Cable Cars

Cable Cars

Now that we’ve wrapped our discussion of the eight major Aerial Technologies that exist in the cable transit world, we’re going to shift our focus next week to Cable Cars. The technologies – most familiar as San Francisco’s rickety old vehicles – have made dramatic advances in the last 15 years. But like aerial systems,...

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Jun 09, 2010
Cable Cars, Mandalay Bay

I can’t see the difference, can you see the difference?

As some people know, there’s a huge subset of bottom-supported cable transit in the form of Cable Cars & Funiculars. Yet it’s a topic I’ve not given much attention to so far. Here’s why: It’s hard to get people’s attention with Cable Cars. Urban Gondolas? Much simpler. Back in March I was interviewed for an...

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Mar 05, 2010
Analysis, Cable Cars, Las Vegas, Mandalay Bay, Thoughts, Urban Planning & Design

Technicians Not Operators

The Mandalay Bay cable car in Vegas operates under a simple and controversial principal: Technicians, not operators. This fundamental principal means this: The system is never in the hands of amateurs. If you don’t know how the system works in its entirety, you don’t operate the system. It’s the difference between having teenagers run a...

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Mar 03, 2010
Analysis, Cable Cars, Las Vegas, Mandalay Bay, Thoughts, Urban Planning & Design

Mandalay Bay Cable Car, Part 3

  I recently travelled to Las Vegas, Nevada to explore that city’s two public cable systems. This is Part 3 of a 3 Part report on the Mandalay Bay Cable Car. The importance of station design in cable cannot be overstated. Even more than other transit technologies, cable stations have to be designed to accommodate...

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