The Table Mountain Cableway, one of only 3 rotating Aerial Trams in the world. Image by geoftheref.
The Table Mountain Cableway in Cape Town, South Africa is an Aerial Tram with a twist (sorry): It slowly rotates 360° during its ascent and descent. It’s one of only 3 systems in the world that does this; the other two being the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway in California and the Titlis Rotair in central Switzerland.
So what does a rotating Aerial Tram accomplish on a larger scale? Not much. It does exactly the same thing as other Aerial Trams plus it rotates. The feature is Pure Novelty, nothing more. Pure Novelty is great for tourist installations. I’d probably argue that the more Pure Novelty that exists in a tourist installation, the better.
Yet in an urban installation Pure Novelty is a waste of time and resources. People want to get from Point A to Point B as efficiently as possible and probably don’t care about things like spinning trams. Practical Novelties, however, present a whole other opportunity to add value to a rider’s experience.
Practical Novelties are those things that genuinely improve a product’s usability but are not directly related to its function:
- On board Wi-Fi.
- Mail and courier drop boxes.
- Cup holders.
- Cell Phone charge stations.
- Coffee kiosks.
- Bike racks.
Standard transit technologies have almost completely ignored how Practical Novelties can improve riders’ experience. The cost-effectiveness and ease of customization that cable presents, however, means Practical Novelties can and should become a standard feature of the industry’s offerings.
8 Comments
You missed Sattel Hochstuckli which is a rotating detachable gondola.
And many railways provide some of the listed practical novelties, some provide even all of your listed novelties. Besides they are no novelties. Train station have Mailboxes and often a post office since the rail was built long time ago.
Matthias,
Agreed that many railways provide some of the listed practical novelties. But those are not often part of inter-urban transit, generally just regional transit. As for the Sattel Hochstuckli, I’ve never heard of it; is it a gondola or an aerial tram?
It is the worlds first rotating gondola
http://www.myswitzerland.com/en/destinations/resorts/holiday-destinations-in-switzerland/sattel-hochstuckli-schwyz.html
You missed Sattel Hochstuckli which is a rotating detachable gondola.
And many railways provide some of the listed practical novelties, some provide even all of your listed novelties. Besides they are no novelties. Train station have Mailboxes and often a post office since the rail was built long time ago.
Hi Steve,
I think the rail systems you mean are more regional rail stations. I’m more talking about novelties within vehicles or in close proximity to loading/off-loading areas. Matthias also mentioned the Sattel Hockstuckle and while I admit to having just encountered the system, please note that I was talking about aerial trams and not gondola systems.
How about practical novelties like heat and AC…?
To date, the best CPT can muster is piddly solar-powered fans and seat warmers that fast charge going through stations and last for all of three minutes.
Can you imagine the reaction from someone, any one, stepping for the first time into what we tout as ‘revolutionary new’ form of transit at 20 below and finding (gulp) no heat…? Or in 100F, and no AC? Here’s the competition sporting WiFi, laptop and cell chargers, cup holders, and bike racks …and ours still hasn’t discovered the hot wire. the sad part is, Doppelmayr could care less. Just ask.
Only one of the several reasons why CPT, with all its advantages, is such a tough sell. Wait until they start working over on the emergency evacuation-thing.
Dave,
Heating and AC is possible on newer systems and I’ve seen systems with cup holders and bike racks. Wifi is simple to implement in any transit technology, just a question of willingness. I have no idea what you mean when you say “the hot wire”.
Emergency evacs are almost never conducted “online”. Wherever possible, diesel backup engines are used to pull vehicles into stations so that people are evacuated in stations.
Titlis Rotair at the Engelberg in Switzerland was the first rotating aerial tramway:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Titlis_Rotair.jpg
Cheers,