A few highlights from the around the world of Urban Gondolas and Cable Propelled Transit:
- PR Newswire reports that the “permit authorizing the (Roosevelt Island) tramway to open to the general public is expected to be issued in November.” The site has a nice photo of the new installation.
- Oregon Live reports that the Portland Aerial Tram, welcomed it’s 5 millionth rider last week. For those that are counting, that’s around 1.3 million riders per year.
- Darryl Chamberlain continues his blogging campaign against the London Thames Cable Car calling it an “answer to a problem which doesn’t really exist.”
- The Sierra Club continues with legal proceedings to obtain documents related to the extremely controversial Ogden Urban Gondola proposal. For those unfamiliar with the disaster that was the Ogden Urban Gondola, feel free to read a recap here.
- CRIEnglish reports that 40 riders in a Shenzhen, China amusement park were trapped in a cable car for less than one hour due to a technical malfunction. As I’ve said before, the degree of media coverage a given technology’s failure causes is inversely related to the chance of that failure’s occurrence.
- Business Times reports that a Malaysian company has signed an “initial pact with Austria’s Doppelmayr to explore the potential of cable car projects in Malaysian cities.”
- Yet another bizarre PRT concept. This one looks remarkably like a gondola. PRTBoondoggle, meanwhile reports on the repeated failures of the PRT lobby, most recently in San Jose.
- Streetsblog San Francisco reports that BART was passed over for funding for the Oakland Airport Connector. As funding is on an ongoing basis, BART will proceed with the project and apply for funding at a later time. This is not anticipated to stop the project.
- And on a more serious note: Austria commemorates the 10 year anniversary of the Kaprun Cable Car disaster. 10 years ago, 155 people died when a funicular caught fire in a tunnel in Kaprun, Austria.