Image by Flickr user Inhabitat
The Bolivian city of La Paz provides a model as to how cable propelled transit can be incorporated successfully into an urban environment. The sprawling metro was subject to a highly inefficient transit system unable to handle growing user demand.
Additionally, the chaotic traffic on the roads produced harmful noise and air pollution. Working together, the federal and municipal governments found an effective solution to curtail this pressing issue.
The publicly financed La Paz-El Alto Cable Car, known as Mi Teleferico, has been a wild success. The Doppelmayr built system, completed in 2014, consists of 3 MDG (monocable detachable gondola) lines, which cover a total distance of 10km. Navigating the mountainous terrain, the service reduces travel time significantly between the two cities.
Image by Flickr user David Baggins.
Image by Flickr user Inhabitat
In the system’s first two years of operations, it transported an incredible 43.2 million passengers with a daily record of 162,000 riders. In the year of 2015, Mi Teleferico has generated a profit of $21 million.
The incredible popularity has led project planners to expand the number of lines by 7; increasing the length of the network by more than 20 km. Mi Teleferico demonstrates how gondola systems can be an effective way to improve transportation in a busy metropolis.
[table id=MiTeleferico /]