Rendering of the IJbaan Cable Car. Looking northbound from Minerhaven Station to NDSM Marina Station. Image by UN Studios.
After three years of research, community outreach, and concept development, designs for a 1.5km urban gondola in Amsterdam were released last week. The cable car project has been spearheaded by locals Bas Dekker and Willem Wessels, who appears to have support from the City of Amsterdam, Port of Amsterdam (Dutch: Haven van Amsterdam) and the Amsterdam Transport Region (Dutch: Vervoerregio Amsterdam).
Since the gondola is designed to cross the IJ, Amsterdam’s waterfront, the system has been aptly named the IJbaan (i.e. a cable car is called kabelbaan in Dutch, so IJbaan, presumably means IJ cable car).
Based on the proposed alignment, the ropeway’s northern terminal, NDSM Marina, is located in the Amsterdam-noord borough while the system’s southern terminal, Minerhaven, is located in the Amsterdam-West borough. NDSM Marina Station has been designed as a transport hub with bike facilities, bus connections and an observation deck. Minerhaven Station, on the other hand, has been planned as a neighbourhood plaza complete with a restaurant and bar.
NDSM Marina Station. Image by UN Studios.
While it appears that most online articles has yet to reveal the technology choice, the renderings make it quite clear that the team has chosen a 3S system. Proponents have estimated ride times at 4.6 minutes, travel speeds at 6m/s (21.6km/h) and cabin sizes at 32-37 persons (with enough room to fit 4-6 bicycles). Initial ridership is projected at 4,000 daily passengers while up to 10,000 riders per day may be transported by 2040.
If you feel that you’ve seen the Amsterdam proposal before, you’re not far off. The architects behind the IJbaan, UN Studios, were the team behind the winning proposal for the Gothenburg Cable Car in Sweden. Image by UN Studios.
Along the journey, passengers will travel over three customized towers which have been designed to pay homage to the city’s industrial heritage. Riders will likely get incredible panoramic views of the city’s waterfront as the three towers will be 46m to 136m tall.
If built, the middle tower (136m) will be one of the tallest ropeway towers in the world — only surpassed by approximately three other systems (e.g. Ha Long Bay Queen Cable Car – 188m, Phu Quoc Cable Car – 160m, and Zugspitze Eibsee Cable Car – 127m).
Compared to other Cable Propelled Transit (CPT) lines, the Amsterdam proposal may very well have the world’s tallest urban cable car tower.
For instance, urban gondolas with tall towers, such as the Emirates Air Line Cable Car and Nizhny Novgorod Cable Car have tower heights of just 90m and 82m respectively.
It appears that the proponents have spent considerable time thinking through the proposal as they’ve designed it to expand to a three-station system in the future.
Phase 1 would see the aforementioned 1.5km connection built between NDSM Marina Station and Minerhaven Station by 2025 while Phase 2 would see the system expand southwest for another ~800m to Hemknoop Station.
Proponents have described the cable car as an “air bridge” with the ability to complement Amsterdam’s goals of not only becoming a hub for urban innovation but to build an all electric public transit system. While the system has been estimated to cost US$105mm (€90mm), this will still be less than building a comparable bridge.
If everything goes according to plan, the cable car will be up and running by Amsterdam’s 750th anniversary in 2025. In total, this means that in Europe alone, nearly 70 urban cable cars have now been proposed on the continent.