Affordable, safe, punctual and environmentally friendly: urban cable cars are the ideal means to extend local public transport in cities. It is therefore no wonder  that more and more cities around the world are starting to implement them in their existing transport networks.

Paris – the French capital – is now also joining the ranks of French cities Brest and Toulouse and Réunion Island in the Indian Ocean, which boast an urban cable car.

Advantages of urban cable cars

The advantages, which also apply to this project in Paris, were presented by Vienna University of Technology at Cable Car World: the volume of emissions for which one commuter is responsible is 7.6 times greater by bus and as much as 30 times greater by car than on a journey by cable car.

At approx. 3.5 to 19 million euros, one kilometre of cable car route also costs significantly less than one kilometre of underground railway, which is between 45
and 133 million euros.

Cable cars likewise convince with exceptionally low land use in comparison with trams. Câble A in Paris will take up only around seven percent of the space that would be required by a tram for the same route.

In Toulouse the land use by the cable car is actually only 5.5 percent of what would have been required for a tram. Moreover, cable cars can be powered purely by electricity, which makes them independent of fossil fuels.

Challenges

Whereas urban cable cars bring huge value added from an environmental perspective, some designs are nonetheless vulnerable to strong winds and must first win the favour of the population. Historic cities too are challenged by the altered cityscape – at least until local residents have got used to the view.

Concerns also remain with respect to the privacy of residents in the area, which would be directly affected by the passing gondolas.

Conclusion

Whereas work on the present challenges is ongoing, urban cable cars represent a relatively inexpensive investment, which makes them excellently suited to relieving the traffic in France’s cities and to preventing waiting times and congestion.

This also applies to other countries. In addition, they contribute to sustainability and allow conservation of valuable green spaces in the cities, which would  alternatively fall victim to road construction.

Paris

The urban cable car in the French capital is currently in the creation process: after initial approval of the project in 2016 and definition of an initial plan in 2018, the system should open in 2025. The planned route runs from Créteil to Villeneuve-Saint-Georges, via Limeil-Brévannes & Valenton.

On completion of the project, it should therefore carry 1,600 commuters per hour and direction and cover the entire distance in 17 minutes.