Camden Waterfront Development
Philadelphia, PA
UNDER CONSTRUCTION!
This fully funded project will bring an aerial tram to link the Camden and Philadelphia waterfronts. Gondola cars will glide over the Delaware River from Camden and five minutes later will land on the Philadelphia side of the river.

The Roosevelt Island Tramway
New York, New York
The Roosevelt Island Tramway was create in 1976 as a means to shuttle residents to and from Manhattan. Twenty years later, the Tram has serviced millions and provided breathtaking views of New York as passengers quickly travel across the river.

Barcelona Gondola
Barcelona, Spain
Outside the old quarter Montjuic, the cable gondola takes you to the top of the "Jewish Mountain". The fine arts museum is here and a section of conveniently clustered Spanish building replicas offer solid shopping. You can ride up in the cable gondola to the top and walk back downhill.

Cap Treo
Yen Tu, Vietnam
Built as an urban transporation system in 2001, with a 700 persons per hour capacity, the Cap Treo-Yen Tu gondola has changed the way locals and tourist travel in Vietnam.

Genting Skyway
Malaysia
Scaling greater heights is the Genting Skyway! Linking its Main Station at Gohtong Jaya to Highlands Hotel, the Genting Skyway offers a convenient, smooth, and safe ride to the resort. Dedicated in Feb 21, 1997, the Genting Skyway has made Malaysia home to one of the worlds most modern cable car systems.

The Montreal Aerial Gondola
World Class Attraction Set To Generate $120 Million In New Tourist Spending Each Year


A new aerial gondola project is set to revitalize Montreal’s tourism industry. The Montreal Aerial Gondola, with the cooperation of the City of Montreal, the Jean Drapeau Park Corporation and the Old Port Corporation, will inject an additional $120 million of annual visitor spending into the city’s tourism sector.

A people-friendly, one of a kind transit system, the Montreal Aerial Gondola will eliminate thousands of vehicles from surrounding roadways and bridges – significantly reducing congestion and pollution. The 7 minute ride will easily, conveniently and cost-effectively connect Quai Jacques Cartier in the Old Port and Ile Notre Dame in Jean Drapeau Park. Visitors and Montrealers alike will experience spectacular, never-before seen views of our beautiful city, river and islands.

The opening of the Montreal Aerial Gondola is projected for summer 2010 and will debut the first of 3 million round trips to take place annually. The Montreal Aerial Gondola can transport 5,000 one-way passengers per hour, with gondola cabins arriving and departing every 12 seconds. These numbers show that the Montreal Aerial Gondola is an efficient people mover – without vehicles.

The Montreal Aerial Gondola: Highlight Points

Montreal Aerial Gondola as a massive revenue generator – the Montreal Aerial Gondola will become the city’s new economic driving force. In its first year of operation, and every year thereafter, the Montreal Aerial Gondola will generate $120 million in new visitor spending – more than the tourist spending of the Montreal Grand Prix and the Montreal Jazz Festival combined. Furthermore, the Montreal Aerial Gondola will generate more than $285 million worth of new economic activity in the province of Quebec, and create more than 3,000 new jobs.

Montreal Aerial Gondola as a tourist attraction – the Montreal Aerial gondola is destined to become a world-class landmark, as famous as the Eiffel Tower, CN Tower and London Eye, attracting local, national and international visitors of all ages for many years to come. In addition to providing a new and exciting link between Montreal’s main tourist destinations, the Montreal Aerial Gondola will complement the city’s existing festivals and tourist events.

Montreal Aerial Gondola as a traffic reliever – beyond introducing a new, forward-thinking transportation alternative to the city, the Montreal Aerial Gondola will reduce the pressure on Montreal’s highway and bridge systems and help alleviate congestion and parking problems in Old Montreal, the Old Port and Jean Drapeau Park.

Montreal Aerial Gondola as green transportation – the silent, electrically powered environmentally friendly Montreal Aerial Gondola will reduce greenhouse gases by more than 8,000 metric tons annually – the equivalent of that generated by 1,000 cars driving around the world each year.

Montreal Aerial Gondola as a transportation alternative - the Montreal Aerial Gondola’s ability to accommodate 5,000 passengers per hour, operate year round, and move people between the Old Port and Ile Notre Dame in Jean Drapeau Park, without a vehicle, makes it an appealing transportation alternative for visitors and Montrealers alike.

Montreal Aerial Gondola as a prestige project – as a result of the announcement, construction, opening and long term operation of the Montreal Aerial gondola, Montreal will attract local, national and international media attention that will highlight Montreal’s visionary approach to solving transportation issues in an environmentally friendly way and position Montreal as a world leading green destination.

Rendering of a proposed aerial gondola linking Governors Island to Lower Manhattan.

That’s 125 million dollars, not lira for this island gondola

By Josh Rogers

Mayor Mike Bloomberg and Dep. Mayor Daniel Doctoroff have tapped renowned architect Santiago Calatrava to design an aerial gondola connecting Governors Island to Downtown Manhattan and Brooklyn for even less money than the two, dollar-a-year city officials make.

Calatrava, who already has two projects to reshape Lower Manhattan, may get a chance to do a third if Wednesday’s announcement proves to be the charm and a decade of promises to develop the 172-acre island come to fruition. Calatrava’s work may be gratis but the gondola and cables will not come cheap: $125 million.

“What we are presenting is not only a sketch of a simple idea, it is the result of a maturation,” said Calatrava, who designed the World Trade Center PATH station under construction and a distinctive, 800-foot, condo tower planned for South St. He worked on the gondola design with STV Inc. and Leitner-Poma of America.

Calatrava, whose designs, sketches and sculptures are on exhibit at the Met, said the Sept. 11 attacks drew him to the city from Spain. Though 9/11 was horrific, he said the city also “gained a sense of the tragic” with the attack that gave it a historical significance comparable to three other cities that rebuilt — Jerusalem, Rome and Athens.

On Wednesday, the city and state also announced the release of a request for proposals to develop the island and they hope to select a developer by September and finalize an agreement by the end of the year. An environmental impact statement will take at least a year, and under the most optimistic scenario, construction of the island’s next use could begin by the end of next year. The gondola project will be dependent upon implementing a plan for the island, which the Coast Guard left in 1996 because of high maintenance costs.

Photo image of what the island could look like if you razed all of the buildings outside the historic district.

Many of the same ideas that have been kicking around for Governors were mentioned as possibilities at the announcement: a hotel-conference center, university, museums, historical center and a marina. One third of the island is an historic district made up of buildings and military facilities dating as far back as the Revolutionary War. Under an agreement with the federal government, housing would be prohibited unless it relates directly to the island’s use such as faculty homes for a campus. The new plan for the island will also include a 40-acre park and an esplanade that circles the perimeter.

When the federal government returned Governors to New York for $1 in 2003, Gov. George Pataki and Mayor Bloomberg toured it together and talked about building a City University of New York campus that would free up room for city high schools.

The mayor said Wednesday the plan was hard to implement because the island’s draw also has costs. “It’s advantage is it is isolated,” Bloomberg said. “That’s also a disadvantage.”

Doctoroff said the city and state have worked hard over the last three years and are finally in a position to turn the island over to a developer. He is chairperson of the Governors Island Preservation and Education Corporation, a state-city authority charged with managing and developing the island.

Rob Pirani, executive director of the Governors Island Alliance, said he has concerns the gondola may “cream some of the tourists off the ferry. It may create more demands for subsidizing the ferry service.” Pirani, also a director at the Regional Plan Association, helped start the Alliance 11 years ago in an effort to bring civic groups together to advocate for opening the island to the public.

Downtown Express photo by Jefferson Siegel
The Admiral’s Quarters Building.


One of the roadblocks has been finding uses that generate enough traffic to keep ferry service affordable, but that allow for open space and historic building preservation. The city and state plan to continue ferry service with the gondola system. The island now opens in the summer on selected days for public use.

Pirani does see appeal in the tram and thinks the best part of the island plan is “the idea of iconic architecture and the idea of creating links on the waterfront.”

The gondola will leave from an area near the Governors I. ferry in the Battery Maritime Building, close to Battery Park, the East River waterfront section that is being renovated and Hudson River Park. It will leave from Downtown Brooklyn at the end of Atlantic Ave., near the southern end of Brooklyn Bridge Park.

It will take four minutes to reach the island from each borough and about 6,000 passengers would be able to get to the island from the tram every hour. Weekdays, it could be a commuter line transporting about 2,000 people an hour from Brooklyn to Lower Manhattan in about 10 minutes if the system went in only one direction during rush hour.

The cables holding the gondola look like a decorative bridge and Calatrava, also an engineer, assured reporters the high, narrow structure could withstand harbor winds. It will not touch the water, which will make it easier to get environmental approvals.

U.S. Rep. Anthony Weiner, who announced an island plan for parks, a hotel/conference center and a biotech lab last year during his mayoral campaign, released a statement Wednesday praising the mayor and governor for focusing on the island but he added that an “elevated gondola as a method for visiting the island would be an expensive and ugly diversion from the common sense travel option — the ferry.”

Pirani, who has attended many Governors Island announcement ceremonies over the years, had a feeling this one might actually happen because of “the focus of the mayor and deputy mayor — making it part of their legacies.”

Doctoroff said everyone he has spoken with agrees “this is an opportunity we will never have again.”

Gondola Transit Systems

Gondola transit has been extensively used around the world for the past 25 years. Typically found at ski resorts, urban gondola transportaion systems are the way of the future. Safe, reliable and clean - the benefits of gondala are undless and offer a new way to travel in urban settings. From New York City to Sydney, Australia, locals and tourist alike use gondola transit. Balitmore is next!

Overview of Our Approach

The Baltimore Lift is a gondola system linking the Baltimore Inner Harbor attractions with the existing light rail system. Eight (8) person cabins will glide across the city skyline connecting Baltimore's popular spots with reliable, comfortable,and simple service. The system will have a one-way capacity of 3,000 persons per hour.

The Baltimore Lift will provide an unparalleled experience for both residents and visitors. On clear days, riders will experience 360-degree views of The Chesapeake Bay and the Baltimore skyline. Users will enjoy a comfortable ride in gondola cars equipped with heating and airconditioning. Gondolas will be equipped with a panic button and radios to alert the system operator that there is a problem on the gondola and to have security waiting. The loading and unloading process will be simple and ADA friendly. Gondola cars will arrive every ten (10) seconds, this is vastly different and less frustrating than waiting for a bus or train.

Cable car over Thames preferable to new bridge, say TfL analysts

* Buzz up!
* Digg it

* Dan Milmo and John Vidal
* guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 21 May 2008 16.41 BST
* Article history

A cable car in Singapore

Cable cars, like these in Singapore, are increasingly used for mass transit in cities around the world. Photograph: Reuters

An Alpine-style cable car to ferry people across the Thames in east London should replace plans for a £500m six-lane road bridge, say leading transport analysts commissioned by Transport for London. The bridge has been strongly opposed by local people and environment groups.

The new study compares six alternative types of river crossing to the road bridge, which is presently locked in a second public inquiry. They include a rail-only bridge, a new river-ferry crossing, a walk and cycle-only bridge and a car bridge which is adapted to take more public transport.

All would be better than the road-only bridge, say the study authors, professors of transport at the Stockholm Environment Institute, University College London and the University of Wuppertal in Germany. But a cable car across the Thames would be the most sustainable. It would be significantly cheaper than a bridge, and would greatly reduce greenhouse gas emissions, encourage cycling and walking, and could be erected in time for the Olympics in 2012, they say.

Cable cars are increasingly used for mass transit in world cities and across rivers because they need little space, have virtually no waiting time, can run at over 20mph, and have very low emissions. They are already used in New York, Istanbul, Vancouver, Madrid, Caracas and Hamburg and other cities are planning systems. A cable car has crossed the Rhine in Cologne since 1957.

The report suggests that a cable car system for London could take up to 5,000 people an hour in each direction over the river between Beckton and Thamesmead, with cable cars arriving every 22 seconds. It would take two minutes to cross the river and could link in with other public transport systems and City airport.

A cable car would bring "excitement and iconic importance, which would generate great interest in tourist visits, as well as local and user affection", say the report's authors.

The bridge option, first considered more than 20 years ago, was strongly backed by government and the previous mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, who argued that it would help regenerate some of the poorest areas of London and be integral to redevelopment plans for the Thames Gateway. But it was strongly opposed by local people and national environment groups who say it would lead to more congestion and pollution, with very little regeneration benefits.

A public inquiry inspector recommended that planning application for the bridge be refused but the government overruled him saying the inquiry should be reopened.

The cable car option is likely to be taken seriously. Boris Johnson, mayor of London since the start of May and now chair of Transport for London, said before his election that that he was not satisfied with the £500m bridge option. "There is clearly a real disparity in the number of river crossings east of Tower Bridge, compared to the west", he said. "We will look at the ideas in this report as part of that wider process, but it is far too soon to say exactly what form of crossing we may require."

Environment groups have welcomed the cable car option. "Transport for London must abandon its plans for a new road bridge – and develop the Thames Gateway in a way that will help tackle climate change and improve the quality of life for local people", said Jennifer Bates, Friends of the Earth London campaign coordinator.