General State of Public Transportation

  • Public transportation reaches capacity limit
  • Irregular departure times
  • Long changing times and many stops
  • Bad air and crowded streets

Traffic lights, jams and
high emissions

Construction consumes lots of
city space, time and money

Convenient private transportation
through direct connections

Conventional Ropeway in urban areas

Urban ropeways can be an attractive alternative or complement to e.g. buses, cars, trams or metros and not just when there is a lack of space:

  • Complement existing traffic infrastructure
  • Very few emissions
  • High delivery rates by low expenses
  • Space-saving
  • Silent and save
  • Short construction phase
  • Approach at any time
  • Independent from traffic lights and jams
  • Unique riding experience
  • Many changeovers for several lines
  • Stops at every station
  • Not in line with demand
  • Stations need space and staff for multiple entry and exit zones

Networked Ropeway

Cable car circuits linked in stations have some advantages. Fixed, changeable or intelligent clocks enable different line layouts in an urban ropeway system with various crossings and fast switches. A gondola on line 1, for example, always drives straight ahead at a crossing, that of line 2 turns right and that of line 3 always turns left. Without the hassle of changing different destinations can easily be reached from a starting point, depending on the choice of gondola.

The allocation of the gondolas can still be implemented in such a system with optical or mechanical solutions. Depending on requirements, the lines can be adapted and thus offer a high level of flexibility in the design of public mobility in the long term. If extra stop tracks are installed at intermediate stations, the result is a time gain of 1 to 1.5 minutes for passing gondolas per station bypassed. Instead of a new line, express gondolas could pass (some) intermediate stations and bring passengers to their destination faster.

Urban Ropeway on Demand

Via individualized public transportation straight to destinations

  • No changing
  • No stops
  • In line with demand
  • One entry zone for every direction

Networked ropeway systems on demand enable individualized, local public transport with extedend scope of action.Crossings, fast switches and IT control systems speed up journeys across and through the city and turn convenient public transport particularly competitive:

  • Even shorter Journeys without any stops and transfers - from every start directly to the destination (the longer the route, the greater the time saved)
  • Crossings allow more direct routing, extensions in each direction (for a growing transport network) and a more flexible scheduling of rope routes for a conflict-free integration into the cityscape.
  • Cost-neutral investment for high-speed switches and IT systems, as fewer rope lengths and supports are required (fewer detours), smaller stations with only one entry and exit area for both directions and the same number of passengers transported with significantly fewer gondola (through faster arrival and needs-based deployment).

Section of the Cologne city center from one of our simulations

Crossings

Crossings with fast switches enable a network of individually guided gondolas. A pre-planning route creation and the associated cable assignment ensures that vehicles are forwarded to switches when they arrive and that minimum distances are observed before vehicles start.

Stations

Using high-speed switches, stations with a passing by area can be implemented. As urban areas often offer little space for additional buildings, end and intermediate stations with only one entry and exit area appear particularly attractive. Th interconnection allows stations to be designed particularly flexible in order to set up a suitable station depending on the local requirements. They can be planned on one or more levels and they can initially be thought of as expandable for a later network expansion.

On-Demand Passenger Experience

  1. Target dialing via app or machine, pay for a ticket if necessary and pay attention to the call / display to board
  2. Entry into the stationary gondola by scanning the ticket or the app
  3. Straight to the destination in the event of low demand without stopping

Overview / Comparison

EN
EN DE