Ropeways as a sustainable system for urban mobility

Urban ropeway projects by the HTI Group around the world demonstrate high transport efficiency, resource-saving operation and cost-saving functionality.

Cable cars: The future of urban mobility

The further development of urban mobility is becoming an ever greater challenge worldwide. Growing private transport, an increasing shortage of space and the need for environmentally friendly transport in times of climate and energy crisis are increasingly prompting a rethink. In many metropolises, ropeways are at the forefront of the search for strategies for the sustainable expansion of public transport services. The advantages of state-of-the-art ropeway technologies from the HTI Group (which operates worldwide with the ropeway companies LEITNER, POMA and Bartholet) range from low investment and operating costs, high reliability and accessibility to adaptability to a wide variety of topographical and urban planning conditions.

Mexico City, Medellin, Santo Domingo and many other major cities around the world are already demonstrating how effectively cable cars can be integrated into public transport networks on a daily basis. As a prime example of electromobility, they fulfil the most important requirements of a climate-friendly means of transport and avoid direct CO₂ emissions by being powered by electricity and not using fossil fuels. But that's not the only reason why cable cars are so well suited to the city. They also don't take up much space, can cross any obstacle and save passengers a significant amount of time. What's more, a single motor moves several vehicles at once. Ropeways can also play an extremely useful role in connecting sensitive recreational areas in urban environments. They require only minimal contact with the ground and have only a minor impact on the environment.

Exclusive carriageway, barrier-free entry and exit & low investment and operating costs

Above all, the capacity bottlenecks of urban road networks, characterised by frequent traffic jams and accidents, leave the cable car unimpressed and guarantee passengers a delay-free journey. The ‘exclusive’ aerial track enables even journey times without waiting times and timetables and is not affected by traffic on the road. Another advantage is the so-called ‘level walk-in’, i.e. barrier-free boarding and alighting in all cabins. Thanks to the low entry speed into the stations and stop-and-go technology, use with pushchairs, wheelchairs or bicycles is also possible without any restrictions. In addition, the cable car is by far the safest means of transport in urban areas.

Another argument that many local authorities use when making their decision is the cost. Compared to other modes of transport, urban cable cars are particularly cost-effective - from construction to operation and maintenance. The cost of a cable car is around half that of a tram and around a tenth that of a metro. Thanks to their modular design, cable cars from the HTI Group can be realised within a short time of the order being placed.

Whether hilly, densely built-up or by the water - ropeways overcome every obstacle

The ability of a ropeway to cope with steeper gradients than any other vehicle and to adapt to any terrain is a huge advantage. It doesn't matter whether an area is particularly densely built-up, spread over several elevations or criss-crossed by water: cable car routes can be adapted very individually to the respective requirements and thus realised as close as possible along the shortest distance. Supports and stations take up relatively little space and the cable cars blend in perfectly with the cityscape.

Current examples: LEITNER, POMA and Bartholet make cities sustainably fit for transport

The megacity of Ecatepec de Morelos, part of the metropolitan region around Mexico City, is regarded worldwide as a pioneer in the integration of ropeways into the urban transport network. The now nine-year success story began with the construction of the five-kilometre-long ‘Mexicable 1 - Linea Roja’. The official opening of ‘Mexicable 2 - Linea Verde’ on 30 March 2023 closed an important gap in the cable car network in Ecatepec de Morelos. Since then, the LEITNER installation, which consists of three interconnected ropeways, has been transporting around 35,000 people from the municipalities of Ecatepec de Morelos and Tlalnepantla de Baz to Mexico City every day.

Also in Mexico City, the ‘Cablebús 2’ ropeway system from LEITNER has been transporting up to 85,000 people per day over a distance of 10.6 kilometres and seven stations since its opening in 2021. The installation is still the longest ropeway line in Latin America and has been entered in the Guinness Book of Records. The 10-passenger gondola lift in the district of Iztapalapa, in the south-east of the Mexico City metropolitan region, offers the residents of the area, which has a population of 1.8 million, significantly better connections to jobs, schools and leisure facilities. Thanks to the new railway, the journey time for this route has been significantly reduced from 75 to just 36 minutes.

While LEITNER is represented with other projects in Ankara, Barcelona, Berlin, Cali (CO), Pisa and Perugia, among others, POMA has already built its third urban gondola lift in six years in the Dominican Republic. The first cable car was realised in Santo Domingo in 2018 in response to the city's mobility problems. The first urban cable car in the Caribbean at the time has an annual capacity of around five million journeys. This and the second cable car in Santo Domingo are connected to the metro network. In Santiago de los Caballeros, a four-kilometre-long cable car is currently being put into operation. In Medellin, six POMA cable cars have already been built as part of the Colombian city's public transport system, while in Madagascar's capital Antananarivo, a line of three POMA urban cable cars with a length of 8.7 kilometres, carrying 40,000 passengers a day, is currently under construction. POMA has also been successful in Europe: in the French city of Toulouse, the company realised the first urban tricable gondola in France. It connects three of the city's academic centres and shortens the journey time by two thirds compared to the fastest connection before the railway was commissioned. Other POMA urban projects have been built in Algeria, La Réunion, Colombia and Ecuador. A modern gondola lift with a length of around three kilometres will be built in Ajaccio, the capital of Corsica, by 2025.

The Swiss cable car company Bartholet, also a member of the HTI Group, built France's first cable car integrated into the public transport system in Brest in northern France back in 2016. A special feature of the installation is the 82-metre-high support, which is also the only one that allows shipping traffic to travel safely to the port. Since 2018, people in Moscow have been able to travel in comfort from the Olympic Stadium in the city centre via ‘Vorobyovy Gory’ (‘Sparrow Mountains’) to Kosygina station with its unique panoramic view thanks to a cable car from Bartholet. Bartholet is currently building India's first urban cable car in Varanasi.

Future projects: LEITNER RECEIVES GRANT FOR ITALY'S FIRST CITY SUBWAY AND 2 MAJOR PROJECTS IN MEXICO

Following LEITNER's success in the City of Trieste's tender for Italy's first urban cable car, the planning work has now been completed. The ropeway will start in the centre of Trieste, near the railway station, and run through Porto Vecchio to Bovedo near Barcola. From there, a second, approximately 2,300 metre-long section will begin, extending to the suburb of Opicina. The line will consist of one hundred 10-seater cabins that can transport 1,800 passengers per hour and direction at a speed of 6 metres per second. The total length is 4,873 metres. The journey time from Opicina to the centre of Trieste will be just 16 minutes, and the spacious Diamond Evo cabins will allow the comfortable transport of 10 passengers as well as bicycles and pushchairs. As part of the ‘Inspiration Days’ at Interalpin, LEITNER, as a partner of this format, will demonstrate its expertise in the field of urban ropeways using this project as an example and present its expertise in the realisation of other urban installations around the world.

The unstoppable triumph of urban cable cars in Mexico also continues,, and for LEITNER, again supported by its Mexican partner Alfa Proveedores y Contratistas, two new orders have been signed for a total of 15 kilometres of new ropeways, adding to the 24 kilometres that LEITNER has already installed in recent years.

The first installation is a gondola lift, work on which began in autumn 2024 and which is being built in the Unesco World Heritage city of Morelia, which has a population of one million and is located 250 kilometres west of Mexico City in the state of Michoacán. With a total length of 5.6 kilometres and an hourly capacity of 1,500 passengers, the line runs through 6 stations. The main station is located in the immediate vicinity of the city centre, from where the two lines branch off. The first line with 2 intermediate stations runs in a north-westerly direction to the bus station near the stadium. The second line runs in a southerly direction and connects the university campus and the zoo with an intermediate station. The entire project will cost 90 million euros and should be completed by autumn 2026. A further extension of the Morelia cable car with an additional 1.6 kilometres of track has also already been announced.

A second 9.6-kilometre-long cable car will be built in Naucalpan in the greater Mexico City area, west of the capital, by autumn 2026. The major investment of 200 million euros will consist of three lines with 10 stations and will be a sustainable addition to public transport in this part of the city. Around 380 cabins will transport millions of people on the three lines every year, further emphasising the importance of the cable car in Mexico's urban mobility.

Images of current and completed projects can be found via the following link:

City Cable Car Solutions - Projects LEITNER AG
 

Find out more:

At INTERALPIN 2025, you will receive further information on the topic of city cable car solutions. Key players in the industry will also be presenting current and past projects in this area. Further information on Leitner AG products and projects can be found under the following link: LEITNER ropeways.

Text source @ LEITNER AG / HTI
Image source: Naucalpan @ LEITNER AG / HTI