Berlin is the first German city to fully integrate a cable car into local public transport. Such considerations exist in many cities. Because it has become tight on the ground.
In Mexico City this is completely normal, even in Bogota and La Paz no one will find anything there: taking the cable car from A to B, high above the roofs.
Will people in German cities soon be going to work like this, across houses and traffic jams, to go shopping and to school? Berlin wants to be the first city nationwide to completely integrate a cable car into local public transport. The capital is not alone: a number of cities are considering moving some of their traffic up into the air on wire ropes.
Those who have only known cable cars from their vacation in the mountains will perhaps one day be able to take them to work in some places. Transport planners are now focusing on what has so far mainly been a visitor attraction for garden shows in Germany.
Whether Bonn, Stuttgart, Cologne, Düsseldorf or Munich – big cities are considering whether the hanging cabins can solve traffic problems on the ground. There is enthusiasm on the Internet. “Away with the flying taxis for the jet set, in the gondolas for the people,” cheered a columnist. “Awesome, awesome, cable car.” But of course there are also scoffers.
La Paz has the densest cable car network in the world
For the people in some major cities in South America, however, cable car travel is completely normal. La Paz, for example, has a total of 27 kilometers of cable car, the densest network in the world. Bolivia’s capital has to overcome a difference in altitude of up to 1000 meters – Berlin has the Kienberg. This is a hill topped with war rubble and rubble, a good 100 meters high. In Berlin something like that is called a mountain. Here, in Marzahn on the eastern edge of the city, the cable car runs.
Those who leave the U5 only need a few steps to the cable car station, through which 64 gondolas slide. Once at the top, the sun is visible behind prefabricated buildings, which is reflected in the ball of the television tower. At your feet is the Kienbergpark with the Gardens of the World, a popular excursion destination. The cable car was built on the occasion of a garden exhibition in 2017.
But if you go down the mountain to the other side, you will find yourself on a four-lane road. The cable car ride has so far been an end in itself, a visitor attraction. Nobody gets to their destination faster on the way through the city. Nevertheless: The red-green-red coalition has decided that in future they can be used with the normal public transport ticket. In doing so, she is setting an example.
Just float over the daily traffic jam?
A study should now show by 2023 whether additional cable cars can usefully complement local transport. The answer can of course be “no”. But the discussion about cable cars has been preoccupying the capital for a long time. Who wouldn’t want to just float over the daily traffic jam? And that without a timetable?
In the spring, proposals circulated to examine five cable car routes. Visitors could gondola past the skyscrapers on Potsdamer Platz or across the former Tempelhof airfield, that huge meadow in the middle of the city. Or over the Wannsee.
More specifically, Munich is already thinking about a cable car several kilometers long in the north of the city, Bonn is considering crossing the Rhine. “Back from the car-friendly city to a living space with better air and less noise,” says the federal city.
The federal government can also gain something from the means of transport. “Climate-friendly, inexpensive, reliable”, these are the most important attributes. In addition, cable cars can be implemented quickly. “You can close gaps in local public transport, replace bus services or connect rural areas.” The Federal Ministry is also having a study drawn up.
“A cable car alone is not the solution to all traffic problems”, but the hotel dampens the enthusiasm. As a continuous conveyor, the cable car cannot bring large masses from A to B in a short time. “Our question is rather: When can a cable car be a useful addition to local public transport? Where can it play out its specific strengths? ” Cities would have to carefully weigh the pros and cons.
Study author Sebastian Beck from the consulting firm Drees & Sommer thinks that public transport in large cities is well organized, but is reaching its limits. “The aim of the cable car is to close, relieve, lengthen and bridge gaps.”
In Hamburg, opponents of the cable car worried about the cityscape
This is how the local transport companies in Germany see it. “Cable cars can be built quickly, they take up little space and provide permanent traffic,” says Lars Wagner, spokesman for the Association of German Transport Companies. It is important, however, that the traffic benefits are correct – also because funding by the federal government would then be possible. Cable cars were only included in the relevant law last year. But there is still a hurdle: “You get little applause from those who live on the route.”
In Hamburg, for example, a cable car plan failed years ago. Citizens rejected the train from St. Pauli across the Elbe and to the other side of the port in a decision. Opponents worried, among other things, about the cityscape.
The study for the Federal Ministry of Transport should therefore also provide guidelines on how cities can best initiate ropeway projects. “For all infrastructure projects, open and transparent communication with the citizens at an early stage is necessary,” says Beck.