Aerial tramway

An aerial tramway is a special kind of transport that moves people or goods through the air using cables. It is also called an aerial tram, sky tram, cable car, aerial cablecar, aerial cableway, or ropeway. This type of transport uses one or two stationary cables for support and a moving cable to help it go. The cabin, or "tram," is attached to the moving cable and stays connected while it is running.

Aerial tramways are different from other types of cable transport, like gondola lifts, because the cabin cannot let go of the cable while it is moving. They are often used in places where it is hard to build roads, such as mountains or over water. Although they can carry fewer people and sometimes have longer wait times than gondola lifts, they are very useful for reaching places that are difficult to access by other means.

Terminology

Different places use different words to talk about aerial trams. In British English, they often call it a "cable car," but "tramway" usually means a tram on streets with rails. In American English, "cable car" can also mean a special kind of street tram in places like San Francisco's cable cars.

Sometimes people call aerial trams "ropeways," even though this can be confusing. They are different from gondola lifts, which move in a circle with cabins hanging from a cable. Aerial trams just go back and forth on cables. In Japan, both types are called "ropeway," and "cable car" can mean trams on the ground or special hill-climbing trains called funiculars. There is also something called a suspension railway, where vehicles hang from a fixed track instead of a cable.

Overview

An aerial tramway is a special kind of lift that uses cables to move people or goods. It has one or two fixed cables that give support, and a moving cable that pulls the cabins. An electric motor makes the moving cable go, and the cabins stay attached to it the whole time. These trams always go back and forth between two ends.

Two-car trams use a system where one cabin goes down while the other goes up, using the weight of one to help move the other. Some trams have just one cabin, which works well when there isn’t a big change in height along the path.

History

The first design for a special kind of lift was made by Fausto Veranzio, and the first one that actually worked was built in 1644 by Adam Wybe in Gdańsk, Poland. It used horses to move soil across a river to build defenses. This was the first known cable lift in Europe and came before steel cables were invented. We don’t know how long it was used. Germany built the second cable lift 230 years later, this time using iron wire cable.

As people began to have more money to spend, new ways to travel for fun were created. In the early 1900s, some cable lifts started carrying people instead of just goods. One was built in Gibraltar for military use, and another in Hong Kong carried workers. Soon after, in 1894, a cable lift crossed the Tennessee River in Knoxville, Tennessee. More were built on mountains in places like Spain and Switzerland, which were cheaper to build than old-style railroads. These helped start the idea of ski lifts and chairlifts.

Many cable lifts were made by companies in Switzerland, Germany, and Austria. Today, a few big companies control most of the market.

Some cable lifts have their own way to move, like the Josef Mountain Aerial Tramway near Merano, Italy.

Even though cable lifts are often used at ski places, they are also used in cities. Examples include the Roosevelt Island Tramway in New York City, the Metrocable system in Medellin, Colombia, the Mi Teleférico system in La Paz, Bolivia, the Rakavlit cable car in Haifa, Israel, and the Portland Aerial Tram in Oregon. These show how this technology can be used for public transport in cities.

The idea of telpherage was first shared in 1883 and some test lines were built. It was meant to be an alternative to horses and carts, not railways. The first telpherage line that anyone could use opened in Glynde, England, in 1885. It connected a new clay pit to the nearest train station.

Some cable lifts have cabins with two levels. The Vanoise Express in France carries 200 people in each cabin high above a valley. The Shinhotaka Ropeway in Japan carries 121 people in each cabin up Mount Hotaka. The CabriO cable car to Stanserhorn in Switzerland has 60 people, with the top level open to the air.

Records

Here are some amazing facts about aerial tramways:

• The very first aerial tramway was built by Adam Wybe in Gdańsk in 1644. It was the largest one built for many years.
• Some of the longest tramways ever made were in Argentina, Spain, Eritrea, and Sweden. They could stretch for many kilometers!
• Today, some of the longest tramways still in use are in Sweden, Venezuela, Switzerland, Armenia, Kazakhstan, and New Mexico in the United States.
• The highest tramway ever took passengers up over 3,000 meters high in Argentina.
• In New York City, an aerial tramway was used like a subway, letting people pay one fare to travel above the city.

List of accidents

See also: Gondola lift § List of accidents

Even with safety measures like backup power and evacuation plans, some aerial tramways have had serious problems.

For example, in 1960, a cabin fell and caused injuries on the Monte Faito cableway. In 1961, a plane hit a cable on the Vallée Blanche Aerial Tramway on the Aiguille du Midi in the Mont Blanc area. In 1974, a rope broke on the Ulriksbanen tramway in Bergen, Norway, causing a cabin to fall. In 1976, a cab fell in Italy, and in 1978, a storm caused problems in California. There have been many other incidents over the years in places like France, Italy, and Turkey.