Unlike traditional vehicles, CPT vehicles do not have an onboard engine or motor. Propulsion is provided by an off-board engine that moves a cable. Vehicles are equipped with a grip used to attach and detach the vehicle to the cable. The vehicle is therefore propelled by the cable which itself is propelled by engines and...
(For those of you not statistically or mathematically inclined, you’ll probably want to skip this post) PPHPD is an acronym for persons per hour per direction and is a great tool for calculating offered capacity of a transit line. Unfortunately, it’s not a term that has any sort of mainstream usage or understanding and that...
The Swiss have an expression to describe solving a problem with far more than is necessary. To do so, they say, is to “shoot a chickadee with a cannonball,” and is a perfect description of what light rail is to the transit planning problem. As an example: Toronto’s current fleet of streetcars were designed to...
In Cable-Propelled Transit (CPT) support describes the guideway along which a vehicle travels. Support can either be provided from above the vehicle (in the case of Gondolas and Aerial Trams) or below the vehicle (in the case of Funiculars and Cable Cars). Support can either by provided by rails or cables. In all but the...
To be successful, an Insurgent Technology, Idea or Technique must be markedly different from those accepted Incumbent Technologies, Ideas or Techniques of the given day. But different is not enough. Not only must the Insurgent be different, she must also be demonstrably superior to the Incumbent and have strength and support on loan from a...
Here’s an example of how not to implement Cable-Propelled Transit (CPT) in an urban area. The Oregon Health Sciences University (OHSU) desired a direct connection between their two campuses in Portland, Oregon; one at the bottom of a mountain, another at the top. A CPT system was a logical choice. I won’t discuss what I...
When one first encounters the idea of Cable-Propelled Transit (CPT), one is alarmed. We’re suspicious of it and in some cases even hostile. It doesn’t look like transit and it certainly doesn’t behave like transit. We therefore conclude that it must not be transit. That’s true, but only because we’re used to transit systems that...
There are two minor sub-groups of CPT technology: Aerial Trams and Funiculars. Aerial Trams are like larger Gondolas. I’ll discuss this technology in greater detail later. Generally speaking, however, Aerial Trams are (relative to Gondolas) an out-dated mode of Cable-Propelled Transit. Compared with Gondola technology, Aerial Trams exhibit longer wait times between vehicles; lower line...
How do you find out about something if you don’t know what to call it? Easy: You don’t. For the longest time, cable had no clear name and that made research efforts next to impossible. As I’ve pointed out, the sheer volume of terms used to describe Cable-Propelled Transit (CPT) was preposterous and none conformed...
They say truth is stranger than fiction, and this is certainly no exception: This system was actually built. It was designed so that it could propel itself along the support cables without need of a wheelhouse. It is easily one of the most bizarre cable contraptions I’ve ever encountered and I’ll admit to having scant...