Yesterday morning, Bay Area Rapid Transit announced their selection of of the Parsons/Flatiron group to build the Oakland Airport Connector. This is a significant announcement for Cable Propelled Transit (CPT) because the transit technology selected for the installation will be a cable system designed and built by Doppelmayr Cable Car.
The reason this is so significant for cable transit is simple: Of the four bids, two included cable transit and two included self-propelled vehicles by Bombardier and Mitsubishi. Cable won.
Let me repeat that: Cable won over two other self-propelled technologies. This is important. If cable is to receive attention, it needs victories like this. Self-propelled vehicles have been the norm for the last 100 years and only in the last decade have cities begun to rediscover the advantages of cable-propelled.
What’s more, at 7 km in length, this is a long system that demonstrates cable’s capabilities not just in short-haul situations but long haul, too.
I’ll speak about this a little more tomorrow, but if you’d like, head on over to Streetsblog to learn more about the selection of the Oakland Airport Connector.
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