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• Officials with Translink in British Columbia have seven companies bidding for the business case study for the Burnaby Mountain gondola. Hopefully, these seven bidders have a better understanding of cable transit systems than Kendra Wong, student journalist with Simon Fraser University’s The Peak. Writing of the gondola, Wong says this: “3S technology involves a reversible ropeway, travels between 20 and 27 kilometres per hour, has a capacity of 5,000 persons per hour per direction, and boasts a large cabin space fitting 30 to 35 people, with 18 – 24 seated . . . They also explored three other ropeway technologies: the reversible ropeway which yields a lower capacity than the 3S but travels at the faster speed of 35 kilometres an hour; the monocable gondola, which involves many smaller cabins that will only hold four to 15 people, but has greater wind tolerance; and the metrocable. All of these technologies would offer a travel time of approximately six and a half minutes from the Production Way SkyTrain station.” How many errors in that paragraph can you find? I count at least four.
• While the Burnaby Mountain gondola is only in the planning stages, the Stoney Creek Environment Committee is upset with the proposal, suggesting the system’s towers could compromise environmental conditions. Officials with Translink reinforce the point that the project is very much in the preliminary stages.
• Streetsblog reports on the official groundbreaking Ceremony for the controversial and long-delayed Oakland Airport Connector.
• For those interested in Airport Connectors, apparently the long-discussed but never realized LAX airport people mover is back in the discussion. The Transit Coalition forum has a rather lively discussion on the topic. Given the Oakland fiasco, we’ll see how interested companies are in bidding for this system.
• A journalist in Dunedin, New Zealand wonders if a potential cable car proposal would help to combat peak oil.
• Back in British Columbia, a journalist questions whether Whistler’s Peak 2 Peak gondola system has destroyed skiing’s soul. Seriously.
• The Financial Times discusses how winter resort companies have transitioned to the urban market.
• The Sydney Morning Herald reports that the Tatev Monastery in Armenia opens the world’s longest Aerial Tram.