Post by Steven Dale
Last week I discussed the upcoming Vail, Colorado gondola and its promoters’ claims of it being “The World’s Fastest Gondola.” And while I correctly demonstrated how it couldn’t be the fastest gondola, in general, I readily fell for the marketing-speak and accepted without inquiry the idea that at 6 m/s the system could very well be the fastest MDG type gondola in the world.
However, since that post went live I’ve had several individuals inform me that while 6 m/s gondolas aren’t common, they’re not exactly rare either. One ropeway engineer even went out of his way to inform me that he’d build a 6.2 m/s gondola a few years back – though he readily admitted he couldn’t remember where and we’ve been unable to track it down.
To further the embarrassment even more, I stated in that post that the upper limit of an MDG gondola was 5 m/s which is completely and 100% incorrect.
And the evidence that it’s completely and 100% incorrect?
A little website known as The Gondola Project and it’s assertion that the maximum speed of an MDG gondola is 22 km/hr – which coverts into a little bit over 6 m/s. Guess who wrote that post?
Bingo, and I wrote that one about 2 years ago.
So three things to get out of the way here:
Firstly: Please accept my apologies for not taking the time to check my own website to confirm if something a project promotor says is accurate or not. It was hasty and unacceptable.
Secondly: What’s the deal Vail, Colorado? How are you laying claim to “The World’s Fastest Gondola?”
Thirdly: Very sorry. Again.
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Want more? Purchase Cable Car Confidential: The Essential Guide to Cable Cars, Urban Gondolas & Cable Propelled Transit and start learning about the world's fastest growing transportation technologies.
