Just For Fun

24
Aug

2018

Timang Beach Gondola — World’s Most Exciting and Expensive 30-Second Ropeway Ride?

Timang Beach Gondola. Image by Pandora Voon.

As early as 250BC, ropeways have been used to transport people and goods across difficult terrain. Even today, as many parts of the world are rapidly modernizing, some places are still reliant on simple cable systems.

In the Yogyakarta region of Indonesia, locals have strung together a rather precarious-looking cable car over the treacherous waters of the Indian Ocean. According to some online user comments, the Timang Beach Gondola was built in 1997 and was primarily used in the past to ferry lobster fisherman from the coast to a lobster nest on Pulau Timang, a small rocky outcrop 100m from the mainland.
—


—

However, with the advent of mass tourism, locals discovered that international visitors are willing to dish out a whole lot of dough to experience this one-of-a-kind gondola. If you watch the video above, it quickly becomes apparent why the chance to share your “dangerous” ropeway experience on social media (especially Instagram) makes it nearly impossible for millennial travellers to resist.

While the wooden, blue-roped gondola is a rudimentary piece of equipment, the operators appear to be experts when it comes to fare pricing. Believe it or not, the 30 second ride costs US$10.30 for locals and US$13.70 for international tourists!

With this ticket price, the Timang Beach Gondola is certainly not an inexpensive attraction — even by global standards. Given the short duration of the ride, it might even be the most expensive gondola on a per second ratio.

The Timang Beach Gondola costs about $0.23/second, making it more expensive than some of the world’s most advanced ropeways. Chart by CUP.

The open-air double decker cable car (CabriO) in Switzerland costs 3 cents less per second to ride than the Timang Beach Gondola. However, the overall ticket price is more expensive (US$74.50). Image by Alpohi.

It’s hard to imagine that a relatively remote part of Indonesia would be home to one of the world’s most expensive ropeways. But then again, given the physical manpower that’s actually involved to pull riders over, maybe the ride is a bargain after all.



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.

Economics / Installations / Just For Fun / Timang Beach Gondola
0
Comments
16
Oct

2017

Crossing the Sky in the Indian Himalayas


—

In a one-of-a-kind experience, BBC takes viewers on a captivating 360° video journey through the Indian Himalayas. Reporters follow two sisters from the remote village of Syaba in Uttarakhand State  as they travel up to six hours each day to reach their school in the nearby town of Maneri and Malla.

As part of their long and perilous journey, they hop onboard a makeshift ropeway to cross the gushing waters of the Bhagirathi River. To read the full article and see more incredible photos, click here.



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.

Just For Fun / Public Transit
1
Comment
09
May

2017

World’s most harrowing (exhilarating) commute?


—
Six families continue to rely on a makeshift 800m long zipline to save 2 hours of travel time. At top speeds of 90km/h and at heights of 230m, this commute is certainly not for the faint of heart!



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.

Just For Fun
0
Comments
23
Sep

2015

Love in the sky: Riding a gondola into a life of connubial bliss

fasfa

Forgive our shortness of breath. We always get a little hypoxic at weddings.

Critics of cable car technology as public transport often deride it, so to speak, as ‘romantic’ and ‘pie in the sky’ — to which we retort:  what’s wrong with romance,  and can we make that wedding cake in the sky instead?

The brother of a friend was recently married 1,900 metres above sea level in the French Alps. Yes, that’s him in the photo. Transportation to the venue was provided courtesy of the Télécabine du Prarion, an especially romantic gondola which departs from Les Houches, near Chamonix. The entire wedding party rode the gondola up to the Prarion plateau and, from there, hiked to a charming nearby hotel.

Speaking of charming and hiking, invitations to the bridesmaids included a hearty carrier bag for their good shoes because, at altitude, the going can get a bit rough.

In this case, we agree that there is something rather romantic about cable cars as public transportation, but we aren’t the only ones. Nor are we though the only ones to find romance in public transportation at all. Consider the impossibly beautiful works of art that are subway stations in Russia and Sweden. Or google San Francisco cable car images if you happen to have an hour to kill.

Next stop: bliss!

Next stop: a lifetime of connubial bliss! (Photo from ski-leshouches.com)

Indeed, we can think of no greater compliment to gondolas than to call them romantic cake in the sky. After all, have you ever known anyone to get a public bus to drive them and their guests to their wedding?*

Get me to the bullwheel on time.

Get me to the bullwheel on time.

(*That was meant to be a rhetorical question. However, if you answered ‘yes’ are they still together?)



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.

Just For Fun
0
Comments
16
Sep

2015

Don’t Look Down!

—
Need I say more?



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.

Just For Fun
0
Comments
29
Jul

2015

Please Don’t Try This At Home

Recently we ran an opinion piece about private gondolas, asking whether they may be a sign of things to come. But nothing prepared for us this precarious looking “trenino” or little train in Vernazza, Italy. Essentially it’s a mini-monorail and it turns out they’re not uncommon here.

Vernazza is one of the “Cinque Terre”, five towns of exceptional beauty on the eastern edge of the Italian Riviera, reachable only by path, boat or train. Despite the remoteness and difficulty of access, the place is teeming with tourists year-round.

Becoming prosperous without a network of roads demands a certain entrepreneurial and self-starting spirit, which this contraption exemplifies. The trenino’s track stretches several hundred metres from high above the town, down the almost sheer cliff-cum-hill to the edge of town. It terminates just beyond this engine with its single seat, possibly lifted from some ‘80s airport, welded behind the jury-rigged cargo bin.

Locals use trenini primarily for transporting goods and equipment, most especially grapes and hay, up and down their terraced vineyards and gardens. Very occasionally it is used for transporting people — when there is no other means of access to a given spot.

Correction – August 3, 2015
We originally thought this may be an “unsafe” transport device on first glance but thanks to BC and all commenters we realized that this is untrue. Trenini, or Monoracks, are not unique to this area and are neither homemade nor jury-rigged, but number over 650 around the world. They are also safe and the ’seats can be fitted with a protective hood’. So we still say you should leave it to the professionals — and still salute the entrepreneurial spirit of those who recognize business ideas where others only see perilous slopes.

Cinque Terre is beautiful but not easily accessible. Necessity is the mother of invention, as the saying goes, and the locals here are, by necessity, inventive. Image by Steve Bochenek.

Cinque Terre is beautiful but not easily accessible. Necessity is the mother of invention, as the saying goes, and the locals here are, by necessity, inventive. Image by Steve Bochenek.

The steep hills between towns in the Cinque Terre are almost sheer. Image by Steve Bochenek.

The steep hills between towns in the Cinque Terre are almost sheer. Image by Steve Bochenek.

On the way into Vernazza, the steep hiking trail is temporarily flanked by a lone steel rail with jagged teeth underneath, which the trenino’s engine grips on a climb. Image by Steve Bochenek.

On the way into Vernazza, the steep hiking trail is temporarily flanked by a lone steel rail with jagged teeth underneath, which the trenino’s engine grips on a climb. Image by Steve Bochenek.

The “base station”, complete with jury-rigged cargo holder in front of a lone seat, possibly appropriated from a defunct carnival ride, rests just above Vernazza. Image by Steve Bochenek.

The “base station”, complete with jury-rigged cargo holder in front of a lone seat, possibly appropriated from a defunct carnival ride, rests just above Vernazza. Image by Steve Bochenek.

Being 2-dimensional, photographs rarely convey steepness very well. But trust us: this track was steep. With no seatbelt to secure the rider, we wonder if anyone ever tumbled out backwards on an especially vertical slope. Image by Steve Bochenek.

Being 2-dimensional, photographs rarely convey steepness very well. But trust us: this track was steep. With no seatbelt to secure the rider, we wonder if anyone ever tumbled out backwards on an especially vertical slope. Image by Steve Bochenek.



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.

Just For Fun / Oddities / Tourism
4
Comments
15
Apr

2015

Metal Cable to My Cable Car

Proving once again that cable cars are the most romantic transport technology in the world (link 1, link 2, link 3)… 😉
—



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.

Just For Fun
0
Comments