The Gondola Project

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• Montenegro is preparing to launch the Kotor-Lovcen Gondola next week, on August 14^th. The gondola will connect Kotor to the Lovcen National Park after thirteen months of construction. While originally it was meant to be launched on July 13^th, about a month earlier, it was delayed for unknown reasons. The project’s contract was signed for 20 million euro ($21.9 million USD) to be constructed by Novi Volvox and Leitner. See a related Weekly Roundup here.
• The Swiss Ski resort of Flims Laax Falera is constructing an unconventional new gondola. The new FlemXpress will be equipped with 120 cabins, each of which will be capable of transporting 10 passengers and have a total capacity of 1000 skiers per hour. All 120 cabins will be equipped with a pair of phone charging stations and a ventilation system. However, what sets it apart from other gondola systems is that unloaded cabins will not travel the line; instead they will wait at the bottom station until needed. This new design also allows passengers to load into non-moving cabins and will enable wheelchair-bound passengers to ride. According to the manufacturer, this means that the FlemXpress will use 50% less energy over the course of the year compared to conventional lifts. The first stage of the project, the Flims-Foppa and Foppa-Startgels connections, is expected to be completed by the end of 2023.
• Hungary is making plans for the construction of a new cable car in the region of Northern Hungary. It is planned to be 2300m (1.4 miles) long, and run from the Tokaji Fesztiválkatlan, an open-air concert venue and theater, to the Kopasz Hill TV Tower. The cable car was estimated to cost between 6.4 to 7.7 million euros (7.05 to 8.48 million USD) to build last spring, but may cost more now due to increasing prices in labor and material.

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• Park City Mountain Resort replaces Sunrise chairlift with a new gondola. On June 19^th, the Canyons Village Management Association Inc. (CVMA) voted to sign a joint funding agreement for the construction of the new ten-person gondola, called the Sunrise Gondola. The Sunrise Gondola is expected to be 6,512 feet long and have a rise of 1,103 vertical feet. The new gondola will cost $27 million USD and will carry passengers starting from Canyons village and ending next to the Red Pine gondola top terminal. Canyons Village is also working on replacing the Red Pine Gondola cabins. See a related Weekly Roundup here.
• Utah Department of Transportation (UDOT) plans to go forward with plans for a gondola in the Little Cottonwood Canyon. Gondola Alternative B will be part of phase 3 and will have 35-passenger cabins, with 18 to 20 seated and 17 to 15 standing. Cabins will arrive every 2 minutes. The gondola alternative was chosen for low impacts on watershed, wildlife movement and climbing boulders. It is also expected that the gondola may be able to run at times when the roads may need to be closed for clearing or weather. See a related Weekly Roundup here.
• Starting on August 7^th, the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway will close down for annual maintenance. The Palm Springs tram is the world’s largest rotating aerial tram and travels two miles along the Chino Canyon. The ride takes 10 minutes and brings you up to 8516 feet. The annual closure provides time for annual maintenance and training in other departments for the upcoming season. It is expected to reopen on Sept 1. 

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• The Okanagan Gondola Project, in British Columbia is moving forward. The proposal, announced by Ridge North America, is modeled on the Sea-to-Sky Gondola in Squamish, and hopes to capitalize on the success of the Golden Gondola. The system will climb 1600 feet overlooking Kalamalka Lake. The proposal provides a wildfire mitigation plan as well as a water storage plan to minimize water use. This would involve storing water on site and in tanks for fire response, along with water truck access to the upper station. The project will go to a public hearing for further permits and land use approval.
• The Queensland Skyline Gondola receives $200 M NZD upgrade and has announced new rules for mountain bikers (MTB). The new system replaces the previous 4 seater gondola with a 10-seater Doppelmayr monocable detachable system (MDG). From the 23^rd and onward the gondola will open to the public for mountain bike access. This new upgrade will allow 5 riders to be loaded per cabin, with 3 bikes inside and 2 bikes outside. Aswell, every third cabin will be reserved for mountain bike customers. These new measures are expected to reduce the queue times, which could previously reach as high as 1 hour at peak times of the day. See a related Weekly Roundup here.
• The DeMoisey Express, a new chair lift in Snowbasin Utah, is currently under construction. The six-seater Leitner-Poma system will double the uphill capacity of its region of the slope and hopes to reduce the congestion and wait times in other areas. The chair has a capacity of 2400 people per hour (pph) and has a ten-minute travel time. It is expected to open during the 2023-2024 winter season. See a related Weekly Roundup here.
• The Zillertal Arena, a Ski resort in Austria, is in the middle of constructing the Wilde Krimml lift. The system will be a Premium Cabin Diamond EVO model produced by Leitner-Poma. It features 50 – 10 passenger cabins, and will move at 6 meters per second. Aswell, the new system is claimed to ‘have high stability against wind” which will allow it to operate in harsher conditions. It is expected that it will be opening during the 2023-2024 ski season. 

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• UDOT (Utah Department of Transportation) has selected a 3-phase infrastructure plan for Little Cottonwood Canyon, which includes an eight-mile gondola. In 2022, UDOT had selected the gondola as it was preferred alternative based on a transit alternative study conducted. The gondola is planned to be a tricable detachable gondola (3S), with the lower terminal intended to be a transit hub with 2,500 parking stalls. The project is expected to cost $728 million in addition to $4.4 million dollars yearly. Phase 1 is expected to begin in the fall of 2025, and timelines for Phase 2 and 3 are tentative. See a related Weekly Roundup here.
• Brighton, Utah breaks ground on the first 6 person D-line in the state, replacing their old crest line. The new lift will be three minutes faster than the previous lift, increase the system capacity, and reduce lift lines and wait times. Additionally, it features a conveyor belt that assists with loading the chairlift.
• Leitner has submitted a draft of a cable car project in Mostar, a city in Bosnia and Herzegovina. There are several alignment options, but currently the preferred alternative is to connect Hum Hill to a parking lot near the church of Saints Peter and Paul, the hub for the largest number of tourists. The plan is to transfer passengers from 25 meters above sea level to 400 meters above sea level. It is expected that it will be a low-risk investment for the city.

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• The investigation into India’s Deoghar Trikut ropeway accident has concluded. The investigation revealed that the return shaft broke due to high hydrogen content, which led to layers forming in the shaft and creating cracks. In addition, it was found that it had less than a ninth of the required amount of grease that it should have had, which increased the friction on the system. The tension system was also not calibrated correctly, causing the excessive pressure on the shafts. The system had not complied with the Bureau of Indian Standards’ standards for ropeways, as those were established after the construction of Trikut ropeway. In many other parts of the world, including the U.S., standards are long-standing and strictly enforced, and similar failures are unlikely.
• In Montenegro, the inauguration of the Kotor-Lovcen Ropeway has been delayed. The system was intended to open July 13, but due to delays in the construction the official opening date is still unknown. The project cost a total of 20 million euro (18.4 million USD). The system is intended to take passengers from the coastal town of Kotor to the Lovcen national park in 11 minutes. The cable car will have a capacity of 1000 people per hour, with a total of 40 cabins.
• The Table Mountain gondola will be closed for 2 weeks from July 24 to August 7. The closure is to allow for annual maintenance work to be carried out. According to the managing director for the Table Mountain Aerial Cableway Company, this will allow for important upgrades and make for a more enjoyable experience when it reopens. Last year, the system was closed for six weeks for major maintenance.

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• The Swiss-Italian Matterhorn Alpine Crossing opened Saturday, July 1st, becoming the highest cable car in the world.  The new portion connects Matterhorn Glacier Paradise in Zermatt, Switzerland, to the station Testa Grigia in Cervinia, Italy, and hovers 1 mile over the Theodul Glacier. The tricable detachable gondola (3S) takes the passengers on a 4-minute ride from end to end. The cable car has a capacity of 1300 passenger per hour and a total of 10 cabins. The cabins were designed by the design studio Pininfarina and have glass bottoms to allow riders to see the glacier below. This project has a total cost of CHF 140 million ($156 million USD) so far and is to be the final installment in the line over the alps. See a related Weekly Roundup here.
• Skyline Queenstown, a gondola in New Zealand, renovated and reopened. The system has seen major redesigns to the existing system, including the addition of 10 new towers, which require airlifts for construction. The new line is a D-Line detachable gondola with 35 10-passenger cabins. The cable car can operate at up to 5 meters per second and can transport up to 3000 passengers per hour per direction (pphpd). It has a total inclined length of 760m (2493ft) and a vertical rise of 438m (1437m). See a related Weekly Roundup here.
• Wild Blue Gondola’s new leg at Steamboat is currently under construction in Steamboat’s expansions. The new leg construction for Wild Blue will end at Sunshine Peak, which will make it the longest and fastest 10-person gondola in North America at 3.16 miles in length. The towers are being installed by Chinook helicopters, and the system is expected to open this upcoming winter. Steamboat is also building a new detachable quad called the Mahogany Ridge Express which will serve a previously out of bounds area known as Pioneer Ridge. See a related Weekly Roundup here. 

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• Cannon Mountain, a part of the Franconia Notch State Park in New Hampshire, receives an $18 million budget to upgrade its aerial tramway. While they had originally hoped for $25 million, stakeholders still believe that the $18 million will be able to cover all the needed changes by reusing some of the existing parts. Currently, they are planning to change out the cabins and cabin compatibility machinery for the aerial tram, but not the cables and overall structural components. While some advocated for the system to be replaced by a cheaper gondola, the history of the tramway won out; it is aimed to reopen 2025.
• A new cable car has been proposed for the Mourne Mountains in Northern Ireland as part of a £44 million ($56 million USD) new building project. The gondola is expected to ferry 350 thousand people a year from Donard Park up to the newly built visitor center at Thomas Quarry.  The cable car is expected to be 1 km long and have a vertical distance of 230m. The project has received some skepticism about the environmental and visual impacts while others consider the project’s tourism generation and economic value. It is hoped that planning permission will be obtained by 2026 and construction finished by 2029.
• A new cable car is coming to Georgetown, Malaysia. The project has a proposed starting investment of RM245 million ($52.4 million USD) by Hartasuma, a rail services company and future owner, and is to be built by Doppelmayr. It is expected to have a total of 43 cabins, 15 towers, and a capacity of 1000 passengers per hour. It will have a max speed of 6 meters per second and take 10 minutes to journey from the bottom station to the top. Chief Minister Chow Kon Yeow emphasized that the project would also have low noise pollution and run off of electrical power to answer environmentalist concerns.
• Big Sky’s new tram cars have been unveiled in Montana. The multi-year renovations on the tram have swapped the old 15-person cabins for much larger 75-person ones. As a part of the project, the top terminal is also being upgraded to include a panoramic glass viewing platform. Capacity is not yet given, however the mountain plans to change daily capacity day by day according to “weather, snow quality and terrain accessibility.” 

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