Regular readers of The Gondola Project are familiar with the difficulties the Burnaby Mountain gondola has experienced getting off the ground (pun intended). The proposed system – which is to serve the student, faculty and resident population of Simon Fraser University (SFU) – while having significant merit, has hit a couple of roadblocks along the...
Nick Smith of Vancouver offers an interesting take on Vancouver’s planned Evergreen Skytrain Line and it’s impact on the shelved Burnaby Mountain Gondola plan. His basic thesis is that the Evergreen Line will cause an increased need for the gondola and dramatically increase the benefit-cost-ratio of the system. As Nick says: “What this all amounts...
Last week Translink finally released the Business Case for the Burnaby Mountain Gondola Transit proposal. There were two main findings in the study: Firstly, that the construction of the system would provide enormous benefits to transit riders, Translink and Simon Fraser University. After attaching a dollar figure to those benefits, the benefits could be valued...
After yesterday’s release of the Burnaby Mountain Gondola Business Case, there were so many articles and commentaries on the project around the internet, we thought it prudent to break from our typical structure and dedicate today’s Roundup exclusively to some of the more interesting reactions to that project: The Burnaby News Leader has comments on...
The long in-gestation Burnaby Mountain Gondola Project Business Case has been released by Translink as well as the Alternatives Analysis. The two documents, combined, are roughly 110 pages and as it’s been available for less than 24 hours, we’ve yet to go through it all. As such, we’re going to save our comments for next...
A couple highlights from around the world of Urban Gondolas, Gondola Transit, and Cable Propelled Transit: The Philippine Daily Enquirer reports that the Philippines has (with little notice from the outside world, we might mention) implemented up to 100 ropeway systems throughout the country for agricultural purposes. The systems can carry both farmers and their...
A few highlights from around the world of Urban Gondolas, Gondola Transit, and Cable Propelled Transit: Jarrett Walker of Human Transit indulges in a little bit of “technology fetishism” by profiling the Wellington Cable Car. Provincial Member of Parliament Kennedy Stewart indicates that he will launch his own public consultation process in regards to the...
A few highlights from around the world of Urban Gondolas, Gondola Transit, and Cable Propelled Transit: The summary report of the Phase II Public Consultation regarding the Burnaby Mountain Gondola is now available from Translink here. Alternatively, you can also download it direct from The Gondola Project by clicking here. Continuing with Burnaby Mountain, a local...
A few highlights from around the world of Urban Gondolas, Gondola Transit, and Cable Propelled Transit (lots of good stuff this week, by the way): The Haj Research Centre in Makkah, Saudi Arabia completes the first of two studies exploring the use of cable cars/gondolas to link holy sites throughout to transport Umrah pilgrims throughout...
A few highlights from around the world of Urban Gondolas, Regular Gondolas, and Cable Propelled Transit: We’re really getting spoiled here at the Gondola Project. Another gondola database is released. This time by the Swiss Government and it documents every single cable system in the country. Super awesome! Perhaps another CPT system will soon be...