The rope is the heart of any ropeway — but companies that produce these components say that planners who ignore this fact early in the process do so to their detriment. Image via Fatzer AG.
Imagine dressing for the most important presentation of your career. Your $3,000 hand-tailored suit is perfectly matched with a newly pressed bespoke shirt, bright silk tie, and completed by richly burnished brogues. Then it is utterly spoiled by gym socks.
Add several zeroes to that initial sum and you have just pictured the sartorial equivalent to mismatching steel wire rope to your urban cable-car system. It can be an ugly error — but unlike socks, which are easily changed, this expensive mistake keeps on taking.
“When a cable-car system is designed, it is uniquely calibrated to fit with whichever gauge and quality of rope is selected. So the time to select the appropriate rope is right at the start,” says Matthias Stacher of Romanshorn, Switzerland. He’s the Sales Manager of Fatzer, among the world leaders in the production of steel wire for cable car systems since 1900. So he knows what he is talking about.
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.
