Urban Transit Consulting - Aerial Gondola and Cable Car Planning, Engineering and Design

ECO-Transit consultants have performed numerous engineering designs and feasibility studies specifically for urban gondolas and aerial tramways as public transit systems. We have provided our gondola consulting services for over 25 years to municipalities, private developers, and to other public and private sector clients, as well as to engineering and feasibility study teams for multi-modal studies that include planning for urban gondolas. Eco-Transit has extensive experience in the design and study of aerial cableways from one half mile to five miles in length with interconnections to other transit modes and with both simple stations and intermodal stations with associated mixed use development. We have also provided gondola consulting and planning for numerous ropeway alignments that climb steep inclines, run along flat terrain, travel above city roadways, and cross over waterways, highways and other rights of way. The environmental benefits of this specialized form of “Green Transit” are showcased in our feasibility studies for resort, attraction, and urban gondola projects. 

"It is important to point out, that like other transportation solutions, these cable-propelled Aerial Transportation Systems have specific advantages and disadvantages depending upon the transit or recreational application considered - there are no 'one size fit all' or 'cookie cutter' solutions. Every ATS project contemplated should have a comprehensive feasibility study performed, with full stakeholder and community involvement, to provide a careful analysis of the purpose, need and benefit of the proposed transportation application."

The implementation of gondolas and tramways for urban public transit is a relatively new phenomena, although New York City constructed the Roosevelt Island Tramway for public transportation in 1975 and it is operating reliably to this day. The latest generation of urban gondolas are operating in heavily traffic-congested cities such as Portland, London, Berlin, Bolzano, Lisbon, Mexico City, Medellin, Caracas, Bogota, Cali, La Paz, Hong Kong, Ankara, Algiers, Singapore, and Santo Domingo with the largest of these systems transporting over 40 million passengers per year. Existing resort and transit worldwide gondola and tramway systems transport over 120 million passengers per day with very high levels of reliability and safety.

Also, cable propelled transit systems are being studied or are currently in the planning stages domestically for Cleveland, Baltimore, Washington DC, Miami, Clearwater, Philadelphia, Oakland,Fredericksburg, Atlantic City, Austin, Baton Rouge, Boulder, Ogden, Seattle, Kirkland, San Diego, Portland, Los Angeles and Buffalo, as well as internationally for  Santiago, Toulouse, Paris, Lima, Africa, China, and Russia as well as other locations around the world.

Also known as "first mile, last mile" connectors, feeders, city gondolas, cable cars, and cable propelled transit, this specialized mode of premium transit is not only being used in resorts as people movers, but increasingly this mode is being studied and implemented in urban and metropolitan environments where conventional surface transit modes are impractical either due to traffic congestion, route obstructions, or the conventional transit modes' high capital cost and high costs of right of way, infrastructure, construction, operation and maintenance. Ranging in length from one mile to five miles, these urban gondolas are also referred to as Teleferico, Teleferik, Telecabine and Seilbahn in other countries around the world where they are being installed.

ECO-Transit has achieved significant gondola and cable car planning, feasibility study and development milestones with projects and studies in Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, Oregon, Nevada, California, Alaska, North Carolina, Ohio, Michigan, New Jersey, Virginia, New York, Vermont, Florida, Texas, Puerto Rico,Dominican Republic, St. Lucia, Canada, Italy, Mexico, Panama, Japan, Korea and Australia.