Metrocable (Caracas)
Encyclopedia
| Metrocable de Caracas | |
| City, State | Caracas Caracas Caracas , officially Santiago de León de Caracas, is the capital and largest city of Venezuela; natives or residents are known as Caraquenians in English . It is located in the northern part of the country, following the contours of the narrow Caracas Valley on the Venezuelan coastal mountain range... |
| Type: | Cable car Aerial lift An aerial lift is a means of transportation in which cabins, cars, gondolas or open chairs are hauled above the ground by means of one or more cables.Types of aerial lifts include:... |
| in operation since | 20th January 2010 |
| Net length | 1.8 km |
| Lines | 1 |
| Stations | 5 |
| Operator | Metro de Caracas |
Metrocable (Caracas) is a gondola lift
Aerial lift
An aerial lift is a means of transportation in which cabins, cars, gondolas or open chairs are hauled above the ground by means of one or more cables.Types of aerial lifts include:...
system integrated with the city's public transport
Caracas Metro
The Caracas Metro is a mass rapid transit system serving Caracas, Venezuela. It is constructed and operated by Compañía Anónima Metro de Caracas, a government-owned company that was founded in 1977 by José González-Lander who headed the project for more than thirty years since the early planning...
network, which provides quick and safe transportation for those who live in the neighbourhoods situated on Caracas' mountainous regions. The system was built as a tool for social reform with stations set up to accommodate a variety of services such as daycares, libraries, police stations, markets and theatres.
This Metrocable system is part of the growing number of gondola lift
Gondola lift
A gondola lift is a type of aerial lift, normally called a cable car, which is supported and propelled by cables from above. It consists of a loop of steel cable that is strung between two stations, sometimes over intermediate supporting towers. The cable is driven by a bullwheel in a terminal,...
s that are now being used for urban transportation purposes (others include the Metrocable (Medellin), Portland Aerial Tram
Portland Aerial Tram
The Portland Aerial Tram is an aerial tramway in Portland, Oregon, carrying commuters between the city's South Waterfront district and the main Oregon Health & Science University campus, located in the Marquam Hill neighborhood. It is the second commuter aerial tramway in the United States...
, and Roosevelt Island Tramway
Roosevelt Island Tramway
The Roosevelt Island Tramway is an aerial tramway in New York City that spans the East River and connects Roosevelt Island to Manhattan. Prior to the completion of the Mississippi Aerial River Transit in May 1984 and the Portland Aerial Tram in December 2006, it was the only commuter aerial tramway...
).
History
In 2006 the State Government came up with the idea to build a network of cable cars into the poorest areas of the capital, inspired by the Medellín's metrocable. These plans eventually led to the laying of the foundation stone on on 29 November 2006.On 20 April 2007, construction began on the first line, which starts at San Agustín and reaches towards Central Park (Parque Central) station, where it is linked to the subway network. The Ministry of Infrastructure, Austrian aerial lift manufacturer Doppelmayr, and the Brazilian company Odebrecht
Odebrecht
Odebrecht S.A. is a Brazilian conglomerate in the fields of engineering, construction, chemicals and petrochemicals. The company was founded in 1944 in Salvador da Bahia by Norberto Odebrecht, and is now present in South America, Central America, North America, the Caribbean, Africa, Europe and the...
were all responsible for the construction of the system. The lighting design project and domotic system was developed and installed by the german-venezuelan lighting design house Dierck Sistemas de Iluminación CA, located in Caracas.
In December 2009, Caracas Metro Cable entered into the testing phase, and in January 2010 the first users of the system were carried: several community leaders who drove from station Hornos de Cal to station Parque Central.
The line was officially opened on 20 January 2010.
Description
This gondola lift system is fully integrated with the local Metro and has a capacity of 3,000 pphpd (persons per hour per direction). Since its opening in 2010, the system moved on average 1,200 passengers per hour. Each gondola cabin can accommodate up to eight sitters and two standees.Acting as another pioneer in Cable Propelled Transit (second only to the Metrocable (Medellin)), the Caracas Metrocable was the first cable system to implement 90 degree turns. A passive deflection bullwheel was used at two 90 degree turning stations. As such, the system is essentially made of two separate lines where the gondola cabins switch from one line to a second line at the middle station. The system also has a built in mechanism that allows vehicles to divert - allowing the cabins to return to where they came from instead of switching onto the new line. This provides a major advantage: in the event of a mechanical failure on one line, the second line can still operate .
While the entire Metrocable system had a total cost of $300 million USD, the transit infrastructure cost was only 6% (or $18 million) of that figure.
Lines and Stations
The stations of the first line (St. Augustine) are:| Line | Length (km) | Stations |
|---|---|---|
| Metro Cable San Agustín - Parque Central In business since 1/20/2010 |
1.8 | San Agustín |
| El Manguito | ||
| La Ceiba | ||
| Hornos de Cal | ||
| Parque Central | ||
| Metro Cable Marich - Palo Verde (Under construction 2012) |
4.84 | Palo Verde |
| Guaicoco | ||
| La Dolorita | ||
| La Dolorita Bloque | ||
| Marich | ||
Currently studies are underway on a cable car line in El Valle, which will consist of two sections, one for El Valle station and a station La Bandera.
Furthermore there are plans to set up – together with the metro line Guarenas–Guatire – another cable car line which will connect the station Caucagüita with the industrial area of Marich, which is located southeast of the municipality of Sucre.
Units
The cabins are built from aluminum and use an electrical power supply; they are connected by several towers of steel and concrete. Each cabin has interior lighting, a communications system and a maximum capacity of eight persons.The gondolas depart from the stations every 27 seconds, allowing the transport of 15000-20000 people per day.
The cabins which make up the system, were manufactured by the CWA company and adapted to the system Doppelmayr, the same as in the Caracas Aerial Tramway
Caracas Aerial Tramway
The aerial tramway of the city of Caracas, Venezuela, was inaugurated on April 19, 1952 by the then president of Venezuela, General Marcos Pérez Jiménez. It remained open until the end of the 1970s but then a series of closures saw fruitless attempts to reopen it in 1986, 1988 and 1990...
, which opened 1955.
See also
- Gondola liftGondola liftA gondola lift is a type of aerial lift, normally called a cable car, which is supported and propelled by cables from above. It consists of a loop of steel cable that is strung between two stations, sometimes over intermediate supporting towers. The cable is driven by a bullwheel in a terminal,...
- Metro de CaracasCaracas MetroThe Caracas Metro is a mass rapid transit system serving Caracas, Venezuela. It is constructed and operated by Compañía Anónima Metro de Caracas, a government-owned company that was founded in 1977 by José González-Lander who headed the project for more than thirty years since the early planning...
- Caracas Aerial TramwayCaracas Aerial TramwayThe aerial tramway of the city of Caracas, Venezuela, was inaugurated on April 19, 1952 by the then president of Venezuela, General Marcos Pérez Jiménez. It remained open until the end of the 1970s but then a series of closures saw fruitless attempts to reopen it in 1986, 1988 and 1990...
- Merida Cable CarMérida cable carThe Mérida Cable Car was the world's highest cable car. Its base is located in the Venezuelan city of Mérida at an altitude of , and its terminus is on Pico Espejo, at . The whole system was opened to the public in 1960; it was closed indefinitely in 2008, with a declaration that it had reached...
- Metrocable (Medellin) (Colombia)
- Portland Aerial TramPortland Aerial TramThe Portland Aerial Tram is an aerial tramway in Portland, Oregon, carrying commuters between the city's South Waterfront district and the main Oregon Health & Science University campus, located in the Marquam Hill neighborhood. It is the second commuter aerial tramway in the United States...
- Roosevelt Island TramwayRoosevelt Island TramwayThe Roosevelt Island Tramway is an aerial tramway in New York City that spans the East River and connects Roosevelt Island to Manhattan. Prior to the completion of the Mississippi Aerial River Transit in May 1984 and the Portland Aerial Tram in December 2006, it was the only commuter aerial tramway...