[sustran] Re: Metrocable - Re: monorails and other low capacity systems

[Carlosfelipe Pardo]

Interesting point. To provide some context, the Metrocable system in 
Medellín must be better explained to everyone: it is not a monorail, it 
is a telpher system which feeds into the metro, and was built mainly 
because the slope of the "comunas" (neighborhoods) it serves are 
extremely steep. The same is being planned as a feeder system to the 
Metrocali BRT in Cali (Colombia also), in similar areas and specifically 
because of the same reason (and because they want to get rid of the 
informal low capacity jeeps that charge very high fares to go up the 
hills).

I am not sure about the demand figures of Metrocable (it's difficult or 
impossible to get their official data), and Cali has not yet finalised 
planning of the telpher feeder so I cannot comment on the actual 
comparison of the bus / jeep routes that serve(d) those areas. I am not 
sure if the Metrocable has comparable demand of a moderate LRT or a bus 
route... Mr Brunn, do you have specific data on this to illustrate it?

Official website of the Metrocable and some pictures to give everyone a 
better idea:
http://www.metrodemedellin.org.co/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=61&id_link=165&parent_link=153&Itemid=165?=es 
<http://www.metrodemedellin.org.co/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=61&id_link=165&parent_link=153&Itemid=165&lang=es>


Best regards,

Carlos.

bruun at seas.upenn.edu wrote:
> I want to add that some of the aerial systems have substantial capacity.
> Metro Cable in Medellin, Columbia is equal to a heavy bus route
> or moderate LRT route in the US. Eric Bruun
>
> Quoting Lee Schipper <schipper at wri.org>:
>
>   
>> Let me weigh in on Eric Britton's side here. There are all kinds of
>> high-flying ideas, called Pods or personal taxis or rail taxis or
>> personal rapid transit or what-you-have. They are all interesting, but
>> as Eric says their scale is tiny compared to the access needs of two
>> billion people in cities around the world.  I remember taking the
>> Monorail from the Disneyland Hotel into Disneyland in S. California in
>> the 1950s.  I rode the Schwebebahn in Wuppertal in 1999 and recently
>> rode the experimental, low-speed Maglev in Nagoya near the site of Expo
>> 2005. There are serious studies underway in Sweden and elsewhere because
>> these things have some merit. But so far that's as far as it goes.
>>
>>
>>
>> They are fine for those who want to build them and don't care who rides
>> them, particularly if they are built to shuttle small numbers of people
>> around fairgrounds, parking lots, etc.  But please let's not waste even
>> precious OPM (Other peoples' money, i.e., bilateral or multilateral
>> assistance  funds) or our own funds when a huge need for access for
>> ordinary folks goes unmet.  For Asian and Latin America cities, we are
>> looking at corridors requiring over 1 million trips per day and cities
>> with 20-30 million trips/day at the beginning of development, i.e., less
>> than 2 trips/day/person.  How will Shanghai provide 50 million trips/day
>> in 2020? I don't see any evidence that these small systems can provide
>> much relief except where an aerial tramway or other small system has to
>> climb a hill for a few hundred people/hour.  The "nostalgic,
>> semi-underground cog-railway  in Istanbul is a  good example here. But
>> we have to focus what limited funds we have on moving the masses
>> cleanly, smoothly, reliably, equitably, and above all rapidly.
>>
>>
>>
>> Lee
>>
>>
>>
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>
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>
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