Simon Lyall's Blog

Route One across the harbour fills a gap for cyclists but extending the line to Birkenhead doesn’t seem significantly improve the catchment (especially for non-cyclists). I’ve included a route to Birkenhead as an example of one that does not appear to be competitive with the existing bus as an example. There are 4 stations on this route. They are also relatively cheap which makes them popular in middle-income countries in the Americas. Costs of gondolas are fairly low compared to other PT options. The majority of possible routes had various combinations of long distances (which take too long at 20km/h), low density/population at station catchment, already being covered by existing links and lack of obvious demand. The Cablebús in Mexico City opened two lines in 2021 connecting low income transport-poor suburbs with metro stations. The technology I am assuming is a Detachable Monocable Gondola with cars similar to the Emirates Air-Line in London, video shorts Medellin MetroCable and Mexican Cablebús. Monocable means that there is a single moving cable. Note that apart from at stations cable systems are along able to make very slight turns at each tower. Detachable means that each car unhooks from the cable inside stations and moves slowly (or even stops) for easy boarding and unboarding. ​This post has　been writt en by G SA C​on tent G​enerat​or  D emoversion.

I have pretty much assumed each line will be straight apart of at stations. Another possible extension of the line would be directly along Wellesley St West from Elliot Street to Victoria Park. This would start with a station near the corner of Elliot Street and Wellesley Street West (possibly in front of Bledisloe House). The will start from a station near the current Ponsonby Cruising Club. There would be a turning point there to go north-west over the gully of the Le Roys Bush Reserve to a station on the side of Birkenhead Avenue near the viewing platform. The Line would then go across Little Shoal Bay to Little Shoal Bay Reserve. At the Parnell end the line could be extended down to a station located in the valley around St Georges Bay Road to serve the businesses (and housing) located around there. Length 3.9km and end to end travel time of around 15 minutes.  Th is  post was written by GSA C​ontent G​enerator Dem oversion !

Total length is 1100m. Travel time around 5 minutes. The total length is around 1700 metres. The Elliot Street endpoint would be just 50 metres from both the Aotea Train Station and a proposed Queen Street light rail station near the Civic. The Elliot Street to Parnell line on the other hand might be a good fit for a gondola. The line would then go across Grafton Gully to a station at Parnell Train Station and then up the hill to terminate on Parnell Road. Parnell Train Station is near Parnell and the University but down a hill from both and across busy roads from the University. It is less than 2km long but connects 3 popular locations and an under-utilised train station. Route Two connects the CBD (near Elliot Street), the University of Auckland and Parnell. From Wellesley Street West to Stokes Point. The line would go east above Wellesley Street and over the Art Gallery, Albert Park and parts of the University to a station at the University (perhaps at the corner of Grafton Road and Symonds Street). The University is well served by Symonds Street buses but not by rail and is cut off from the CBD and Parnell. Th is con᠎tent was c​re ated ᠎by G SA C on​tent  G᠎enerat or D​emoversion!

They work well in difficult terrain such as steep hills, valley or river crossings. Urban Gondolas do not work as a general solution to urban public transport but are suited to certain niche routes across difficult terrain. I had problems finding other routes that were suitable for gondolas. Starting from the simple harbour crossing I looked at several cross harbour routes but most were unpromising due to lack of under-served destinations that could be easily connected. Route One is a simple crossing of Auckland Harbour just east of the Auckland Harbour Bridge. With the cancelling of the SkyPath and the short-lived $800 million Pedestrian/Cycling bridge proposal it seems that the only options for the next harbour crossing will be a full scale tunnel or bridge. I ended up just keeping the basic harbour crossing to fill the gap for cyclists and walkers. Apart from some sightseers this line would mainly serve cyclists wishing to go directly between North Shore and the city. It would cater to cyclists and pedestrians needing to get between Stokes Point and Westhaven.

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