Cable Cars A Safe and Sustainable Option for Urban Mobility

Public transportation is a  crucial necessity in large cities. By 2030, according to forecasts by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), urban areas in Latin America will have 130 million more people than in 2010.

Meanwhile, the study Mobility Futures, by the analysis firm Kantar, highlights that 2030 will be the global turning point for sustainable mobility in the world's largest cities, due to the fact that travel in private vehicles will decrease 10 percent on a global scale in the next decade. 

Car-sharing, multimodality and autonomous vehicles, along with the world's aging population, will reduce the need to own a car, which will be offset by increased use of public transport, cycling and walking as citizens opt for more functional, safer and environmentally friendly ways to travel. 

However, there is another crucial aspect when it comes to public transport: safety. In this respect, ropeways, or cable cars, are among the safest public passenger transport systems in the world. To achieve this, a large number of elements are involved, among them the right of way, since the aerial route does not interfere with other means of transport, eliminating the possibility of accidents due to impact. This in turn increases its effectiveness, as it is not affected by traffic congestion, with the numerous associated benefits that this entails. However, this is not the only factor that makes it stand out from other systems. 

The Rope Position Detection (RPD) system represents a safety milestone for cableway installations, as it is the only one that can quickly detect if a rope is dislodged  from its groove, thus minimizing the risk of derailment and ruling out any operational failure almost completely. 

This is because the moment the rope leaves the center of the groove, the cable car automatically slows down, reducing its kinetic energy and minimizing the potential danger.

The unique safety system is a step ahead in every respect. Constant monitoring of the rope position through the use of state-of-the-art technology guarantees cableway operators high cost-effectiveness and, for users, maximum safety along the entire route, from the lower station to the upper station and back.

It also accurately detects the cause of the fault and indicates the corresponding tower and switch number on the display and can be controlled and monitored from the control room in real time, both before and during operation of the ropeway, thus ensuring maximum safety for the entire installation and passengers.

The future of ropeway mobility is based on autonomous driving, made possible by the Autonomous Ropeway Operation (AURO), which allows passengers to be taken safely to their destinations, with unmanned operations and state-of-the-art digital network technology, as cameras and sensors ensure smooth processes and monitor the installation, especially the loading and unloading of the cabin, as the system independently identifies situations that deviate from normal operation. 

In any case, all cableways consider a key factor in project development, which is inherent safety (IS). This is an approach used in various industries to design, develop and build both systems and equipment and systems that from their conception reduce risks rather than control them when the system is in operation. In other words, the design, manufacture, and operation of a system with IS contemplates potential risks and proactively minimizes them at their source. 

Its objective is to eliminate or reduce the risk within a process; unlike other methodologies, this is based on controlling the source, instead of accepting the hazard and trying to mitigate its effects. 

IS takes into account four strategies: minimization, substitution, regulation and simplification, which makes the difference in a robust, complete and quality design, although the design alternatives proposed must be competitive from an economic point of view.

In addition, the tricable or 3S system consists of two fully enclosed and firmly anchored supporting cables on which the vehicle moves and a continuously moving traction cable on which the eight-roller trolleys are hooked. As a result, this continuous motion and disengageable system offers high performance and reliability. High wind resistance and low energy consumption are the characteristic strengths of the 3S ropeway. An innovative evacuation system has been developed for the 3S ropeway to ensure that all passengers are safely returned to the mainland in the event of an emergency. 

In general, the economic benefits generated by integrating inherent safety measures increase the earlier they are introduced in the life cycle of projects, since if they are not done at that time, it will be more complex to implement them later. Moreover, it is during project conception and development that the ideas with the greatest potential arise.

With the Cablebus cable car network, Mexico City authorities aim to increase mobility in public transportation, as well as to improve its attractiveness for tourism. Preparations for the construction of Line 3 were already underway at the end of September. It will also serve as a link to the Interurban Train, currently under construction, and to the Metro Constituyentes subway station. Line 3 is scheduled for completion in December 2023.