New and Improved Roosevelt Island Tram Like Aerial Transportation System Proposed For Manhattan To Newark Airport & LaGuardia Too

A possible Brooklyn-Governors Island-Manhattan-Newark Liberty Airport route (in blue) as compared to the current commuter rail route (in red). Image by Steven Dale.

Hold on to your hats. Is this a crazy idea or what? A Cable Propelled Transit (CPT) system similar, but much improved to the Roosevelt Island Tram (RIT), that takes riders from Brooklyn and Manhattan over Governors Island to Newark's Liberty Airport. That's Steven Dale's proposal to improve upon Santiago Calatrava's previously announced idea of a Governors Island Gondola. Writing in Urban Omnibus, Mr Dale states:

... There is, however, a way to re-mix the Calatrava concept into a worthwhile addition to the Manhattan transportation network that solves a problem millions of people have each year:

What if we extended the link all the way to Newark Liberty International Airport?

The current experience of getting from Newark Liberty to Lower Manhattan is an infuriating and expensive odyssey of subways, transfers, commuter rails and people movers. Delays and missed transfers are constant. An urban gondola cable trip from Brooklyn to Newark would take around 45 minutes and would certainly be a more pleasant ride. Constructing and implementing such a link would be challenging, but it is technologically and economically feasible.

Or how about connecting Queens to the Bronx via Rikers Island? Or Harlem to LaGuardia via Randalls Island? A Staten Island connection across the Verrazano Narrows? They’re all doable. Once you wrap your mind around the implications of cable, you can quickly imagine the possibilities....

How would such a system compare to the Roosevelt Island Tram? According to Mr. Dale:

... In the cable industry, the RIT is what is known as an “aerial tram.” The technology features two large cabins shuttling back-and-forth between two terminals. Wait times between vehicles are long and the size of the cabins require costly infrastructure. It is a high cost, low efficiency technology that is entirely antiquated. Current CPT systems are capable of much more.

For instance: Maximum capacity offered by the Tram is about 900 PPHPD (persons per hour per direction), whereas more advanced CPT systems today offer up to 6,000. Newer CPT systems allow for intermediary stations, dense urban alignments, corner-turning, full-integration with transit systems and less-than-one-minute (LT1M) wait times at a price cheaper than most aerial trams (not to mention light rail). It’s also the safest transit technology around save for elevators, which, if you think about it, operate in a very similar manner....

Examples of more recent CPT systems include those in Medellin Columbia

You Tube Video of Medellin Columbia Metro Cable System

and Singapore.

You Tube Video of Singapore Aerial Cable Car

Read the whole article at Urban Omnibus and more information on Cable Propelled Transit is available at the Gondola Project as well as an article about the possibility of a Toronto Cable system.