There are, we imagine, a few basic pros and cons to commuting by cable car. On the plus side, you get really great views every day, you don’t have to spend all your life sitting in traffic and you probably won’t be crushed up against loads of smelly humans. On the other hand, you do not want to be sat in a cable car with someone who’s forgotten their deodorant. And if someone farts… well, it’s best not to think about it.
Soon(ish), the citizens of Paris are going to be figuring out those pros and cons for themselves. The French capital’s first public cable-car system has been given the go-ahead. Dubbed Cable A, the 4.5-kilometre line will connect several suburbs in Paris’s south-east, linking up four stations on the city’s metro network.
So, why a gondola? Well, apparently this area of Paris – called Créteil – is particularly hilly, and is criss-crossed by highways and high-speed train lines. Instead of building an expensive and/or complicated system of buses or metros, a cable car can just sail above it all. In theory, it’s also cheaper to build and, should it lure people away from their cars, it’ll be better for the environment, too.
Cable A was first proposed in 2008, but was set back by opposition from local residents for years. Their primary gripe was around privacy, but that’s apparently all been solved by some nifty new tech. According to Bloomberg, the gondolas will be fitted with sensors that will turn their windows opaque when they get too close to residential buildings. Clever stuff, eh? Here are a few preview snaps of what could soon be Paris’ snazziest commute.
Set to come into service in 2025, Cable A may eventually be one of five gondola systems in suburban Paris. And, to be fair, who can blame Paris’s city planners for stringing up loads of high-flying cable cars? When you’ve got somewhere as gorgeous as the City of Light, it must to be difficult to avoid building viewpoints at every turn.