Probably not of interest to too many people, however it is a gondola system (multiple cabins ) and not a cable-car ( two cabins only, used as counterweights ).
Once the blooming CEOs and Marketting folk get their private parts out and put them on the table, the whole "I've got a bigger one than you" set of corporate rubbish can be expected.
Mr H will not like to be out-shone, so I guess Wates will get the contract to build Boris's Etihad bridge. If Wates build it, I gues it won't wobble.
I had the dubious pleasure of sitting in a mock-up gondola some months back and was at the time suprised that such a vanity project was being financed by a company not of the land, especially in an Olympic year. But then, this is the UK and just about every decent large company has been sold off or diluted to foreign interests Oh well, at least post Olympics it will make for an interesting commute for some people.
Of course it is of interest, we are all technocrats and we want to get our terminology correct.
So, from the usual referee (right 100% of the time of course) on these matters:
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A cable car is any of a variety of transportation systems relying on cables to pull vehicles along or lower them at a steady rate, or a vehicle on these systems
And a gondola lift is given as a subsection of cable cars, together with the type used in San Francisco, which I have always considered to be a different, but related concept.
I think it is a rather rare application of the technology, as it is usually used to scale heights where a rail system would be very expensive to install. I remember seeing the cog railway being replaced with a cable car in Lauterbrunnen, CH.
The only other example I can think of where the system runs across a flat profile is the one that runs across the Rhine in Cologne - also emulated recently in Koblenz.
As for the politics, yes it is a corporate affair, I was more interesting in learning whether or not BA had anything to say about it!
Your response rather reminds of the time I had to translate Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle : that wasn't very intelligible to me either.
Your Wiki link includes the essential elements of what is a cable-car, but these are not highlighted in the initial sentences and I am not sure you have cottoned on to them.
As I understand, the principal defining element of a "cable-car" is that it is moved by a tractor-cable which only provides traction and no carrying capacity. In my experience this means that a cable-car must stay on the same track i.e. if you have an uphill and a downhill station and each side has an arrival and a departure side called ABC and D, the one cabin will always travel between A and B and the other C and D i.e. it does not cross the tracks at the terminus.
Gondolas on the other hand - to which I count the Cologne system - are attached to a cable which is simultaneously traction and suspension. This cabins -travelling between the same ABC and D stations - will travel between, then round and through all stations because they are on one cable and not two separate ones as in a cable-car.
Last edited by AlpineSkier; 19th May 2012 at 20:10.
Just out of curiosity, how much does EK pay for such sponsership? And what about their sponsorship of other UK icons? I think there is a Emirates stadia somewhere, and I can recall seeing Fly Emirates on some blokes sporting jersey.
This is becoming so ubiquitous - their sponsorships must exceed what European airlines make as profits. Are they shown on EK's books or are they paid by some sheik or other, as a favour to the ruling family?
Arsenal play at the Emirates Stadium, and the sponsorship from Dubai is more widespread than you think (you have to remember that Emirates is owned by the Government as part of their "Emirates Group" of investment companies, so it ain't just airline money being bandied about). The sponsorship deal with the cable car is reported as being £36 million over 10 years.
Funny Gondolas on the flat should be mentioned as I am pretty well looking at one at the moment.
There is one at Nha Trang, (Vietnam) that goes across the narrows to a an amusement park on an Island. (Called Vinland.) It is over 3KM long and the towers are about 20M high.
We also have a Cable car system between the two peaks in Whistler, though we call them Gondolas. Just over a Km I think between Blackcomb Mountain and Whistler Mountain. Longest peak to peak in the world, though I can't think why they bothered, surely the whole point of a ski resort is to go down the damn hill, not directly from peak to peak.
Your response rather reminds of the time I had to translate Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle
Good for you. That is well above my (cable car / gondola) station!
I completely understand the technical differences as you have explained, and that would indeed by visible to any user who was interested in the technicalities, but within the UK at least, they would all be generically referred to as cable cars.
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One or two in theme parks - Alton Towers for example
Not last time I looked - quite a deep valley between the pylons. Heights of Abraham is a very steep incline - try cycling or running from Cromford to Middleton Top and saying it's flat
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Are they shown on EK's books or are they paid by some sheik or other, as a favour to the ruling family?
When you already operate in an environment with no corporate or income tax, the motivation to shelter profits is a great deal less - hence more money to burn on vanity projects.
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I can't think why they bothered, surely the whole point of a ski resort is to go down the damn hill, not directly from peak to peak.
Whenever you have a resort which offers a particular activity (skiing, gambling, whatever), there will always be a portion of non-participants, and from what I understand, Whistler is not just very good at the apres-ski bit, it also has plenty of non-ski activities. In the summer, smart ski resorts open up to mountain bikes who can't be bothered to use their own energy to get to the top.
Presumably, summit A connects to summit B and one of them connects to Whistler village?
Likewise, you can travel by (I think) cable car between Zermatt and its Italian counterpart, taking in superb views of the Matterhorn.
"The only other example I can think of where the system runs across a flat profile"
The (now Haven ) Butlins holiday camp at Pwllheli used to have a chairlift system to transport holidaymakers from the main complex out to the beach. This was removed along with the funfair when Haven took over the site.
Yes, in Whistler both peaks are served with lifts, which kind of negates the point of the cable car a bit.
We actually do more business in Summer these days than we do most Winters, and with about the same results down at the clinic, Twenty broken bones and forty cases of Chlamydia a day.
If you think the guys on skis and Circus Soleil are cool you should see what some of the guys do on bikes, triple reverse somersault with pike and layout is just the starter, only these guys do it over rocks with not safety net. For finals they do it through flaming hoops.
We also have Ironman races, cycle races, downhill world championships, half marathons and an annual doggie walk.
As some one who can see the cable car from my road, it looks okay.
But the waste of money!
BoJo said the tax and rate payers wouldn't have to pay a penny for his vanity project. Wrong. We're into it millions already. The thing essentially goes wfrom nowhere (the tip of the Greenwich peninsular) to nowhere (the Excel Centre).
It is meant to be an integrated part of the transport system but certainly is not. They haven't set the fares yet, but they've already changed the Tube maps so that Emirates will get their money's worth, even though the thing isn't open yet.
Excellent local blogger had this the other day.
Edited to add the system is rejecting the url. Search for 'diamond geezer dangleway'
When you already operate in an environment with no corporate or income tax, the motivation to shelter profits is a great deal less - hence more money to burn on vanity projects.
Yes but EK tries very hard to appear to be profitable. The more expenses you can keep off the books the better for this objective.
Oh well, at least post Olympics it will make for an interesting commute for some people.
