November 5th, 2012
I continue to fulfill requests from . Today's topic for a post is from soullaway :
"..to ask about all the cable cars in our country))"
I started thinking about what I could tell you about such a very general topic. In total, as of 2010, there are about 400 cable cars at 109 resorts in the European part of the country and 49 in the Asian part. a list of some of them. And an abandoned cable car in Penza, for example. Imagine how many of them are operational, idle and abandoned throughout the country! Here I seem to inadvertently draw your attention, ask the topic of the post more narrowly and more specifically, because it is impossible to grasp the immensity :-)
Many of the most interesting cable cars are no longer in our country, but for example in Ukraine - for example on Ai-Petri. I rode... very impressive!
In general, the world's first cable car appeared in the Swiss Alps in 1866. For a long time, the Swiss cable car was almost the only one in the world. Massive interest in this type of transport appeared only a hundred years later. you can see the most interesting cable cars in the world. But our topic is the cable cars of Russia. So, we think further.
I invite you to see one of the latest cable cars in our country and one of the most unique! Suitable? Go...
Opened on February 9, 2012 Russia's first passenger cable car, built between the cities of Nizhny Novgorod and Bor.
And a Nizhny Novgorod blogger will help us with this dimfoto with his amazing report.
That's how it all started. The centers of Nizhny and Bor are separated by the Volga, and the distance between them is about 3 km. This
in a straight line... If you travel by highway, the distance between the cities is 27 km. It takes a lot of time to travel from one city to another, and car traffic on the Borsky Bridge is difficult. But this road should significantly reduce travel time between cities.
The customer of the project is JSC “Ropeways”, the architects are LLC Architectural and Construction Association “Russian House”.
In the world, ten cable cars are used as urban passenger transport. The Nizhny-Bor cable car will become the longest. The distance between the terminal stations will be 3658 m, including 1336 m above the Volga. There are longer routes, but they are located in ski resorts and are not considered public transport.
A special feature of the structure will be the passage over the navigable part of the river. It will be made without supports and will be 882 m long. The uniqueness of the Nizhny Novgorod cable car is that for the first time it will connect two cities on opposite banks of the Volga: as a rule, such roads operate within the same locality.
“The investor of the project is OJSC Nizhny Novgorod Ropeways, created after the conclusion of an agreement between the regional government and the world leader in designing ropeways, the French company POMA,” said Vladimir Ivanov. — The document was signed by Governor Valery Shantsev and POMA President Jean Gautier at the International Commercial Real Estate Exhibition MIPIM-2008 in Cannes. The founders of the company were the government of the Nizhny Novgorod region (67.93% of shares) and the mayor's office of Nizhny Novgorod (32%). 0.07% of the shares are owned by the General Department of Improvement of the City of Bor.
The volume of investment in the creation of the road (without stations) will be about 550 million rubles, the payback period is 5-7 years, said Vladimir Ivanov. The cost of the end stations is estimated at around 100 million rubles. It is planned that the trial launch of the Nizhny Novgorod cable car will take place in December 2009, and regular service will begin in April-May 2010.
European, Russian, and Nizhny Novgorod companies are participating in the implementation of the project. The order for the supply of equipment was received by POMA. The road project is being carried out by the Moscow CJSC Gortekhproektpostavka; the Nizhny Novgorod transport company CJSC Sovfrakht NN is engaged in the transportation of oversized cargo from Belgorod and France. A general contractor will be determined in the near future - applications have been submitted from six Nizhny Novgorod construction companies and one from out of town.
The cable car supports are manufactured by Energomash CJSC (Belgorod) - Production of metal structures.” As the director of the company for sales of metal structures, Konstantin Teterin, told the Exchange, the company won the tender, beating foreign and Russian competitors: “We presented a more impressive “Reference of deliveries” of complex objects,” he says. — Among them are the structures of the Lokomotiv stadium in Moscow (3000 tons), power transmission supports across the Amur to the Bureyskaya hydroelectric station with a height of up to 191 m (2340 tons). There is also experience in manufacturing supports and traverses for the cable car of the Krasnaya Polyana resort near Sochi (65 tons) and supports for the cable car in the village. Terskol on Elbrus (123 tons). Another plus is the offer of hot-dip galvanizing and finishing painting of structures, guaranteeing high-precision manufacturing of parts. The POMA company and the designer ZAO Gortekhproektpostavka already knew us as partners. The contract for the production of ten supports was signed in April 2009. Drawings of the supports in the three-dimensional modeling program were made by the metal structures department of the Energomash engineering center.
The Nizhny Novgorod company Russian House LLC was entrusted with designing the stations. The areas of the stations are approximately the same, but from a design point of view they are different. Special attention was paid to the station on the Nizhny Novgorod side; since the building will be located in a spectacular location near the square. Hay. Borsky Station will appear between the Alisa Center for Extracurricular Activities and residential buildings. It is possible that cafes, retail places, and parking lots will open on the territory of the stations, and private investment will be attracted for their construction.
The average daily passenger traffic between Nizhny and Bor is 21,000 people, but it increases in summer and decreases in winter. It is expected that the cable car will initially transport 1,000 people per day. Up to 55 cabins can be installed on the track, accommodating 8 people. The business plan includes a ticket price of no more than 50 rubles. It will be tied to the cost of a ticket on the Nizhny - Bor bus.
The cable car will be in demand: “On weekdays, many Nizhny Novgorod residents and Borsk residents move across the Volga to work and study. On Friday evening and Monday morning, the passenger traffic is replenished with vacationers. From spring to autumn, the population of the Borsky district almost doubles: elderly Bor residents who live in Nizhny in the winter and in their native villages in the summer, and summer residents, for whom the cable car will be especially convenient if a regular bus service is created for it, come. Negotiations have already been held with the administration of the Borsky district on the organization of bus routes from the final station to the surrounding villages. The movement of the booths is also comfortable because it completely eliminates waiting time: walk up and go. The road will relieve congestion on the only bridge across the Volga, and there is reason to believe that it will not lose its relevance even with the launch of a new bridge to Bor from Podnovye.”
It looks like almost everything is ready here for stretching the cable on which the booths will hang.
The motor that will drive the cable seems to be located on the bore side, and here is a mechanism for tensioning the cable.
The blue box in the background appears to be a hydraulic pump.
To the left, workers are building a garage to store the cabins.
According to Alexander Shchagin, deputy director for territorial planning at Research Center Land and City LLC, “young people under 30 will actively use the road, while older people will prefer traditional trains, buses, and ferries in the summer. Aerophobia should not be discounted. If a strong wind blows and there is bumpiness, the elderly will have a hard time. What if the cabins stop in the middle of the river? European skiers often hover over the slopes, but such things are a novelty for Russians. Will a possible rise in the water level in the Volga prevent the work of the cable car? Will it be safe to drive? There are a lot of questions.”
From the outside, the garage looks like a concrete box.
To the left of the garage there are trenches, apparently under the strip foundation of external walls or communications.
The inside of the garage is quite spacious, but it’s still interesting how 62 cabins will fit here (this is the number of them indicated in the technical characteristics of the cable car, although in the Safety System section it is mentioned that “the traction-carrying rope is capable of carrying a load of 56 passenger gondolas.” )? Apparently, not all gondolas will spend the night here.
In some places finishing work is already underway.
“An additional factor in attracting passengers to the cable car could be intensive dacha construction on the left bank of the Volga. In the long term, the cable car will become an important link in the transport connection between Nizhny Novgorod and the satellite city of Globe Town. But when the Podnovye-Bor bridge is built, the cable car as a transport will lose relevance,” says Shchagin. But from the point of view of increasing the tourist attractiveness of Nizhny Novgorod, the idea of a cable car is very successful, experts say. “According to the experience of other countries, operating a cableway for tourism purposes is profitable, but in our country it will become an unusual attraction if an alternative tourism infrastructure is created on Bor,” says Shchagin. - For example, a water park. The Volga cable car is exotic for Russia.”
Tug of war
As Vladimir Ivanov reported, the government of Tatarstan also became interested in this type of transport, asked the government for POMA contacts and is already negotiating the creation of a cable car in Kazan.
Nizhny Novgorod cable car in numbers
Length - 3658 m.
Support height:
the lowest - 7 m,
the highest - 82 m
(due to the difference in terrain).
The total weight of the supports is 560 tons.
The maximum speed of the cabins is 5 m/sec.
Travel time at this speed is 12 minutes.
The crane's intentions do not seem to faze the prop captain. He proudly looks into the distance and spits down.
The bravery of the high-altitude installer scares off the pilots and they bring the car down to the sinful earth.
Let's go darling!
Someone had the foresight to unwind the cable along the shore all night, and to make it more fun, they also decorated it with striped ribbons. Cool!
This is what the blogger himself writes.
Russia's first passenger cable car between cities has finally opened. It connected the cities of Nizhny Novgorod and Bor along the shortest route - over the Volga River.
The construction of the road was announced in the press in 2008, and the opening was promised first in 2010, then in 2011. But passengers started driving only on February 9, 2012.
I must say that the discovery came almost unexpectedly. For example, I only found out about this around noon on February 8, when the information had not yet leaked into the electronic media.
We can say that the opening was attended only by people knowledgeable about the topic or who accidentally learned about the event.
I was at the Nizhny Novgorod station. Everything was very modest.
According to rumors, the Bor station was more crowded and solemn, but when I got there there was practically no one there :)
So, we waited for quite a long time for the cabins to bring someone from Bor. But the booths all came empty.
And then officials began to arrive from the Bor side.
The reporters huddled and tensed.
“We built and built and finally built!” - The vice-governor of the Nizhny Novgorod region and at the same time the chairman of the board of directors of OJSC “Nizhny Novgorod ropeways” Vladimir Ivanov commented on the event approximately in this way.
After a rather long pause, someone finally remembers about the passengers and gives the go-ahead to sell tickets. People ran like a snake between the turnstiles to the ticket office.
There were no promised discounted tickets. All categories of passengers were sold tickets for 50 rubles. You could buy a pair at once - there and back.
At first there was a queue to the booths. I did not notice any disabled people in wheelchairs or with crutches, or passengers with skis, bicycles or baby strollers. According to rumors, some managed to transport some large cargo later by paying for an additional ticket.
The paper ticket, similar to a regular cash receipt, has a barcode applied to it. The ticket must be inserted into the hole of the control device with the barcode facing up, after which the green arrow lights up and the “spinner” barrier is unlocked.
Let's go too.
The booth at the station moves at a speed of 0.3 m/s, which is quite comfortable for an ordinary healthy pedestrian, but you need to be careful with children. I have not yet seen how disabled people or passengers with strollers will be loaded.
Let's go. After a short acceleration and rocking, the cabin calmed down and moved smoothly. Movement speed - 5 m/s.
The glass is tinted, which makes photography a little more difficult. There is no heating in the cabins; the breath of passengers creates patterns on the windows in severe frost. At first we just stare out the windows, then we start sharing our impressions.
The lighting should turn on automatically. There are barred windows.
We pass over the Grebnoy Canal.
The Ascension Pechersky Monastery is clearly visible.
The Volga is already below.
We pass support T7 - one of the two highest. 82 meters!
It is unlikely that skiing would have become so widespread if one had to walk up the mountain. Since the first lifts appeared, their design has been constantly improved, and the cable cars themselves have become more comfortable and safe. the site visited the Rosa Khutor ski resort, where Alexey Petrovich Tretyakov, deputy head of the cable car service, gave us a tour and talked about how a modern ski lift works, using the example of the Olympia cable car, which takes resort guests to Rose Plateau (1170 meters above sea level).
"Olympia" is a gondola-type cable car, consisting of two stations - the upper (drive) station, where the engine and backup generator are located, and the lower (bypass) station. First we went up inside the drive station. Personally, I've always been curious about what's inside.
For those interested in the details of how the cable car works, please refer to cat.
The video shows the operation of the mechanism that uncouples the cabin from the rope and slows down the motion of the cabin. At 0:50, the moment when the cabin enters the station is shown in slow motion.
At (1:09) the same moment, but at maximum speed (6 m/s). When the cabin flies into the station at full speed, a special lever with a roller hits the guides (red inclined rails) and goes down, accordingly the clamp rises and gradually releases the cable.
The first wheels (in the video with black tires), which press the cabin suspension system, rotate at the speed of the cable. On the 7th wheel, the clamp is completely released (1:14), and the cabin no longer moves with the help of a rope, but with the help of a conveyor of wheels. Pulleys are attached to each wheel (1:07), and with the help of a reduction belt drive, each next wheel spins a little slower than the previous one, gradually reducing the speed of the cabin to a minimum (1:27). At the same time, the rope continues to spin at the same speed (at the exit from the station, on the contrary, at each wheel the speed increases to the speed of the rope).
Each cable car is also equipped with an anti-collision system to prevent the cabins from colliding with each other. In the video at 1:29 you can see how the sensor that tracks the location of the booths lights up; it sends signals to the computer that control the distance between the booths.
Sensors that monitor rope clamping. The red plate bends upward when the cabin clamp passes under it, and two independent sensors record the force of the rope clamp.
Clamp sensors
The readings from the sensors are sent to a computer, which will immediately stop the cable car if the cabin clamp does not grip the rope tightly enough. In the photo below there is a computer screen on which you can see sensor readings and threshold values at which the personnel are notified and the cable car automatically stops. If this happens, the driver will reverse the cabs, unload people and check the mechanism. If the cabin is clamped to a normal value, then the work will continue; if there is an emergency again, then the cabin will be driven into the repair box and it will be carefully checked. In any case, the computer will not release the cabin with weak pressure on the line.
You can see how the doors of the cabin open in principle, the system is the same - inclined guides into which a lever with a roller fits, the lever rises, and the doors open using a hydraulic mechanism. When exiting the station, the guides lower the lever.
Next we went to the room where the cable car operators work. The operator's workplace is located behind a large window, through which the disembarkation and embarkation area is visible and is equipped with a computer, duplicate means of communication with other cable car stations (wireless radio and wired telephone), and a cable car hydraulic brake lever (the red thing on the right in the photo).
Behind the operator there are several large cabinets with equipment.
Buttons for planned (soft) stop and emergency (sharp) stop of the cable car engine, as well as other buttons
Touch screen computer controlling the cable car
Cabinet interiors
The cable car control system is equipped with a modem, and at the request of the ski resort, if problems arise, the manufacturer (Doppelmayer) can connect and remotely monitor the operation of all system components. Alexey Petrovich also said that every year all cable cars undergo mandatory testing - the cabins are loaded with sandbags, load tests are carried out and the cable car is tested in the most severe conditions. The rope itself also undergoes regular inspection, which includes a test called magnetic flaw detection, which is similar to an x-ray. This process looks for damage, deformation and broken wires, and checks the rope for increases or decreases in diameter. Particular attention is paid to checking the splice, this is where the rope is connected, in other words, it is a knot that connects the ends of the rope, which makes it a single ring. But this is another story that requires a separate story.
In order not to encounter the fact that the cable cars are closed during a visit to the resort, preventive measures.
In order to better examine the structure of the supports, we rode in an open technological cabin.
A wind system is installed on some cable car supports; in case of a wind of 15 m/s, it will slow down the speed of the cabins to 1.5 m/s and inform the cable car staff about this with a sound alarm and an indication on the control panel. And when the wind speed increases to 17 m/s, the speed of the cabins will decrease to a minimum of 0.3 m/s. The maximum road speed is 6 meters per second.
Support with wind system
To prevent the rope from jumping off the rollers, each support has sensors that detect this situation, and traps next to the rollers that will prevent the rope from falling.
Rope traps on support
On negative supports (where the cable passes under the rollers), the traps are also inverted accordingly.
Negative support
The Olympia cable car differs from other cable cars in Krasnaya Polyana in that one of its sections passes over the gorge at an altitude of 126 meters. A very beautiful view opens up from here. In winter, sometimes I had to ride in the same cabin with beginners who panicked a little on this section. Like, if the electricity is turned off, how will they remove us from here? I knew in general terms that they would film it somehow, but I only found out how exactly now - at the outer supports on both sides of the gorge there are winches with a cable. If necessary, the rescuer climbs the support, uses a suspended bicycle to ride along the rope to the cabin hovering above the gorge, uses a special device to loosen the cabin clamp by 2 millimeters so that it can slide along the rope, hooks the winch cable to the cabin and pulls the cabin to the lift support, from where it can be removed people are already easy enough. As you can see, there is absolutely no reason to worry.
For a photographer, of course, riding in an open cabin is much more convenient; nothing blocks the excellent view from the lift :-)
Below, at the bypass station, everything is about the same, only without the emergency drive. To the left of the boarding area there is a garage for cabins (when there are not many guests at the resort, in order not to load the cable car with excess weight, some of the cabins are removed and driven here). For example, in winter there are a maximum of 77 cabins on the line, but today only half are 38. The cabins are also being repaired here.
Garage
This is what it is, a cable car.
The active development of ski tourism over the past decades has contributed to the constant improvement of the infrastructure necessary to lift skiers and snowboarders to the tops of the mountains. The creators of cable cars are constantly coming up with new design options that allow them to lift tourists up as quickly as possible and in the most comfortable conditions possible.
The history of cable cars goes back about 500 years. The first prototypes appeared in Asia. Local residents invented aerial cable cars, the basis of which were cables made of intertwined fibers. Instead of the current carriages, large baskets were then used in which people and goods could be transported.
In 1515, an improved version of the cable car appeared: then the Prince-Archbishop of Salzburg, Matthaus Lang von Wellenburg, designed trolleys moving along wooden rails using hemp rope using muscle power. These roads were freight roads, but over time their technical characteristics were improved, and in the 19th century lifts for passengers appeared, similar to modern cable cars.
First, a funicular was created - a pair of cars moving on inclined rails. The first such devices appeared in US cities. In the 1870s, the first gondola-type road appeared in Germany, using an iron cable. In the 1930s, the first chairlift was built at the Sun Valley resort in the United States.
The real boom in the construction of cable cars occurred in the second half of the 20th century, when the construction of ski resorts for mass tourism began in many countries. By that time, engineers had created many types of cable cars - funiculars, gondolas, cabins, chairlifts, rope tows and others.
The largest holdings specializing in the production of ropeways in the world are the Leitner-Poma and Doppelmayer-Garaventa groups. The first holding includes, among other things, the French company for the design and construction of cable cars Pomagalski S.A. or Poma S.A.S. It was she who became the main supplier of equipment for Russian ski resorts developed by the North Caucasus Resorts company - Arkhyz, Elbrus and Veduchi.
“To build one cable car, it is necessary to employ about 50 people - engineers, designers, assemblers, mechanics. It will take six months to design it, another three months for examination, then construction begins. The whole idea, from a sheet of paper to putting the structure into operation, takes about a year and a half,” said Anton Chudayev, general director of Poma LLC (a branch of the French company Poma S.A.S. in Russia).
But, of course, the duration of the project depends on the degree of complexity of the cable car. Read what they are like in the Interfax-Tourism photo report.
Support-free cable car (“baby lift”)
“Baby lift” is a small lift without intermediate supports, designed for organizing skiing, snowboarding or tubing on slopes up to 300 meters long with a slight difference in height (up to 100 meters). It consists of a stretched cable with attached plastic yokes, to which the skaters cling.
Installation of such a lift is very simple and can be completed in a short time, since it does not require a foundation. “Baby lift” provides for the movement of tourists at low speeds, which is very convenient in areas of the mountains where skiing lessons are taught.
In Russia, a “baby lift” can be seen at the Veduchi ski resort, which is located in the Chechen Republic in the picturesque valley of the Kharachoy-Akhk river.
Ropeway of belt type (travelator)
A travelator is a mechanical path that takes riders downhill. It is distinguished by comfortable and safe ascent at low speed on slopes with a small difference in height, and it is also used on training slopes. Outwardly, it resembles a huge belt for moving products at a supermarket checkout. Compared to a baby lift, belt ropeways have a much higher throughput capacity.
The travelator is used on many slopes for beginners: it is in the training area of the Veduchi ski resort in Chechnya, in the Romantic tourist village of the Arkhyz resort in Karachay-Cherkessia and in the Kabardino-Balkarian resort Elbrus, where there is a park for training in alpine skiing and Saby Park snowboarding.
Fixed clamp chairlift
Cable-chair lifts allow ski resort visitors to be transported to their desired location in chairs that are attached to a rope. It is thanks to the seats that several skiers at once (usually from two to six) have the opportunity to comfortably climb to the beginning of the slope. At most modern ski resorts, the chairs of these ropeways are equipped with heating, and there is also often a protective wall (transparent cap) on the back, protecting skiers from bad weather.
A convenient and safe cable car with a fixed clamp is a chair lift, the seats of which are permanently attached to the supporting traction rope. When approaching the station, the operator carefully monitors the speed of the chairs, since this determines whether the skier or snowboarder will have time to board the lift or not.
Such a road is installed, for example, at the Arkhyz ski resort - this is a four-seater Sputnik chairlift with a fixed clamp.
Chairlift with detachable clamp
Recently, chairlifts with detachable clamps have become widespread. They are the most popular, convenient and fastest transport for winter sports enthusiasts.
According to Boris Shlom, General Director of National Ropeways LLC, the detachable clamp system in the 1980s became a revolutionary step in the development of ropeway transport systems, and now it is no less in demand.
“The principle of operation of such equipment is the ability to unhook cabins or seats (depending on the type of lift) when approaching the landing station. That is, the chair or gondola slows down and is transferred from the main traction rope to rollers, along which it travels through the entire landing zone. It turns out that in the area where tourists board and disembark, the speed is low, you can safely sit in a chair or gondola, while the speed becomes higher throughout the entire length of the cable car,” he said.
Ropeways with a non-detachable clamp, according to the expert, are advisable to use only for ascent to small routes, up to 700 m long. Despite their low speed (1.8-2 m/s) and capacity (less than 2000 people/hour) , such cable cars are quite capable of providing a comfortable and safe landing for lifting beginner skiers to the green and blue slopes. However, a cable car with detachable chairs allows you to increase productivity to 2000-4000 or more people/hour at a speed of 5-7 m/s.
“And since the speed of the road with a detachable clamp is higher, therefore its productivity is also higher. The resort can bring more passengers to the top and thereby increase capacity and tourist flow,” added B. Shlom.
In January 2018, a 4-seater chairlift with a detachable clamp was put into operation at the all-season ski resort Veduchi. And on “Arkhyz” in the tourist village of Lunnaya Polyana there is a 6-seater cable car called “Lunar Express”, the seats of which are equipped with protective caps.
Gondola cable car with detachable clamp
These are closed cabins that can accommodate from 6 to 20 people, they can often be seen in cities, and in especially picturesque places they are made with panoramic glazing. Near the station, the speed of the cabin is reduced as much as possible so that passengers can exit unhindered. Rounding the station and crossing to its opposite side, the cabin accelerates again, and the clamp hooks onto the rope. The maximum speed is approximately 6 m/s, which allows you to quickly lift a large number of skiers and snowboarders to the top.
According to Anton Chudayev, gondola and chairlifts with detachable clamps are the most reliable. “These ropes have higher speeds than others and therefore higher productivity,” he said.
Such a cable car operates, for example, at the Elbrus resort. In December 2015, its third stage was completed, which takes tourists to the Gara-Bashi station at an altitude of 3847 m - this is a record figure not only for Russia, but also for Europe. The duration of the climb is approximately 20-25 minutes. From the final station, skiers can see a magnificent panorama of the Caucasus Range in one direction, and views of the double-headed peak of Elbrus, an ancient volcano, in the other.
Also, gondola cable cars were built at the Arkhyz resort.” “Milky Way” is already operating, and “Northern Lights”, according to resort representatives, will open in the new ski season.
Pendulum cable car
One of the types of gondola (cabin) lifts is the pendulum cable car. The cabins of pendulum lifts move towards each other along supporting ropes, and their movement is provided by a traction rope. This cable car is suitable for places with difficult terrain, for example, it can easily transport passengers through valleys, gorges, rivers or glaciers.
Compared to other lifts, it has a number of advantages. Thus, the length of unsupported spans can reach 3 kilometers, one cabin can accommodate from 6 to 230 passengers. The capacity of the pendulum cableway, depending on the speed (up to 12 m/s) and the length of the road, ranges from 500 to 2 thousand people per hour.
As noted by the general director of the Poma S.A.S. in Russia Anton Chudayev, the complexity of building any long cable car depends primarily on the terrain. “Designers and engineers are looking at whether the slope needs to be strengthened. They are installing avalanche fortifications and protective barriers to ensure the safety of the skiers,” he said.
A pendulum cable car, built in Soviet times, operates at the Elbrus resort. It consists of two lines and starts at the lower Azau station (2300 m), passes through the Stary Krugozor transfer station (3000 meters) and ends at 3500 meters at the Mir station. In the station area you can visit kebab shops and cafes, and at the Mir station there is a high-mountain Museum of the military glory of the defenders of Elbrus and the Caucasian passes during the Great Patriotic War.
“Bright future” of cable cars
As noted by KSK JSC, in the future, predominantly chairlifts and gondola cable cars will be built at the resorts of the North Caucasus, but at the Veduchi resort, visitors will find an unusual novelty - a ring cable car of the 3S system with a minimum of supports, which will create for passengers a complete feeling of soaring in air. It is also particularly wind-resistant and has low energy consumption.
“There are just over a dozen such cable cars in the world. It will connect the north- and south-oriented slopes of the resort and will pass directly above the gorge; its design length is almost 4.5 kilometers. The cabins of such a 3S type cable car move along three ropes - two load-bearing and one traction, which makes the entire system very reliable and productive. The cabins themselves are, in fact, air excursion buses: they can accommodate up to 35 people with ski equipment, and during the trip through large panoramic windows you can admire the view of the mountain ranges,” said Hassan, General Director of North Caucasus Resorts JSC Timizhev.
According to him, the cable car will be able to transport up to 2.8 thousand people per hour. “Only three supports up to 100 meters high will be installed for it, so that guests of the resort will have a complete feeling of flight,” added the head of JSC KSK.
Also, according to Anton Chudaev, another modern, one might say innovative, cable car with a hybrid engine will appear at the Arkhyz resort. “It is more environmentally friendly, consumes less energy, and is almost silent. This will be appreciated by skiers at ski resorts, because instead of the noise of the cable car, they will enjoy the sounds of the surrounding nature,” explained the general director of Poma LLC.
To the top - on Russian cable cars
The demand for cable cars in our country is increasing every year. And we’re not just talking about ski resorts - they also occupy their place in cities as a popular alternative form of urban transport. Thus, in February 2012, a cable car across the Volga in Nizhny Novgorod was put into operation, and in November a cable car opened in Moscow, connecting Vorobyovy Gory and Luzhniki.
There are plans to build a city gondola cable car in the center of the capital of the Chechen Republic. “The cable car is not only a modern form of transport, but also an attraction zone for tourists, the number of whom in Grozny is increasing every year. Many of them dream of looking at our wonderful city from above. The cable car provides such an opportunity,” said Odes Baysultanov, First Deputy Minister of the Russian Federation for North Caucasus Affairs, at the presentation of the project, which took place in Grozny the other day.
“It is very important that at domestic ski resorts and in Russian cities there are cable cars manufactured in our country. Unfortunately, those production sites that were created during the Soviet years are now practically lost. It is necessary to establish new modern production - this is a question not only of technological growth, but also of the country’s global prestige,” he commented.
For the design, production, maintenance, operation and sale of cable cars in Russia in partnership with North Caucasus Resorts JSC and POMA S.A.S. This year the National Ropeways enterprise was created. Its main production site is located in the Kabardino-Balkarian Republic, in the city of Maysky, but over time it is planned to cooperate with other Russian factories.
“The joint venture has been given difficult tasks: to create safe, price-competitive, modern cable cars that will be supplied not only to the domestic market, but also to the CIS countries, and in the future to other countries. We are convinced of success and believe that one day the market share occupied by products under the Russian flag will be comparable to the share of European leaders in the production of ropeways,” concluded Odes Baysultanov.
The cable car is a means of transportation that has already become familiar to Nizhny Novgorod residents. It was created in 2012 to cross the Volga River to Bor in Nizhny Novgorod. Despite the ordinary nature of the “cable car” for Nizhny Novgorod residents, it has enormous tourist and cultural significance for the city; almost every tourist who comes to Nizhny on an excursion strives to visit it.
The length of the road is 3661 meters, 28 cabins are used to transport passengers.
Schedule of the cable car in Nizhny Novgorod in 2019
The cable car operates in two modes - winter (from October 1 to April 30) and summer (from May 1 to September 30). The schedule for summer 2018 is as follows:
- Monday Thursday: from 06:45 to 22:00 (technical break from 10:45 to 13:00).
- Friday Sunday, public holidays: from 09:00 to 22:00.
All changes in the operating mode of the cable car are usually reported on the official website of the facility.
Story
The need for a cable car between Nizhny and Bor was evident for quite a long time, and at the end of 2007, the Poma company from France created a grandiose project for the current cable car.
2 years after the presentation of the project, preparations for assembly began - foreign builders needed to produce metal supports weighing more than 60 tons and heights from 7 to 82 meters. By the end of 2010, all parts were manufactured and delivered to Nizhny Novgorod, and construction began immediately after that.
The first and trial launch of the cable car in Nizhny took place at the beginning of 2012, and one of its first passengers were local officials and the governor of the Nizhny Novgorod region.
In February of the same year, the cable car opened its doors to passengers and began to operate as usual - transporting passengers from one bank of the Volga to the other.
Operation of the cable car
Bor is one of the largest regional centers in the Nizhny Novgorod region. The direct distance between it and the city itself is about 4 kilometers. Before the construction of the cable car, Nizhny Novgorod residents had the opportunity to cover this distance only by going around it on a bridge - because of this, it increased to 27 kilometers. Now citizens can save time by getting to work using a cable car; in an hour, about 500 passengers move from one bank of the Volga to the other.
However, we should not forget that the cable car in Nizhny Novgorod is also a kind of curiosity for tourists - each of them has the opportunity to admire the beautiful views of the Volga and its banks from a stunningly high altitude. In order to move from Nizhny Novgorod to Bor, passengers sit in comfortable and well-equipped cabins. They are equipped with seating and windows for a full view of the natural beauty. The trip time is a little more than 12 minutes, the trailer moves at a speed of about 20 kilometers per hour.
From the cabin window you can see the Pechersky Monastery, dense green thickets on the banks of the Volga, and also admire its rapid flow.
Cost of travel on the cable car in Nizhny Novgorod
The fare for one end of the route is 100 rubles. In other words, a tourist who plans to get from Nizhny Novgorod to Bor, and then return back to the starting point, will need to pay 200 rubles.
Also, for regular cable car passengers who need to cross the Volga every day, there are passes for 10, 20, 30 and 48 trips at prices ranging from 820 to 3,550 rubles. For students living and studying in Nizhny Novgorod and the region, there is a preferential program under which these passes can be purchased at almost half the price. Detailed descriptions of current prices can be found on the official website of the facility.
Safety
Passenger boarding and disembarking areas on the Nizhny Novgorod cable car always operate in high security mode - they are fenced off, and the doors operate using an automatic mechanism. As you begin to enter the cabin, it slows down, allowing you to calmly enter it and sit comfortably. The distance between the boarding/disembarking platform and the cabin itself is minimal. Despite the fact that the height at which the cabins are located during the trip is quite impressive, there is no need to be afraid. Inside the trailer there are small stands with information about the rules of conduct inside. It is also planned in the future to equip the cabins with means of communication with the coast guard.
How to get to the cable car in Nizhny Novgorod
The cable car boarding platform is located almost in the city center, just a few bus stops from the Nizhny Novgorod Kremlin. You can get to it from almost anywhere in the city using public transport. You will need to get off at the Sennaya stop on the street. Maxim Gorky or Bolshaya Pecherskaya, or at the Sennaya Bus Station. The shortest way will be from Bolshaya Pecherskaya Street, just move up towards the Volga along Sechenov Street. The entrance to the cable car will be immediately after the Nizhny Novgorod Cathedral Mosque, on the right. You can get to the cable car boarding point in Nizhny Novgorod using local taxi services - Uber or Yandex. Taxi.
Cable car in Nizhny Novgorod on video
The organizers of the two nearest Olympics - London 2012 and Sochi 2014 - are competing in the scale of the facilities being built for these events. And in both cities it was decided to launch cable cars. The London one will be the first in the British capital, and the Sochi one claims to be the “twice first” in the world - in length and in its ability to transport not only passengers, but also cars.
By the way, the first, even ancient, cable cars were used precisely for transporting goods. In the Middle Ages, residents of mountainous areas began to cross gorges in baskets. Such crossings are still used today, for example, in the Himalayas.
Today in the lens are 12 of the most terrible, longest, high-altitude, oldest and other outstanding cable cars in the world.
Text: Anastasia Novikova, Forbes
The first of the cable cars in the modern sense was launched in Switzerland in 1866 and delivered tourists to the observation deck. In Russia, the debut of the cable car took place in 1871: it was used to transport timber through wetlands. And the real boom in the construction of cableways occurred in the second half of the 20th century, when skiing began to actively develop.
1. Genting Cable Car (Malaysia): the fastest
Genting is a city of entertainment at an altitude of 2,000 meters above sea level. It is called the Las Vegas of Malaysia: 20 luxury hotels, several amusement parks and even the only legal casino in the country have been built here.
The Genting Empire is the brainchild of the Chinese Lim Goh Tong. When he first voiced the idea of building a high-mountain resort, he was laughed at: in the late 1960s, the area was covered with virgin tropical jungle. But Tong persisted, and in 1971 the first hotel opened its doors. Then the casino started operating, after which crowds of visitors flocked to Genting.
In addition to numerous laudatory epithets, Genting also boasts the world's fastest cable car. The speed of the suspended cabins is 6 m/s, and travelers cover the 3,380 meters separating Genting from the lower station, which is located in the village of Kuala Kubu Baru, in just 11 minutes.
Most of the route of the cable car, which opened on February 21, 1997, runs over the jungle, and in cloudless weather from above you can see monkeys scurrying below.
Fare: 10 Malaysian ringgit ($3) round trip.
2. Gulmarg cable car (India): the highest mountain
Since 1948, Kashmir has been a bone of contention between India and Pakistan. The two countries have been dividing disputed territory for more than half a century, which is why the region has long been considered dangerous for tourism.
In recent years, fighting in the state of Jammu and Kashmir has ceased, and local authorities have been able to develop tourism infrastructure. Today there are a dozen tourist places in the state, and one of them is Gulmarg, the largest ski resort in the Himalayas.
It was here that Sonia Gandhi launched the cable car in 2005, which remains to this day the highest mountain in the world. The first section of the road began operating in the spring of 1998, and then the maximum lift height was 3,100 m. The second section allowed the rise to a height of 4,114 m.
The total length of the cable car is 5 km, and its capacity is 600 people per hour. By the way, before the opening of the cable car, skiers were lifted to the mountains by helicopters, which made the cost of skiing sky-high in every sense of the word.
Fare: one-time lift - first phase 150 rupees ($2.7), second phase - 250 rupees ($4.6).
3. Sternensauser cable car (Switzerland): the worst
The most unusual cable car in the world operates in the Swiss resort of Hoch-Ibrig. In order to ride it, you don’t need to sit in the booth and have your camera ready - you need to put on a helmet and fasten your seat belts. The fact is that on the Sternensauser cableway, passengers move under the weight of their own body. The cable car is a cable stretched between several platforms at a height of 75 m above the ground. By the way, it is Sternensauser who is the longest cable track of its type in the world.
The trail starts near the top station of the chairlift and leads down to the station located in the valley. While driving, the passenger reaches a speed of 70 to 90 km/h, which creates a feeling of free flight. They say that the adrenaline rush during the descent on the Sternensauser is no less than when jumping with a parachute.
The only disadvantage of the cable road is that you can ride along it only in the summer. Adults and children who have reached the age of nine and are at least 130 cm tall are allowed to descend. The permissible passenger weight is from 30 to 125 kg.
Fare: 70 Swiss francs.
4. Cable car to Sentosa Island (Singapore): the most glassy
Sentosa Island is located 25 km south of Singapore, and it is said that the future state began with a small fishing village located here. Sentosa today is an Asian island Disneyland, a magnet for tourists and a favorite vacation spot for Singaporeans themselves. There is an amusement park, an aquarium, and three kilometers of snow-white beaches.
You can get to Sentosa by public transport and even on foot, but most visitors choose the cable car stretching over the strait. The Singapore government started thinking about its construction in 1968, and four years later it was launched. Initially, the cable car had 43 cabins. Today their number has reached 81, and the local cable car has become the first in the world to offer cabins made entirely of glass.
But this was not enough for Singaporeans. For the cable car leading to Sentosa Island, they achieved the definition of “the first jewelry store”: in 2010, seven VIP cabins were launched, the roof and glass sides of which are decorated with Swarovski crystals. Is it any wonder then that the cable car is one of the most expensive ways to get to Sentosa.
Fare: 26 Singapore dollars ($18.6) round trip.
5. Tatev cable car (Armenia): the longest
On October 16, 2010, a cable car was launched in Armenia, called “Wings of Tatev”. And just seven days later she was brought into the longest in the world.
The first passengers of the cable car, which stretches 5.7 km over the gorge of the Vorotan River, were the President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan, the Catholicos of All Armenians Garekin II, as well as one child each from the nearest seven villages.
The construction of the cableway was conceived in 2009 as one of the stages of the “Revival” program of Tatev, a medieval monastery of the 9th century. In 1390, a university was established there, where both theological and secular disciplines were taught. In 1931, the monastery was badly damaged by an earthquake, and restoration work has not yet been completed.
Until the cable car appeared, it was possible to get to Tatev only along a steep serpentine road leading along the cliff at an angle of 45°, which was often washed away in winter. But now tourists and locals can visit Tatev all year round. The cabins move at a speed of 37 km/h and cover the distance to the monastery in just 11 minutes 25 seconds.
Travel cost: for locals - free, for tourists - €6.
6. Ropeway Miskhor - Ai-Petri (Crimea): the longest unsupported span
Translated from Turkish, the word “yayla” means mountain plateau. In the past, shepherds grazed cattle here, and in even more ancient times, yayls were given magical significance and stone idols were installed on them. Today the word “yayla” in Russian is most often used in Crimea, where one of the most famous is the Ai-Petrinskaya yayla. You can get to it on the Miskhor - Ai-Petri cable car, during the ascent along which - and it lasts about 15 minutes - tourists have time to enjoy the picturesque panorama of the South-Eastern coast of Crimea - from Sudak to Foros.
The construction of the cableway took 20 years. It started in 1987, and was opened to the public a year later.
But the Miskhor - Ai-Petri cable car is considered unique. Between its middle and upper stations stretches the included Europe's longest unsupported span: for two kilometers there is not a single intermediate tower.
Fare: 120 hryvnia ($15) in both directions.
7. Grenoble cable car (France): the world's first urban one
The writer Henri Marie Bayle, better known under the pseudonym Stendhal, wrote about his hometown of Grenoble that every street ends in a mountain. The most famous local landmark, the Bastille, is located on the slope of one of them.
At the beginning of the 20th century, the authorities of Grenoble thought about how to facilitate access to the Bastille and at the same time provide the capital of the French Alps with a tourist attraction. Thus was born the idea of building a cable car, which forever changed the face of Grenoble.
On September 29, 1934, a loud whistle informed the townspeople about the start of the cableway, which became the world's first urban cable car. Very quickly, like the Eiffel Tower in Paris, it turned into a symbol of Grenoble, which it remains to this day.
The first passenger cabins were quite traditional: large “cars” that could accommodate up to 21 passengers. But in 1976, they were replaced by small six-seater spherical plexiglass cabins created by engineer Denny Kressel, which were soon dubbed bubbles and space eggs.
Fare: €6.80 return.
8. Masada cable car (Israel): the most historical
Masada is an ancient fortress built in the mountains of the Judean Desert by order of Herod the Great in 25 BC. e. Here, surrounded by inaccessible rocks, the king created a refuge for himself, where palaces, a synagogue, baths, warehouses for provisions and weapons were built, and even a water supply was installed.
In 73 AD e. Masada was taken by the Romans, who used it as one of their strongholds, and after the fall of the Roman Empire, the fortress was forgotten until 1862, when archaeologists stumbled upon its ruins.
Masada has always attracted tourists, but only after 1971, when a cable car was built to it, did it become one of the most visited historical sites in Israel. Before this, it was possible to climb to the top of the rock only along the so-called snake path, which was used in ancient times by rebels, and today by archaeologists.
The cable car leading to the top of the plateau is considered the lowest in the world: its lower station is located at an altitude of 257 m above sea level, and its upper station is only 33 m higher. The distance to the top of the cabin - there are only two of them on the cable car - covers in a few minutes, gradually opening up more and more breathtaking views of the surrounding desert and the Dead Sea.
Fare: 72 shekels ($19) round trip.
9. Prague cable car: the oldest
Exactly 120 years ago, Prague’s most famous cable car leading to Petřín Hill was launched. Today it is she who is considered the oldest operating cable car in the world. View of Prague from Petřín Hill:
It all started when in 1889 the Czech Tourists Club went to Paris and were amazed by the view of the Eiffel Tower. They built a copy of it on Petřín Hill, and then decided to build a cable car to it, which they built in less than a year. The cable car - not suspended, but a carriage on rails driven by a rope - easily lifted 50 passengers at a time to a height of 102 m, and the cables were rotated by a water wheel.
In 1916, the Petřín cable car stopped operating due to the First World War - for a long 16 years. Only in 1932 was it launched again, replacing the water wheel with electric motors and extending it to the current 511 m. The cable car stopped for the second time in 1965, when landslides destroyed part of the rail track. Residents of Prague had to wait another 20 years before the famous funicular could once again take them to the top of Petřín Hill. But since then it has been included in the city’s public transport system and stops only for scheduled inspections.
Climbing cost: 24 Czech crowns ($1.2).
10. Complexo do Alemao cable car (Brazil): the cheapest
The favelas of Rio de Janeiro have long been notorious as the most crime-prone neighborhoods of the city, dangerous not only for tourists, but also for local residents. The easiest way to get around here is on foot, since there is practically no public transport along the local hills and narrow streets.
Therefore, the Rio authorities decided to build a cable car over six suburbs of the Brazilian capital, which began operating in July 2011. Construction took a year and a half, and costs amounted to 210 million reais.
The cable car stretches over the favelas for 3456 m and became the longest urban cable car in the world. 152 cabins ply along it, capable of transporting up to 3,000 people per hour.
Local residents are entitled to two free tickets per day to travel to the Complexo do Alemao, and those who exceed this limit will have to pay 1 Brazilian real for the trip - the same as tourists pay.
The cableway, which can significantly facilitate access to the city’s sports facilities, has acquired additional relevance on the eve of the 2014 FIFA World Cup and the 2016 Olympic Games, which will be held in Rio de Janeiro.
Fare: 1 Brazilian real ($0.5).
11. Cable car Manhattan - Roosevelt Island: the most cinematic
Despite the fact that New York is located in a flat area, the Americans decided to build a cableway here too.
The cable car, which connected Manhattan with Roosevelt Island in 1976, was supposed to function only while the F subway line was being completed. But local residents enjoyed traveling by air so much that the cable car was not dismantled even after the subway was launched. The cable car has secured the status of a full-fledged urban transport, and has also actually become the world's first aerial tram.
In 2005, during the transport strike, only the cableway continued to carry passengers. But in the same year, the first, and in 2006, the second incident occurred when the cabins of an aerial tram got stuck over the East River. Passengers had to spend almost seven hours above the water.
After this, transport workers closed the cable car and began its restoration. Five months later, the cable car was reopened, and all cabins were provided with blankets, water, food supplies and even a toilet. The aerial tram that runs along the route Manhattan - Roosevelt Island can claim to be the most cinematic: you can see it in films such as Nighthawks, Leon and even Spider-Man.
Fare: $2.5 one way.
12. Ropeway in Zhangjiajie Park (China): the steepest
Chinese Zhangjiajie Park has long gained popularity among tourists. Firstly, it is here, among the Wulingyuan rocks that inspired James Cameron to create the “flying mountains” in the film “,” that Tianmen Mountain is located, and in it is the legendary Heavenly Gate Cave.
Panorama (clickable, 1280 x 553 px):
Secondly, you can get to them by cableway, which numerous travelers who once rode along it dubbed “the most exciting” in the world. It is no coincidence that the local cable car is called the “road to heaven”: on some sections it rises upward at an angle of 70°, crashing straight into the clouds. Welcome to Pandora!
The journey to the top takes about 40 minutes, and due to the pressure difference, passengers often have blocked ears, and the temperature in the cabin drops sharply. There is often thick fog over the park, which adds mysticism to the surrounding landscapes.
Those who still dare to overcome the distance of 7,455 m will see the highest miraculous cave in the world, created by erosion of rocks. Local residents believe that she has supernatural powers. And you can go down from Tianmen Mountain by bus along the serpentine road, which has exactly 99 turns.
Fare: 48 yuan ($7.6) one way.
