Prague wants to connect Bohnice and Podbaba by cable car. The wind is said to last 140 km / h
Prague is on its way to building the first cable car that would connect both banks of the Vltava. It should lead from Podbaba through the zoo to Bohnice. According to the study, its construction would be four times cheaper than a tram connection. It could be much faster, in about six years. “If the city says it supports it and will do everything in its power, the construction can take four years. The construction would take another year to a year and a half,” said Martin Fafejta of Ropid, who has just completed a feasibility study for Prague officials. On the contrary, a tram to Bohnice is not planned for 2030.
In the past, plans for cable cars in the metropolis appeared, but they were rejected as megalomaniacal and meaningless without traffic connections. “This is the first cable car project that makes sense, and at the same time it has been declared from the beginning that it will be part of Prague’s integrated transport,” said Ondřej Mirovský (Greens), a member of the Prague 7 City Council and Councilor for Transport.
“The previous projects we saw were nonsense, more of an adventure ride over Prague. In addition, private projects that were supposed to earn and have different tariffs than public transport,” added Mirovský.
The cable car can improve Bohnice’s connections with other parts of the city. Locals repeatedly refuse tram connections and prefer the existing buses that take them to the Kobylisy metro station. “If the trams were zigzagging through the housing estate, they would take away not only the greenery but also the traffic lane. There are 30,000 inhabitants in Bohnice, which is a portion of the vehicles parked there,” said local deputy mayor of Prague 8 Jiří Vítek (Patriots).
From Bohnice to Dejvice in half time
If you want to get from Bohnice to Dejvice now, it takes you thirty to forty minutes with several transfers to the metro. The cable car would cut this time in half. In addition, it could carry more people than the tram – while the tram had a maximum capacity of two thousand people per hour, the cable car doubled.
The pros also include minimal personnel costs – if the tram needs a driver, only a dispatcher will be enough at the cable car. In addition, according to Fafejta, it will be easier to operationally increase the frequency of the cable car in the event of a greater influx of passengers.
In addition to the terminals in Podbaba near the Internacionál Hotel and the polyclinic in Bohnice, the cable car would also be built next to the zoo. It would also solve a big problem for the zoo and its visitors, who are sloping bus problems on some days. And traffic in Troy often collapses.
“It is a system tested in the world, it can handle four thousand passengers per hour and it also means minimal interventions in the landscape. If someone decides in ten or twenty years that they want a tram there, the cable car can be recycled and built elsewhere,” Fafejta described.
It can withstand a wind of one hundred and forty kilometers per hour
According to him, there is no danger that the cable car would have to interrupt operation in bad weather or strong winds. “It is a system that will not have problems with the weather. For example, I use it in the Swiss Alps three thousand meters above sea level and it can withstand wind speeds of up to forty kilometers per hour. CHMI says that such a speed has never been in Prague,” adds Fafejta.
The authors of the study, Cedop, were inspired abroad, for example in Koblenz at the confluence of the Rhine and Moselle or in the slightly larger French city of Brest. “The cable cars are used where it would be difficult to build a new bridge and in places where large height differences are overcome. The case of Koblenz is a very similar situation between Podbaba and Bohnice,” says Cedop CEO Petr Šlegr.
Representatives are in favor
The representatives must decide whether the cable car will be built. So far, they have suspended the discussion at the transport committee of the council. But in a half-hour discussion, it was clear that they had no serious objections to the plan. She just pointed out the need to plan the related necessary investments. For example, plenty of parking spaces at the station in Podbaba.
“We are happy for everything that will make it easier for us to connect the right bank with the left. It is one of the very important transport connection options for us,” said Eva Smutná, Deputy Mayor of Prague 6.
“If it did, of course, a tender will be issued to the cableway operator, who can supply the full-service technology and maintenance of the system for ten to twenty years,” Fafejta outlines. .