Birmingham Cable Car Link

[SimonTheSoundMan]

Would Birmingham benefit from cable cars?

In Rio de Janeiro, city visitors can use them to scale Sugarloaf Mountain, in New York they are used to transport people across the East River and in the Venezuelan capital Caracas, they take residents of mountainous areas to the city centre.

Now, if initial discussions come to fruition, cable cars will be used to link up Birmingham's redeveloped New Street, Moor Street and Curzon Street railway stations.

The West Midlands transport authority Centro has directed Birmingham-based architects to look into the feasibility and cost of installing cable cars in the city.

John Lamb, of the Birmingham Chamber of Commerce, said it could be a "novel solution" to the city's increasingly busy streets.

"When I first heard about it though, I thought it was an April Fool's joke at the wrong time of year," he said.

'Stunning addition'
And Mike Olley, manager of Broad Street, one of the city's busiest entertainment areas, describes the idea as "interesting speculation".

Centro was inspired by the opening of the Emirates Air Line cable car network, which links south-east and east London and opened in June.

In Rio de Janeiro, people can use a cable car to get to the top of the city's Sugarloaf Mountain

Its designers are due to give a presentation to the firm about the development, which was used by those attending London 2012 events.

It links the O2 Arena in Greenwich with the ExCel exhibition centre at the Royal Docks in east London - both of which were Olympic venues.

When it opened, the city's mayor Boris Johnson said it was a "stunning addition to London's transport network" and a "must-see destination in its own right".

Initially, Transport for London (TfL) estimated the cost at £25m and said it would use only private finance to pay for it.

Then the estimate increased to £45m, with TfL saying it would use its own budget, and later rose again to £60m.

Dubai-based airline Emirates is now sponsoring the cable car for 10 years at a cost of £36m.

However, critics of the London project said there were lessons leaders in Birmingham could learn from their experiences.

Caroline Pidgeon, Liberal Democrat London Assembly member, said its popularity had significantly dropped off since it opened.

She added that outside of weekends and school holidays the number of people using the Thames cable car was "pitiful".

She said the main problem was that it should have been decided from the beginning of the scheme whether its main aim was as a tourist attraction or a form of transport.

'Gliding over city'
Mr Lamb suggested however, the plan for cable cars in Birmingham could work.

"It just depends on how practical it is, how much it's going to cost and how it's going to be funded," he said.

"It would be a very easy way of getting to the various stations, especially for people carrying a lot of luggage.

"It could be quite nice gliding over Birmingham. At the moment - especially with the German market - it's packed in the city."

Mr Olley said he would be interested to see what happened - and whether Broad Street could be incorporated as a cable car stop.

Rail commuter and campaigner Ben Whitehouse, who travels into Birmingham every day, said there was a "nugget of a really good idea" in the plan.

"The idea of linking the stations together could make connections smoother - but I would actually prefer to see the millions it would cost to set up a cable car link put towards improving our stations," he said.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england...ngham-20639587

[hoody]

Meh!

[Salif]

What an incredibly silly, over engineered 'solution' to a problem that shouldn't be a problem. If they'd just did the sensible thing and built Grand Central then they'd have a central station hub for all trains. But now, they're trying to think up fantasy ideas. What next, a replacement for the wheel? Edit: That's what this literally is actually.

[NewTroll]

Just buy a few more buses.

[faddypainter]

Just walk!

[SimonTheSoundMan]

Originally Posted by faddypainter

Just walk!

But it is 200m, on a slight incline of about 15 feet.

[DBadger]

The walk up the stairs to the cable car is probably further.

Which leads me to think this isn't designed for transportation at all but as a tourist attraction. They even say it will compliment not replace a metro extension.

[Christopher125]

The distance between Moor St/Curzon St and New St is equivalent to, if not shorter, than the future length of most HS2 trains - a cable car is hardly needed for a distance that most passengers will have to walk at some point anyway. A combination of some sort of covered way and a tram extension would seem far more sensible.

Chris

[Salif]

Or some mainline platforms alongside the HS2 platforms at Curzon Street. Makes more sense than any kind of bizarre fantasy plan.

[DBadger]

Unless the entire station moved there there'd be little point. Mainline trains stopping at Curzon Street would be too infrequent for it to be a useful link and crossing platforms would likely take more time than walking to New Street would.

A combination of a brighter walkway along with maybe rolling roads would be good. I don't think the cable car will ever be anything other than a gimmick (but gimmicks can be cool).

[Kettledrum]

why a cable car and not a monorail system?

[DiscoSteve]

this IS a joke thread right?

[hoody]

No one knows for sure, but if it is a joke it's at the wrong time of year. I would suspect it has some truth, although it'll be a none starter.

It's even on the BBC main page.

[theidealcopy two]

Just proves that most of these planners are bereft of an ounce of common sense when it comes to the most hare-brained pie in the sky schemes such as this - the fact that they're going to waste good money on 'feasibility studies' into this fucking joke mickey mouse project is even more depressing.

And we thought the VTP 200 was a vain pipe dream.....

[DBadger]

And this is why we can't have nice things. When they're proposed everyone berates the council for it.

[banana republic]

They obviously have no idea where the so called HS2 station will be.
They've put it in the wrong place on that Google aerial view, instead of alongside Moor St. station on Moor St. Queensway.

[LNGCats]

Originally Posted by DBadger

And this is why we can't have nice things. When they're proposed everyone berates the council for it.

Either that or people see through vanity projects that offer nothing.

You sound the same as those who supported the Whitby underground study, the study that ultimately made Metro extensions far harder.

[DBadger]

Vanity projects like the Mailbox or Selfridges which have given Birmingham a global image?

[LNGCats]

Thought you were taking about cable cars, but yes.

By definition, someone who values something based on global recognition is not going to be anywhere near what I see a important.

[Vulcan's Finest]

Originally Posted by Christopher125

The distance between Moor St/Curzon St and New St is equivalent to, if not shorter, than the future length of most HS2 trains - a cable car is hardly needed for a distance that most passengers will have to walk at some point anyway. A combination of some sort of covered way and a tram extension would seem far more sensible.

Chris

I make it about 500m between the concourse of Curzon St and the concourse of New St (allowing for zig-zags). To put it in context, Euston - St Pancras is about 800m. Remember however that you might have an additional 400m to walk along Curzon St's platforms after getting off your lengthy HS2 train and typically another 100-150m at New St to actually get to the train you want on the platform. So in reality you're looking at walking 700-1,000m through the busy station walkways and streets. Not very nice in poor weather. Hardly practical for the elderley, infirm, those with luggage or kids. In other words the kind of travellers you want to achieve modal shift with away from the motor car. Public transport interchanges should be easy to use for all travellers.

I still say the best solution to the overcrowding of New St is building new platforms on the classic lines viaduct South of the Curzon St HS2 terminus and almost all services calling there as well. It could be linked to the HS2 concourse with a footbridge of the same design Reading is getting - with escalators and lifts as necessary to make the process of changing trains in Birmingham civillised and easy.