Cable car

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Cable car in Crimea
Portland Aerial Tram

A cable car is a means of transport belonging to the railways for the transport of people or goods.

term

Cable cars are differentiated according to the following criteria:

  • Vehicles or people who are pulled by a rotating wire rope on sports equipment
  • Cabins , armchairs or transport containers that are moved while hanging on a revolving hoisting rope
  • Vehicles or slings that run on a fixed suspension rope with the help of concave pulleys, similar to a zip line

The term ropeway is used as a generic historical term for aerial ropeways , which has led to the use of always designating funiculars with the prefix Stand-. Cable cars that go up mountains belong to the mountain railways like cogwheel trains .If several cable cars are connected, the separate sections of the route are called sections.

Cable cars can be used for tourist destinations such as B. connect mountain peaks as well as be used in urban public transport . The latter is particularly common in (South) America. The International Organization for the Cableway Industry deals with the cableway industry in general .

Foreign language terms

The term 'cable car' generally refers to aerial ropeways in British English , but cable trams in American English , where aerial trams are called 'gondola' (for gondola) or 'aerial tram' (for aerial tram), a funicular is called 'funicular' throughout the English-speaking world railway 'or' funicular 'for short.

Classifications according to CEN

According to CEN, cable cars are classified according to various criteria:

  • according to the type of suspension element (rail, rope, snow, air cushion)
  • the number of ropes with different functions (hoisting rope, carrying rope, pulling rope, data rope, lightning protection rope)
  • the operating mode (shuttle operation, circulating operation)
  • the type of vehicle (wagon, cabin, armchair, cabin group, towbars, towing plates, wagons, buckets, etc.)
  • the type of connection between vehicle and rope (fixed or operationally detachable / connectable)

Types

Aerial ropeways

Aerial ropeways are railways in which the vehicles are suspended from suspension ropes or hoist ropes and run without contact with the ground. The intended distance between the ropes and the ground is ensured by cable car supports. In terms of numbers, they are by far the most common type of cable car construction. The term includes aerial tramways , gondolas , chairlifts , chairlifts , Combined installations and equipment ropeways .

Cable cars

These cable cars run on rails on their own track on the ground or on heaped or elevated routes.

  • Funiculars are moved by one or more ropes with which they are permanently connected; they usually travel with two cars (cabins, driving equipment) in opposite directions in shuttle traffic (with an Abt switch as a switch ). This group also includes:
  • In contrast to funiculars, cable cars have detachable vehicles. These include in particular
  • In addition, the inclined planes that were used in the past (with ropes as a pulling aid for adhesive sheets ) are also included.

Drag lifts

T-bar lift with short bow

T-bar lifts and sleigh ropeways for transporting winter sports enthusiasts on the ground are also counted among the cable cars.

Special constructions

  • In gondolettas , the pulling rope runs under the surface of the water and pulls the boats that float on it, similar to chain navigation .

Plant inventory worldwide

The 61st International Conference of Technical Supervisory Authorities (ITTAB) published the following global plant and transport case figures for 2011:

Type of cable car number Transported
persons
(millions)
Funiculars 00251 0099.8
Two cable cars (shuttle service) 00754 0174.2
Cable cars (circulating operation) 00029 0009.6
Monocable gondolas (gondolas, EUB) 00899 0433.2
Combined lifts 00045 0030.7
Detachable chairlifts 01961 0826.8
Chair lifts, firmly clamped 04888 0647.8
Drag lifts 12,041 0969.4
Special tracks 00223 0293.0
to hum 21.091 3,484.6

properties

Driving speed

Cable car at the EXPO 2000 in Hanover

The maximum speeds that can be achieved due to technical conditions and legal regulations are

  • for funiculars 14 m / s (around 50 km / h),
  • for aerial tramways up to 12.5 m / s (around 45 km / h),
  • 6 m / s (around 22 km / h) for gondolas,
  • for chairlifts 5 m / s (18 km / h),
  • 4 m / s for T-bar lifts with a high cable guide and 1.8 m / s for a low cable guide.

Detachable transport equipment is accelerated and braked inside the station, while those that are firmly clamped outside the station have an effect on the required overall length of the stations, but also on the final speed that can be achieved. In order to save energy, cable cars can be driven at lower speeds. The maximum speed is preferred in order to be able to serve large crowds and high numbers of passengers.

Energy demand

Cable cars are mainly powered electrically. Since the drive is stationary in a station, no batteries and drive systems have to be moved, accelerated or decelerated in vehicles. In the case of cable cars, however, energy has to be used to accelerate and move the towing or hoisting cable loops, which weigh several tons, together with the associated equipment. With the exception of emergency stops, moving off is only necessary when the hoisting ropes are in motion every day, while the detachable equipment is accelerated and braked separately. When pulling and hauling ropes are deflected, the wire rope strands rub against each other, and as a result of this internal friction, bending and kinetic energy are converted into heat. To reduce internal rope friction, the wire ropes are greased, the diameters of the deflection and drive rope sheaves are selected to be as large as possible to match the rope diameter and (vertical, size-limited) carrying, support and hold-down rollers as a multitude of sequences (trolley, roller battery; see cable car support # Guiding of running Ropes ).

Cable cars can be equipped with modern regenerative asynchronous motors with frequency converters as drive machines, which can feed electricity back into the supply network as regenerative brakes in generator mode when braking ( valley load greater than mountain load ) . This is mainly used for feeder railways that bring skiers back down to the valley from a higher ski area (glacier), and for material ropeways that constantly transport loads downhill.

In all two-lane ropeways with a common pulling or conveying rope loop (circulating ropeways, aerial tramways, funicular railways), the masses of the ropes moving up and down and empty transport equipment are usually approximately in equilibrium given the height differences. Drive energy only needs to be used to lift the uphill load, to overcome the friction losses, the inertia and the air resistance. These cable cars use the potential energy of loads going downhill through the mechanical coupling in order to at least partially compensate the power requirement for the gain in height of uphill loads (on inclines or in rope slack) or for the other energy to be applied and thereby reduce energy consumption. Compared to other electricity-driven, regenerative local transport, this system-related avoidance of separate, lossy conversions of electrical energy into mechanical work and back has an advantage that makes cable cars the most energy-efficient electricity-driven means of transport of all.

Of the 100% electrical power consumption of an orbit ( Lenzerheide Bergbahnen (Switzerland), with 65% utilization at full speed), an average of 40% was for transport, 40% for rope friction and roller friction, 11% for drive losses (for motor , gearbox and converter ) , 5% for the railway infrastructure (movement of the cabins in the station) and 4% for wind losses

In a comparative study by a strategy consulting firm commissioned by a cable car manufacturer on the climate friendliness of the four modes of transport cable car, bus, train and car, a utilization rate of 50% for a cable car - when going uphill but also on the flat, in summer and in winter - (for the necessary electricity generation) the lowest CO 2 emissions (gasoline cars on average 248 g CO 2 per person and kilometer (g / pkm), a diesel bus 38.5 g / pkm, trains with an electric locomotive 30 g / pkm and the cable car 27 g / pkm).

The actual energy requirement per person and km as well as the associated CO 2 emissions depend largely on the load. According to publication of a cable car manufacturer were during the National Garden Show 2011 1,046 MWh of energy for Koblenz local cable car needed during the transport of visitors with shuttle buses 4,036 MWh would have required.

safety

Like all exposed structures, the vehicles, supports, masts and ropes of aerial ropeways and the vehicles, rails and stand structures of funiculars run the risk of being struck by lightning. As the ropes run over rubber-lined pulleys and there is no earth fault, special lightning protection measures help to avoid personal injury and material damage. Closed vehicles, like Faraday cages, are safe for those being transported; earth faults for surface lift users can be fatal (more on lightning protection for cable cars ).

In order to identify technical defects, all cable car systems are regularly checked in accordance with the statutory requirements for an initial technical acceptance test upon completion and during operation. Methods of non-destructive material testing such as the magnetic induction method are used for regular checking of the wire ropes .

As a result of the fire disaster on the Kaprun 2 glacier lift in 2000, with 155 fatalities, the statutory regulations and guidelines regarding fire protection in cable cars were revised and the requirements tightened.

Elaborated rescue concepts (such as abseiling passengers, rescue with rescue vehicles or by helicopter on aerial cableways, emergency stairs on funicular railways) or, more recently, alternative evacuation concepts (travel of all vehicles to the next station even if the main drive fails) are the prerequisites for obtaining a cableway operating license .

See also:

Station of the funicular railway in Evian-les-Bains (France), which was restored to its original state in 2002

Accessibility

Cable cars with closed vehicles (gondolas) can, if this is required for the purpose, be made largely barrier-free from a certain size of the gondolas (from approx. 8- / 10-person gondola) ; with smaller vehicles there may be restrictions in the door width and the There is space for wheelchairs or strollers. In the case of funiculars, there may be restrictions due to the platforms that are usually adapted to the incline of the route. In Switzerland, according to the Equal Opportunities for the Disabled, cable cars with nine or more seats per transport unit (with the exception of ski lifts and chairlifts) must be handicapped accessible.

Regulations

Cableway laws

The European Union has harmonized the regulations for cable cars in the EU Directive 2000/9 / EC of the European Parliament and Council of March 20, 2000 for cable cars for passenger transport and the regulatory content of the state laws in the member states for industrially manufactured and traded on the market Components of cable car systems (safety components and subsystems) are regulated.

The construction and operation of a cable car must be officially approved in accordance with the respective national laws and regulations . These are for example

  • in Germany the state cable car laws with a number of ordinances and the regulations for the construction and operation of cable cars (BOSeil) ;
  • in Austria the Cable Car Act 2003, 2007 substantially expanded; before the 2003 Act, the legal provisions were governed by the 1957 Railway Act.
  • in Switzerland, which does not belong to the European Union, the Federal Act of 23 June 2006 on Cable Cars for Passenger Transport (Cable Car Act, SebG), which is expressly harmonized with the EC Directive 2000/9 / EC with regard to the scope and technical framework conditions.

Cable cars that have been officially licensed or approved to operate as public transport are generally subject to both a statutory operating obligation (maintenance of the approved scheduled operation) and an obligation to transport or to contract and are obliged to take passengers with them as long as they adhere to the conditions of carriage and follow the instructions of the personnel for proper operation.

Systems not subject to cable car laws

The following systems that use ropes as a means of conveyance or power transmission do not belong to the cableways regulated in the aforementioned cableway laws:

Important designers and cable car pioneers

(in alphabetic order)

Manufacturer (selection)

The Doppelmayr / Garaventa Group and the Leitner Group dominate around 90% of the world market.

In addition to the Alpine countries, there are also cable car manufacturers in Turkey (e.g. STM), Japan (e.g. Anzen Sakudo, Nippon Cable, Taihei), India (e.g. Dadomar Ropeways, Conveyor & Ropeway Services), China (e.g. ENFI, Beijing Goodyou Ropeway Engineering), the United States States and a. m. as well as manufacturers who specialize in the construction of cable car cabins, surface lifts, chair lifts and material ropeways. Even complete cable cars are not spared from product piracy .

Cable cars as cultural assets

The Swiss Federal Office of Culture has been publishing a cable car inventory since 2011 with more detailed information on Swiss cable cars of particular cultural-historical or technical importance. The inventory contains 67 objects of national and 44 objects of regional importance as well as 18 particularly innovative newer cable car systems. A total of around 3,000 cable cars are licensed in Switzerland.

In Germany z. B. the Predigtstuhlbahn in Bad Reichenhall under monument protection . The cable car, built in 1928, is the world's oldest originally preserved cable car.

Sometimes gondolas from broken cable cars are sold to interested parties, often set up outdoors for tourism advertising, small ones also used at trade fairs, as a garden shed or shelter on the mountain, as a photo motif, play equipment or decoration.

literature

  • Edmund Heusinger von Waldegg : Handbook for special railway technology. Volume 5: Construction and operation of the secondary and tertiary railways including the suspended cable cars and cable cars. Wilhelm Engelmann Publishing House, Leipzig 1878
  • Eugen Czitary: cable cars . Springer-Verlag, Vienna 1951
  • Dolezalek: cable cars. In: Enzyklopädie des Eisenbahnwesens, edited by Victor von Röll , Volume 9. Berlin and Vienna 1921, pp. 2–25. (Zeno.org)
  • Artur Doppelmayr : Food for thought on the functional fulfillment of monocable ropeways - project planning, construction and operation in the safety control loop system, based on the analysis of incidents. Wolfurt 1997, online (doc, 3.55 MB)
  • Cable car. In: Franz Maria Feldhaus: Lexicon of inventions and discoveries in the fields of natural sciences and technology in a chronological overview with person and subject index. Winter, Heidelberg 1904, pp. 1023-1025, facsimile (pdf, 14 MB)
  • Reinhart Kuntner, Leopold Flasch: Cable car law. ÖGB-Verlag, Vienna 2011, ISBN 978-3-7035-1448-7
  • Stephan Liedl: Lecture script for cable car technology. Chair of Materials Handling, Material Flow, Logistics at the Technical University of Munich, 1999
  • H. Dieter Schmoll, Markus Kalchgruber: World cable car history . Steidl, Eugendorf (near Salzburg) 2000, ISBN 3-9501344-0-9
  • Peter Sedivy: Lecture notes for cable car construction. University of Innsbruck, 2012, (pdf) ( Memento from December 24, 2013 in the Internet Archive )

Web links

Commons : Cable Car  - Collection of Images
Wiktionary: Cable car  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Individual evidence

  1. These examples show that cable cars work in the city . In: Süddeutsche Zeitung , July 14, 2018. Retrieved July 14, 2018.
  2. CEN | EN 12929-1: 2004 Safety requirements for cable cars for passenger traffic - General provisions - Part 1: Requirements for all systems
  3. a b c Federal Law on Cable Cars (Cable Car Law 2003 - SeilbG 2003)
  4. Internationale Seilbahnrundschau ISR, Edition 4/2013, p. 9. ( Memento of the original from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (E-book, accessed February 14, 2014) @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.isr.at
  5. Graz University of Technology: Lecture documents for cable car construction  ( page no longer available , search in web archivesInfo: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. of the institute for railway engineering u. Verkehrswirtschaft, 2011 (PDF), p. 107.@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.ebw.tugraz.at  
  6. Graz University of Technology: Lecture documents for cable car construction  ( page no longer available , search in web archivesInfo: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. of the institute for railway engineering u. Verkehrswirtschaft, 2011 (PDF), p. 115.@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.ebw.tugraz.at  
  7. a b Graz University of Technology: Lecture documents for cable car construction  ( page no longer available , search in web archivesInfo: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. of the institute for railway engineering u. Verkehrswirtschaft, 2011 (PDF), p. 132.@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.ebw.tugraz.at  
  8. Graz University of Technology: Lecture documents for cable car construction  ( page no longer available , search in web archivesInfo: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. of the institute for railway engineering u. Verkehrswirtschaft, 2011 (PDF), p. 150.@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.ebw.tugraz.at  
  9. Description of modern drives on the website of Frey AG, Stans
  10. Heiner Monheim, Christian Muschwitz, Wolfram Auer, Matthias Philippi: Urban cable cars - modern cable car systems open up new paths for mobility in our cities. kölner stadt- und verkehrsverlag, Cologne 2010, ISBN 978-3-940685-98-8 , p. 96.
  11. Samantha Di Cosmo: Energy-saving options with cable cars , at energie.ch
  12. Cable car has the nose ahead , Mountain Manager 07/2009, p. 18 , (pdf file 10.5 MB) , last accessed in December 2013.
  13. Mobility Concept Federal Garden Show Koblenz 2011 ( Memento of the original from December 30, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , P. 20, accessed on July 24, 2015 (pdf, 4.0 MB) @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.klimabuendnis.org
  14. Positive ecological balance of the cable car to the BUGA Koblenz 2011
  15. Publication by TÜV Süd-Industrie Service GmbH on cableway acceptance (PDF; 934 kB)
  16. ^ Message from Radio Austria International v. April 2003 ( Memento of the original from December 24, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (Web archive, accessed November 20, 2011) @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.asamnet.de
  17. International Cable Car Review - Nejez, Josef and Luger, Peter evacuation concept instead of salvage concept
  18. OITAF guidelines for rescue from cable cars, 2010.
  19. Explanations of the ordinance on the technical requirements for the disabled-friendly design of public transport , Federal Office of Transport ( Memento of the original from July 16, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF, accessed August 29, 2013) @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.bav.admin.ch
  20. Directive 2000/9 / EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of March 20, 2000 on cable cars for passenger transport (PDF)
  21. Guide to the application of the Cable Car Directive 2000/9 / EG ( Memento of the original from January 31, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF file; 6.42 MB) @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / ec.europa.eu
  22. Dr. Christoph Haidlen: The Austrian cable car law ( memento of the original from March 13, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved December 13, 2011. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.seilbahnrecht.at
  23. Railway Act 1957 (pdf file; 281 kB)
  24. Federal Act of June 23, 2006 on Cable Cars for Passenger Transport (Cable Car Act, SebG)
  25. Message on the Federal Law on Cable Cars for Passenger Transport of December 22, 2004, in: Bundesblatt 2005 895
  26. Peter Sedivy (lecturer): Lecture materials "Cable car construction" at the Institute for Infrastructure, Intelligent Transport Systems division of the University of Innsbruck , summer semester 2012, p. 3 (web archive, pdf file; 6.8 MB) ( Memento from December 24, 2013 on the Internet Archives ), last accessed on November 28, 2015.
  27. Seilbahnlexikon - manufacturer directory: Creisels
  28. Seilbahnlexikon - manufacturer directory: Habegger
  29. Cable car. In: Franz Maria Feldhaus: Lexicon of inventions and discoveries in the fields of natural sciences and technology in a chronological overview with person and subject index. Winter, Heidelberg 1904, pp. 1023-1025. (Facsimile) (pdf file 14 MB)
  30. ^ Company website
  31. ^ Wirtschaftsblatt ( Memento from January 1, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
  32. Neue Zürcher Zeitung Business with tomorrow's snow at nzz.ch
  33. Decision of the EU Commission of October 14, 1998 on an aid project by Austria in favor of LiftgmbH
  34. Seilbahnlexikon - manufacturer directory: Bartholet
  35. Cable car dictionary - manufacturer directory: Giovanola
  36. Seilbahnlexikon - manufacturer directory: Graffer
  37. History - Company - LEITNER ropeways. In: www.leitner-ropeways.com. Retrieved May 20, 2016 .
  38. Alpinkwiki ( Memento of the original from April 18, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / alpinwiki.alpinforum.com
  39. Overview of manufacturers at bergbahnen.org
  40. Petra Stuiber: Doppelmayr's miraculous increase in cable cars in China. welt.de, Welt online, February 17, 2006, accessed April 30, 2019.
  41. Swiss cable car inventory - database with images
  42. - ( Memento of the original from October 1, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Federal Office of Culture, 2012. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.bak.admin.ch
  43. https://www.sunkidworld.com/user_upload/1507214259crop_2017-06-woodnfun-alte-dachstein-gondel-als-spielgeraet-planaiaut-3.jpg