Aerial Gondolas as Wellington Public Transport

In an interesting turn of events and, almost over-riding a similar and recently publicised tourist attraction idea, local body election candidate Thomas Morgan has had contact with an international aerial gondola consultant, Mr Ryan O’Connor, who happens to be in Wellington at the moment.

‘Mr O’Connor is an urban planner and has been researching and developing urban gondola proposals for the last 4 years and I was delighted that he came forward at such an opportune time. The idea of gondolas as a form of public transport is quite a head turner.’ said Mr Morgan.

In his e-mail Mr O’Connor said that a US proposal that was put together came in at less than 1/3 the cost of the proposed light rail system. ‘It was 32.5 miles long and was 6 lines, and provided travel times faster than the light rail on the majority of the lines… But the best thing is the waiting times to catch a ride are less than a minute. Integrates well with buses too.’ said Mr O’Connor.

‘This is a very significant development in options in mass urban transport and it has obviously slipped under the radar during the current Wellington mayoral race debates on transport issues.’ said Mr Morgan and further he said ‘I could easily see a line running from the railway station to the airport via Newtown and it would be great if the new city council could officially consider the idea.’

Mr Morgan also found a very interesting short video on the subject at:- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8BXVzovsVf0

Thomas Morgan is a candidate in the current local body elections in New Zealand standing for the Southern Ward of the Wellington City Council.

Mr O’Connor supplied an indicative picture of a system at Lisbon, Portugal - a waterfront setting, as attached.
Copyright is unknown and perhaps other sources can supply similar images if needed.

ENDS

© Scoop Media