METROCABLE SETS THE CITY FREE

Won over by what cable transport has to offer, the city of Medellin has opted for this means of transport once again. It has just placed an order with POMA for a second «MetroCable» line. Flashback on the reasons for this success:

Running 20 hours/day, 355 days/year, 99.8% availability, 15 million passengers transported in 2005, operating 7000 hours a year. These few figures outline the exceptional results of Medellin's first MetroCable line since it came into service in 2004.

The lift was specially designed by POMA for urban transport and was built to extend the city transport network of Colombia's second-largest city, serving Santo Domingo, a remote, working-class district.

The city council was won over by the system's availability and remarkable reliability and on 6 October 2006, placed an order for a second MetroCable line to another working-class district in the city.

PROMOTING SOCIAL INTEGRATION

MetroCable is not simply a technical achievement – its success is even more a question of social integration. The 150,000 inhabitants of this remote, underprivileged district can now reach the city centre in 7 minutes instead of the one- or two-hour minibus haul previously required. This makes them feel more a part of things in the city. Small shops soon started springing up around the four intermediate stations at the heart of the district and the area became livelier and better organised. Security has improved to such an extent that people now take MetroCable for outings at the weekend.

A NEED FOR TOTAL INTEGRATION

« We've never taken integration so far», declares Export Commercial Director, Philippe Adrien. Especially given that «we haven't developed a new product. It's a conventional gondola lift, just like those you see in ski resorts.» This level of performance does, however, call for precise maintenance work, carried out by POMA-trained technicians, who adhere to a specially designed programme to complete the necessary work within the four hours/day available. The system, comprising 93 Diamond 8-10-seater gondolas, is only shut down ten days a year for a more thorough overhaul. The MetroCable line is two kilometres long with a vertical rise of 400 metres, connecting the district of Santo Domingo to the Medellin metro system.

ALL HOPES PINNED ON METROCABLE2

Leaving from San Javier metro station, MetroCable2 will go to the district of Nuevo Occidente via two intermediate stations. The arrival terminal will be built in an area where 18,000 homes are currently under construction. Building work on MetroCable2 will start soon and the line should be in service by the end of 2007 – much to the population's delight!

2007-03-21