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I was surprised to learn this week (I should have already been aware) that France operates seven urban cable cars (or gondolas). Its first was built in Grenoble, at the foot of the Alps, in 1934, and its latest opened in December 2025 in the country's capital region.
Called Câble 1 (or C1), this latest line is 4.5 kilometres long, carries 11,000 passengers per day in 105 gondolas, and connects Villeneuve-Saint-Georges to the Métro Line 8 in Créteil (a southeastern suburb of Paris). The total trip takes 18 minutes, compared to an estimated time of 40 minutes by bus or car.
Importantly, the project only cost €138 million, or about €30.6 million per km, which is about 10-15% of what a subway might have cost based on data from the Grand Paris Express. Estimates for the latter were over €1 billion, meaning it would have likely been a non-starter.
Gondolas are most commonly used to navigate mountainous terrain, but they're increasingly being used in urban settings to stitch together isolated communities. Forty minutes to eighteen minutes is a significant quality-of-life upgrade. I think more cities should be considering cable cars as a possible mobility solution.
Cover photo via Région Île-de-France / Aymeric Guillonneau
Mexico City is all kinds of big. It is the largest metropolitan area in North America, the largest Spanish-speaking city, and broadly one of the largest megacities in the world. Because of this, it can be, you know, hard to move around.
I remember visiting the city for the first time when I was in elementary school, and it standing out to me that everyone had one day of the week when they were simply not allowed to drive their car. It was/is a form of load balancing. Imagine that. (I don't know if this is still the case, or if it's even more stringent today.)
I also remember visiting the city later on, when I was in grad school, and it standing out to me that their metro had women-only cars. This was and continues to be an attempt to try and minimize the amount of sexual harassment that takes place on transit. Again, it can be hard to move around Mexico City.
The city's latest solution is one that has found success in other Latin American cities, such as Medellin, and that is: cable cars. Relative to subway or light rail, they're inexpensive. They're also good at navigating steep terrain, and their stations can be inserted into dense urban areas. This includes working-class neighborhoods who might otherwise have very limited mobility options.
Yesterday was an exciting day for Toronto city building announcements.
Firstly, Alex Bozikovic of the Globe and Mail published an exclusive preview of architect Bjarke Ingel’s plan for King Street West. Here’s a photo of the architectural model (it’s by Landon Speers):
I was surprised to learn this week (I should have already been aware) that France operates seven urban cable cars (or gondolas). Its first was built in Grenoble, at the foot of the Alps, in 1934, and its latest opened in December 2025 in the country's capital region.
Called Câble 1 (or C1), this latest line is 4.5 kilometres long, carries 11,000 passengers per day in 105 gondolas, and connects Villeneuve-Saint-Georges to the Métro Line 8 in Créteil (a southeastern suburb of Paris). The total trip takes 18 minutes, compared to an estimated time of 40 minutes by bus or car.
Importantly, the project only cost €138 million, or about €30.6 million per km, which is about 10-15% of what a subway might have cost based on data from the Grand Paris Express. Estimates for the latter were over €1 billion, meaning it would have likely been a non-starter.
Gondolas are most commonly used to navigate mountainous terrain, but they're increasingly being used in urban settings to stitch together isolated communities. Forty minutes to eighteen minutes is a significant quality-of-life upgrade. I think more cities should be considering cable cars as a possible mobility solution.
Cover photo via Région Île-de-France / Aymeric Guillonneau
Mexico City is all kinds of big. It is the largest metropolitan area in North America, the largest Spanish-speaking city, and broadly one of the largest megacities in the world. Because of this, it can be, you know, hard to move around.
I remember visiting the city for the first time when I was in elementary school, and it standing out to me that everyone had one day of the week when they were simply not allowed to drive their car. It was/is a form of load balancing. Imagine that. (I don't know if this is still the case, or if it's even more stringent today.)
I also remember visiting the city later on, when I was in grad school, and it standing out to me that their metro had women-only cars. This was and continues to be an attempt to try and minimize the amount of sexual harassment that takes place on transit. Again, it can be hard to move around Mexico City.
The city's latest solution is one that has found success in other Latin American cities, such as Medellin, and that is: cable cars. Relative to subway or light rail, they're inexpensive. They're also good at navigating steep terrain, and their stations can be inserted into dense urban areas. This includes working-class neighborhoods who might otherwise have very limited mobility options.
Yesterday was an exciting day for Toronto city building announcements.
Firstly, Alex Bozikovic of the Globe and Mail published an exclusive preview of architect Bjarke Ingel’s plan for King Street West. Here’s a photo of the architectural model (it’s by Landon Speers):
This isn't as much as rail. But that's okay. The point of these lines is to bring more people closer in so that they can then connect to more services and other mobility options. And to do it quickly. Three new lines in three years is impressive. And from the sounds of it, it has transformed many people's lives for the better.
Here are maps of the 3 lines, zoomed out a bit so that you can see how they fit into the city's broader urban context:
My favorite quote from the article is this one from Bjarke:
“It would be sad if the most diverse city in the world had the most homogenous real estate.”
It’s true.
For those of you who emailed me about the details of his talk next week (there were a lot of you!), I believe I emailed you all back. But in case I missed some of you, you can click here for the event details. I should have included it in my original post about BIG, but I thought the event was already oversubscribed.
Secondly, a private company called Bullwheel International Cable Car Corp. has just proposed to build a $20 to $25 million gondola running from Danforth Avenue (near Broadview subway station) to the Evergreen Brickworks. The total length would be almost 1 km and it, allegedly, wouldn’t require any public money. Here is their website.
The timing of this proposal feels a bit serendipitous to me. When I was in Park City, Utah a few weeks ago, snowboarding right into the town and then taking their “town lifts” back up to traverse the mountain, I remember thinking to myself: what a wonderful form of transportation this is.
Of course, Park City has giant mountains and Toronto, unfortunately, does not. But we do have spectacular ravines and a spectacular institution known as the Evergreen Brickworks.
But one of the challenges with our ravines is that they can be a bit hidden – particularly for visitors to the city. Part of this is because we are trying to figure out the right balance between natural preservation and active use. But that’s one of the things that makes this proposal so intriguing. It’s a way to celebrate our ravines and natural landscape, without physically encroaching it.
Here’s a map of the proposed gondola path:
What do you think about these announcements?
This isn't as much as rail. But that's okay. The point of these lines is to bring more people closer in so that they can then connect to more services and other mobility options. And to do it quickly. Three new lines in three years is impressive. And from the sounds of it, it has transformed many people's lives for the better.
Here are maps of the 3 lines, zoomed out a bit so that you can see how they fit into the city's broader urban context:
My favorite quote from the article is this one from Bjarke:
“It would be sad if the most diverse city in the world had the most homogenous real estate.”
It’s true.
For those of you who emailed me about the details of his talk next week (there were a lot of you!), I believe I emailed you all back. But in case I missed some of you, you can click here for the event details. I should have included it in my original post about BIG, but I thought the event was already oversubscribed.
Secondly, a private company called Bullwheel International Cable Car Corp. has just proposed to build a $20 to $25 million gondola running from Danforth Avenue (near Broadview subway station) to the Evergreen Brickworks. The total length would be almost 1 km and it, allegedly, wouldn’t require any public money. Here is their website.
The timing of this proposal feels a bit serendipitous to me. When I was in Park City, Utah a few weeks ago, snowboarding right into the town and then taking their “town lifts” back up to traverse the mountain, I remember thinking to myself: what a wonderful form of transportation this is.
Of course, Park City has giant mountains and Toronto, unfortunately, does not. But we do have spectacular ravines and a spectacular institution known as the Evergreen Brickworks.
But one of the challenges with our ravines is that they can be a bit hidden – particularly for visitors to the city. Part of this is because we are trying to figure out the right balance between natural preservation and active use. But that’s one of the things that makes this proposal so intriguing. It’s a way to celebrate our ravines and natural landscape, without physically encroaching it.
Here’s a map of the proposed gondola path:
What do you think about these announcements?
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