Over the last decade, aerial ropeways have experienced widespread growth thanks to their innovative application as an urban mobility solution. Potential benefits of implementing this kind of transport system in cities include:
- Capacity to fly over major physical obstacles.
- Little ground space occupancy.
- Reduced deployment time (12 – 24 months).
- Seamless integration with other urban transit systems (metro, bus, tramway).
- Low budget requirements compared to other transit systems such as surface metro, tramway and paved land roads.
- Great social impact on cities.
For instance, the Metrocable system from Metro de Medellín Ltda was conceived as a project to integrate transport in the area of Aburrá Valley, from the steepest peripheral areas of the city to the central railway system. The system has a direct impact on the city’s mobility both in the northeast area, through Line K, and in the west-central area, through Line J. Since its opening in July 2004, Line K has served about 48,817,756 million users, while Line J, since March 2008, has transported around 12,055,080 million users. Operation of both lines benefited the community with a total saving of more than COP15,619 million Colombian pesos in 2013 (Metro de Medellín Ltda, 2013), as transport integration allows every user to save around COP$1000 Colombian pesos per journey.
Additionally, the Metrocable system is considered an important factor of socio-economic development for its surrounding areas, contributing to a 66% decline of violence rates in the area of influence of Line K (EL TIEMPO, 2012) as well as to an increase of local and international visitors in these areas.
The Metrocable Line K started a new era of ropeway transport for applications in urban mass-transit systems of mid capacity, and it served as an inspiration for Latin American countries including Brazil (Complexo do Alemão, Río de Janeiro) and Venezuela (Metrocable San Agustín, Caracas). Its influence has also spread well beyond the continent to places such as Taiwan (Airmetro in Taipei), Spain (Montjuic ropeways, Barcelona) and Russia (Airmetro in Nijni Novgorod, Bor).
Taking the above into consideration, the International Congress of Urban Aerial Ropeways expects to provide a space for networking between regulatory agencies, local leaders, manufacturers and operators aiming at the enhancement of selection, design, operation, maintenance and upgrading processes of ropeway ropeways systems.