A new alternative is being considered to move people across Auckland's Waitematā Harbour.
The world's biggest manufacturer of gondolas is working on a plan to build a low-cost, high-capacity public transport system connecting the North Shore to the city centre.
Gondola in Portland Oregan Photo: Doppelmayr - supplied
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Doppelmayr's New Zealand general manager Garreth Hayman tells Jesse Mulligan there has been a pleasing response from the public to the concept so far.
For the past 80 years, gondolas have been commonly used for transportation around mountains, but recently they have also been increasingly used for travel within cities around the world, Hayman says.
In fact, gondolas are just one type of what’s known as ropeways.
At this stage, the potential proposal for Auckland’s harbour is in its preliminary stage, Hayman says.
“A traditional gondola would be a possible option there and another one would be a larger tricable gondola, which would have big 30-passenger cabins and work quite well for taking passengers, and bikes and micromobility users across [the harbour].
“We can move around 6000 people per hour, per direction and it really does depend on the design but I mean you would have a cabin every 15 seconds.
“One of the best advantages is you can show up and go, so there’s no waiting, there’s no timetables … quite often at any one time there’ll be multiple cars in the station being loaded at the same time.”
In Bolivia, the company’s 31km network of ropeways transports about 243,000 people per day on average, he says.
One option that has been suggested is for the gondola network to be hanging off the existing harbour bridge, which Hayman says is possible.
Ideally, they would want the Auckland gondola to be integrated with the main transport network, he says.
“So ideally, we would bring it to the Akoranga bus exchange, [the last bus station on the North Shore before heading into the city], and then bring it to the downtown where you can link into the rail, ferries and also bus services.”
The project would require pylons to be installed in the harbour, but Hayman says they would look to minimise the disruptions of that in the design stage.
“It would be somewhere in the range of three to four pylons. And then of course you’ve got the buildings on either end for the passengers.”
Based on international examples, they estimate it would cost about $200 million in contrast to $785m for the scrapped cycling and walking bridge project.
There might be some maintenance costs, but still it will be lower than what is spent on other modes of public transport, Hayman says.
In addition, he says their projects have one of the lowest carbon emissions per passenger basis.
“But also looking at the whole of life carbon emission from the project as a whole, and again with our lightweight steel structures it’s definitely got a huge advantage over other modes.”
Wind has been known to shut the harbour bridge before, and while that may be a possible issue for a gondola as well, he believes their mountain expertise allows them to plan for that.
“We don’t think it will be a major issue.”
Construction periods for the gondola projects usually take two years, he says, but first they will have to engage with transport agencies to refine the proposal and put together a business case.