Gondolas for Calgary touted as cost effective

Some city planners think gondolas should become the next alternative mode of transportation in Calgary. 

Toronto-based Creative Urban Projects made a pitch for the idea at Fort Calgary on Wednesday. 

Steven Dale, who works with The Gondola Project — which does consulting projects on cable-propelled transit (CPT) systems — said gondolas make sense.

"It’s a cost effective technology. You have less than one minute wait times ... and you have no traffic 25 feet in the air," he said.

The idea has been examined before by Calgary officials.

Calgary Transit proposed last year that a gondola run between a northwest LRT station and the Foothills Hospital and University of Calgary.

The gondola, similar to those used at ski resorts, could have several stops, covering three to five kilometres in a horseshoe shape, Neil McKendrick Calgary's manager of transit planning, said last May.

Urban cable-propelled transit systems are already used in many cities, including Portland, New York City, Medellin, Colombia, and Lisbon, Portugal.