4 THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT AUSTIN’S GONDOLA PLAN
Move over, ski resorts. Austin is toying with the idea of a gondola cable car system as a new, firstof-its-kind type of mass transit. Yes, you heard that right. Here are four things to know
about the idea: 1. We’re at the beginning of a first-blush study.
The viability study will cost $15,750, funded in equal parts by the city of Austin, Capital Metropolitan Transit Authority and Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority, which voted this week to participate. Still, the prospects for such a system are hazy. If it’s deemedviable, the agencies would have to decide whether to embark on a more extensive feasibility study that could cost as much as $1.5 million. 2. Building the system could cost between $290 million and $550 million.
The proposal by design firm Argodesign consists of an initial 8-mile, 19-stop line on South FirstStreet running from Slaughter Lane and then, after crossing the river, on Guadalupe Street to Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. How it would be funded is unknown. 3. Don’t expect it to revolutionize your commute. Under the proposal, the 10-person cars would run 19 hours a day. Gliding along at about 12 miles per hour, it would take about 40 minutes to get from Slaughter to downtown. 4. This might not be the weirdest transportation idea ever proposed in Austin. Last year an entrepreneur suggested a 7.2mile web of elevated tramways with battery-powered, self-driving pod cars. Austin never disappoints. — TAYLOR GOLDSTEIN