$200m gondola plan for Auckland
A gondola line above Auckland’s Waitematā Harbour is being proposed by the world’s biggest maker of the technology, as a low cost, high-capacity public transport system.
Austrian firm Doppelmayr-Garaventa is working on a possible 4.2km line linking Wynyard Quarter, Bayswater and the Akoranga bus station. It could be built within 2-3 years, costing around $200 million.
Doppelmayr’s Christchurch-located New Zealand subsidiary has had initial discussions with Waka Kotahi including the ability of the line to carry cyclists across the harbour. Minister of Transport Michael Wood said he was aware of the proposal, but it was for the transport agency to assess.
‘‘They are taking an openminded approach to different ways of achieving support for walking and cycling access across the Waitematā,’’ said Wood.
‘‘They need to be value for money, they need to meet the objective, they need to be safe and support the resilience of the existing bridge structure,’’ he said, adding he expected to receive advice in the next months.
The government dumped a short-lived plan for a $785million cycling and walking bridge, and its agency is weighing up alternatives, including dedicated ferries and buses.
While a new idea in New Zealand for urban transport, Doppelmayr has built big systems in South American cities, with a
31km network in La Paz, Bolivia, carryingmore than 265,000 passengers a day.
Doppelmayr calls the technology ‘‘ropeways’’, and there are differing systems, from smaller vehicles, to 78-passenger cars used in a Portland system, to a 200-seat doubledecker in a Vietnamese theme park.
‘‘We are generally one-third the cost of light rail, one-tenth the cost of going underground, and we have amodular design which means that construction projects are very short in comparison,’’ said Garreth Hayman, the general manager of Doppelmayr Lifts NZ Ltd.
The proposed cross harbour line could be built with 2-3 large pylons between the stations.
While the firm has not released any artists impressions of what a cross-harbour line might look like, Stuff understands quite a bit of work has been done behind the scenes. Hayman said Bayswater provided both a good location for a pylon, but also a transport link for the congested Devonport peninsula.
‘‘I know of the (congestion) issues along Lake Road, but if Bayswater people did not want the connection then it could go direct.’’
Hayman acknowledged that opinions on the visual impact of tall pylons might be a hurdle, but he was confident that once built, people would enjoy it.
FormerWaitākere City mayor Sir Bob Harvey is helping to champion the Doppelmayr system, which could also serve as a rapid transit line along the Northwestern Motorway, or link the airport to a future light rail terminus in
Onehunga. ‘‘If there’s one thing missing in Auckland it is vision, we’ve been too busy to come up with a bloody good idea to get us around,’’ said Sir Bob.
Hayman said Doppelmayr was open about how an Auckland project could be funded, with the company involved in different arrangements from building a project for a state entity, to public private partnerships in which it built and ran the service.
The company is canvassing the project with leading candidates in the Auckland mayoral contest, as well as the retiring mayor Phil Goff, seeking political backing.
Doppelmayr has built systems at major New Zealand ski fields, the Queenstown and Rotorua gondolas, and Wellington’s Cable Car.