Construction is due to begin later this year on a cable car connecting the Parisian suburb of Villeneuve-Saint-Georges with the French capital’s metro network.
The 4.5-kilometer line was designed by the architects of Atelier Schall. Doppelmayr, which also builds ski lifts, is due to make the cable cars themselves. Each would seat ten passengers, allowing the system to transport up to 1,600 commuters per hour.
It’s not a new idea. As I wrote in Unbuilt Paris, engineer Jean Pomagalski proposed to link the then-new business district La Défense with the city center by a cable car, or téléphérique, in the 1960s.
Here’s what it would have looked like:
Nothing came of Pomagalski’s proposal, although the company he founded still exists. It is now called Poma, and it is Doppelmayr’s only competitor!
Dezeen has more on the Villeneuve-Saint-Georges cable car.