A city councillor is pitching the idea of an urban gondola, but not for the river valley.

 

Councillor Tim Cartmell wants to see an urban gondola built along Whyte Ave. Recently, the winners of the Edmonton Project, Gary and Amber Poliquin, were chosen. Their idea of a “gondola connecting downtown with Old Strathcona” was voted in by fellow Edmontonians, and now the city is looking to make it into a reality, a strategy Cartmell says would be beneficial elsewhere.

 

The city has already proposed an idea for a ground-level LRT connecting the west and south sides of the city. Cartmell’s proposal of running a gondola instead of an LRT to connect the new Bonnie Doon Mall LRT station with the U of A would be both a cheaper and faster solution to an already increasing problem. Cartmell’s hope is that by building a gondola above the streets it will limit traffic delays.

 

The trend of urban gondolas is beginning to catch on throughout North America. Major cities like Portland and London have already adopted their own versions of the cable car. The Poliquin’s version is estimated to cost anywhere from $25-$50 million dollars.

Filed under: Gondola, LRT, yeg