Imagine how you get home in the evening not by metro or taxi, but by cable car. And no, this is not a tourist attraction: this is the usual life of people from Wellington, New Zealand.
Many cable cars are private. So how did it happen that the cable car replaced cars for the locals? In fact, it’s all about the topography of Wellington, the capital of New Zealand is sandwiched between the hills and the ocean.
A little more than 200 thousand people live in the city itself: you must admit, a small number for the capital. With the suburbs, the population roughly doubles, and it sprawls high in the hills along the sea.
Usually in cities with a similar arrangement, there are many stairs that lead to the mountains, but in Wellington everything is different: they have been replaced by wagons with rails. So some cable cars are actually private here, and they lead directly to certain houses of their owners.
Yes, many wealthy Wellingtonians install their own cable cars, as it is the most convenient way to get to their house on the hill.
A few decades ago, there were more than three hundred cable cars here. However, in 2005, after an accident, during which the cable car engine simply failed, the authorities halved the number of cable car: now there are about 150 cable cars in the city. However, some of them remain private. Travelers are attracted by this feature of Wellington.
There is also a cable car for tourists, on which many guests like to ride. But in fact, the cable cars have many difficulties. For example, for emergency services, such transport is not particularly convenient, because it is impossible to climb the hills by cable car. Most cable cars are designed for max weight 350 kilograms. If two firefighters with all their uniforms weigh about 250 kg, so in case of an emergency, the problem will arise.
In addition, it is not so cheap to build your own cable car, it is clearly more expensive than a private car. To install rails with a trailer is about 180 thousand US dollars. The cable car also requires maintenance every year: this is about another $ 900. Well, the concrete foundations on which the rails are attached have to be periodically updated: they cost about a quarter of the cost of the road. That is why some residents of Wellington have their own cable car, but no car, because there is simply no money to maintain two vehicles. So they end up choosing the most convenient vehicle to access their home.
But still, Wellingtonians love their cable cars, and they say that it is very romantic to return from a party in a small trailer that takes you slowly uphill, admiring the starry sky along the way. However, they would be happy if the maintenance of the cable car was somewhat cheaper.
News source: magnusmundi.com
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