Subways Are Dead, Cable Cars Are The Future Of City-Center Transport

A render of the Paris cable car network.

Is this your idea of urban utopia? Illustration: Île-de-France Mobilités

You can try and convince me that the New York City Subway is better than the London Underground, but I’ll never believe you. The Tube can get you to more places, faster and via a much simpler to navigate system. But its smaller trains and much lower depths make it a nightmare for any claustrophobes. Thankfully, Paris is eyeing a new mass transit system for anyone with a fear of enclosed spaces.

Paris, a city that already has its own underground Metro system that consists of 16 lines stopping at 303 stations across 133 miles of track, says it needs more public transport. Take note, America.

But, because it already has trains traversing its subterranean levels and buses clogging the streets up top, city planners in France are instead looking elsewhere.

So now, the city’s transport bosses are assessing the feasibility of a cable car network across Paris.

A render of one of the pylons for the Paris cable car.

Emily in Paris season 26 will see Savoir run an influencer campaign for the new Paris cable car. Illustration: Île-de-France Mobilités

It’s a luxurious image, isn’t it? The idea of floating over the streets of Paris and taking in the sights of the Eiffel Tower, Arc de Triomphe and the Champs-Élysées as you commute to work every morning.

Before you take that same scenic route home, you and your immaculately dressed co-workers will share a bottle of Champagne as you laugh jubilantly at the people scurrying underground to take the Metro home. You don’t need that anymore, you have the freedom of your city’s new cable car system.

Well, before I get too down about the fact that my country ruined any hope of me moving to Paris to live out this fantasy, let’s talk about what the proposed cable car system actually is.

According to CNN, it’s a 4.5km aerial tramway that will connect Paris’ southern suburbs with the city center. It will cost up to $145 million to build the system.

A render of a Paris cable car station.

Surely this is more appealing than an overcrowded subway car? Illustration: Île-de-France Mobilités

The Cable 1 system will travel from the Parisian suburb of Villeneuve-Saint-Georges to the Pointe du Lac station in just 17 minutes. That journey would currently take you 35 minutes on the bus or 12 minutes by car.

Construction of the system could begin as early as this year.

To get the project off the ground, workers would erect 33 pylons along the proposed route. These would then support cables that would hold the cabins.

Each cabin would have the capacity to hold 10 people and would arrive at stations roughly every 30 seconds. The network is expected to serve around 11,000 people a day.