DALLAS – The Texas A&M Transportation Institute will look into the feasibility of an eight-mile aerial tramway system in Austin known as the Wire that would move passengers high above the city's often gridlocked roadways.
The cost of the $15,750 study, which was authorized Wednesday night by Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority, will be shared equally by CTRMA, the city of Austin, and bus system operator Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority.
"I think it is an opportunity that gets us to focus and forces us to focus on creative alternatives, whatever they end up being," said CTRMA Executive Director Mike Heiligenstein.
Wire One, the proposed initial segment of an urban cable system that could eventually span the entire city, would consist of an eight-mile tramway between the University of Texas main campus, downtown and the state capitol complex to a terminal in south Austin.
The tramway, with 19 stations along the route, would cost between $287 million and $555 million to build, according to proponent Jared Ficklin, a designer with Argodesigns.
Maintenance and operations would add approximately $6 million per year to the total cost, he said.
The 10- to 15-passenger climate-controlled gondolas could carry more than 13,000 riders per day at an average speed of 12 mph, compared to the 4,200 per day who travel on Capital Metro buses along the same route, Ficklin said.
The cable system would be suspended on poles or U-shaped structures in the existing city street right-of-way, with gondolas coming into stations every 90 seconds or less, he said.
"I see this future where we're all riding around in our autonomous vehicles and hopping on the Wire and hopping off and riding our bikes on quiet streets and stuff," Ficklin said. "You know, the kind of stuff you read about in [works by science fiction author Robert] Heinlein."
All proposals for solving Austin's traffic woes should be on the table, said CTRMA chairman Ray Wilkerson.
"The thing is, we are a mobility authority. It's not just pavement," he said. "So looking at options and ideas does not hurt this agency at all. It just shows an openness for innovation."
The gondola system is worthy of a study, said Travis County commissioner Brigid Shea.
"It could be an ideal solution for a city as innovative, eccentric, and open to change as Austin," she said. "If you could provide a relief valve for several thousand people to get out of downtown and to a park-and-ride on the edge of a major highway network, that seems to me to be worth looking at."
The TTI planners will study other gondola systems around the world and review potential costs and funding sources for the Austin proposal. The report is expected to be completed in late October.
The gondola system is a serious transportation proposal, said CTRMA board member Nikelle Meade.
"I know there is a lot of skepticism in the transportation community about whether this is workable and whether it's viable," she said. "A study like this with a reputable agency like TTI is where we start."
A similar aerial gondola system has also been proposed for Washington, D.C., with a feasibility study expected to be released by the end of the year.
The urban design and architecture firm ZGF Architects LLP was chosen in April to study the feasibility of a gondola system between the Rosslyn Metro station and Georgetown to help relieve congestion along the Key Bridge over the Potomac.
The ZGF study also will determine the costs of the system and how to finance it, which could involve a public-private partnership.
The $215,000 study is being funded by the Georgetown-Rosslyn Gondola Executive Committee, which is a coalition of business improvement districts, Georgetown University, and the District of Columbia and Arlington County governments.
