Metrocable is a

gondola lift A gondola lift is a means of cable transport and type of aerial lift which is supported and propelled by cables from above. It consists of a loop of steel wire rope that is strung between two stations, sometimes over intermediate ...

system implemented by the City Council of

Medellín Medellín ( or ), officially the Municipality of Medellín ( es, Municipio de Medellín), is the second-largest city in Colombia, after Bogotá, and the capital of the department of Antioquia. It is located in the Aburrá Valley, a central re ...

Colombia Colombia (, ; ), officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country in South America with insular regions in North America—near Nicaragua's Caribbean coast—as well as in the Pacific Ocean. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the ...

, with the purpose of providing a transportation service that complements the Medellín Metro. It was designed to reach some of the city's informal settlements on the steep hills that mark its topography. It is largely considered to be the first urban cable propelled transit system in South America. The transportation infrastructure is already established and has been in service since 2004. The system consists of a network of 16 pre-existing gondolas. However, in these systems the passengers ride through windows attached to the inside of the gondola, and therefore do not have to interact with others. There were plans in the city for some decades before its inception for some form of transportation that took account of the difficult topography of the region. These ideas date back to the use of cable-car technology for exporting coffee ( Manizales - Mariquita Cableway) starting in the 1930s between the city of Manizales, to the south of Medellín, and the

Cauca River The Cauca River () is a river in Colombia that lies between the Occidental and Central cordilleras. From its headwaters in southwestern Colombia near the city of Popayán, it joins the Magdalena River near Magangue in Bolivar Department, and ...

below. In its modern incarnation, it was the result of a joint effort between the city's elected mayor, Luis Pérez Gutiérrez, and the Metro Company. For some, the initial conception of this system was indirectly inspired by the Caracas Aerial Tramway (also known as the Mount Avila Gondola) which was designed primarily to carry passengers to a luxury hotel in the 1950s. Line K of the Metrocable connecting the Medellín River valley to the steep hills in Comunas (districts) 1 and 2, was the first system in the world dedicated to public transport, with a fixed service schedule. Since starting operations in 2004, it carries 30,000 people daily and is operationally integrated into the rest of Medellín's mass transit system ( SITVA), which includes the overground Metro,

bus rapid transit Bus rapid transit (BRT), also called a busway or transitway, is a bus-based public transport system designed to have much more capacity, reliability and other quality features than a conventional bus system. Typically, a BRT system includes ...

system (BRT) and a tramway line (opened in 2016). As of 2020, the Medellín Metrocable system has five lines, namely Line H, Line K, Line J, Line L (Cable Arvi) and Line M. Overall, the system has been received with enthusiasm by the locals, who are mainly low-income users and are prepared to queue for up to 45 minutes at peak times to use it. There is a rapidly growing number of similar systems in cities in Latin America ( Metrocable (Caracas), Mi Teleférico (La Paz), Manizales,

Cali Santiago de Cali (), or Cali, is the capital of the Valle del Cauca department, and the most populous city in southwest Colombia, with 2,227,642 residents according to the 2018 census. The city spans with of urban area, making Cali the second ...

, TransMiCable (

Bogotá Bogotá (, also , , ), officially Bogotá, Distrito Capital, abbreviated Bogotá, D.C., and formerly known as Santa Fe de Bogotá (; ) during the Spanish period and between 1991 and 2000, is the capital city of Colombia, and one of the larges ...

), Mexicable near Mexico City, among others) and elsewhere.

Description

Medellín is located in the

Aburrá Valley Aburrá Valley (in Spanish ''Valle de Aburrá''), is the natural river basin of the Medellín River and one of the most populous valleys of Colombia in its Andean Region with near 4 million inhabitants in its biggest urban agglomeration: The ...

and is surrounded by hills. Many of those hills are home to underdeveloped barrios (asentamientos informales), which due to their location cannot be reached by Medellín's biggest mass transportation system Metro. Many of these barrios are in fact located in very steep grounds to the extent that not even a regular bus system could be either useful or commercially profitable. Before the implementation of the Metrocable Line K, residents of the Santo Domingo Savio barrio spent upwards of 2 hours commuting to work each way. The Metrocable system is a branch of Medellín's metro and it is managed by the corporation Metro of Medellín. The system uses Monocable Detachable Gondola technology which consists of cable cars connected to a fixed cable through means of a detachable grip. The haulage cable is pulled by large wheels allowing the cabins to move at an average speed of . The system was built by the French company

Poma Poma, incorporated as Pomagalski S.A., and sometimes referred to as the Poma Group, is a French company which manufactures cable-driven lift systems, including fixed and detachable chairlifts, gondola lifts, funiculars, aerial tramways, peop ...

Routes

Villa Sierra station, the eastern terminus of the H Line. As of 2020, five Metrocable lines have been opened -Line H, Line J, Line K, Line L and Line M- and one is under construction (Line P).

Line K

Line K was the initial line that was built and was first opened in 2004. It has a length of 2.07 km and contains the following four stations: Acevedo, Andalucia, Popular, and Santo Domingo. Construction costs are estimated at $26 million USD.

Line J

Soon after officials saw the enormous success of Line K, plans to proceed with another line - Line J - was immediately on the table. It officially opened in 2008. Similar to Line K, it also has four stations: San Javier, Juan XXIII, Vallejuelos and La Aurora. The entire length of Line J runs along 2.7 km of cable.

Line L

Line L does not serve communal areas, rather, it is a tourist-oriented line which is connected to Arví Park and is part of a social project to bring retreats and nature to the masses. Passengers must pay an extra fare - 10,000 Colombian Pesos ($3 USD approx.) one way to ride this line. It is connected to Line K's terminus station - Santo Domingo. It is also expected that this new line will help promote and develop tourism in the rural areas around Lake Guarne. It will take 14 minutes to ascend to El Tambo and there will be no intermediate stations.

Line H

Line H was opened in 2016. It has a length of 1.4 km and includes three stations: Oriente, Las Torres and Villa Sierra. The demand is estimated at 1,800 passengers per hour (compared with 3,000 for Line K). In Oriente station, it connects to the

Ayacucho Tram The Ayacucho Tram (or Medellín Tram) is a Translohr tram system that serves the Metropolitan Area of the Aburrá Valley in Medellín, Antioquia, Colombia. It started trial operations on 20 October 2015. The tramline consists of 9 stations with ...

line, which in turns is connected to Line A of the overground metro system.

Line M

Line M was opened in 2019. It has a length of 1.05 km and includes three stations: Miraflores, El Pinal and Trece de Noviembre. It has a capacity of 2,500 passengers per hour and in Miraflores station, it connects to the

line, which in turns is connected to Line A of the overground metro system.

Line P

Line P, which extends west from Acevedo station, was inaugurated Jun 10 2021.

Public transit

Aerial lift An aerial lift, also known as a cable car or ropeway, is a means of cable transport in which ''cabins'', ''cars'', ''gondolas'', or open chairs are hauled above the ground by means of one or more cables. Aerial lift systems are frequently employe ...

s are not often used as a mass transportation system, although they can be used as such. However, they are becoming more popular with examples which include the Metrocable system in

Caracas Caracas (, ), officially Santiago de León de Caracas, abbreviated as CCS, is the capital and largest city of Venezuela, and the center of the Metropolitan Region of Caracas (or Greater Caracas). Caracas is located along the Guaire River in th ...

Venezuela Venezuela (; ), officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ( es, link=no, República Bolivariana de Venezuela), is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many islands and islets in th ...

, the Mexicable system in Ecatepec,

Mexico Mexico (Spanish language, Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a List of sovereign states, country in the southern portion of North America. It is borders of Mexico, bordered to the north by the United States; to the so ...

, the Mi Teleférico system in

La Paz La Paz (), officially known as Nuestra Señora de La Paz (Spanish pronunciation: ), is the seat of government of the Plurinational State of Bolivia. With an estimated 816,044 residents as of 2020, La Paz is the third-most populous city in Bol ...

Bolivia , image_flag = Bandera de Bolivia (Estado).svg , flag_alt = Horizontal tricolor (red, yellow, and green from top to bottom) with the coat of arms of Bolivia in the center , flag_alt2 = 7 × 7 square p ...

, the Teleférico do Alemão in

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the state of the same name, Brazil's third-most populous state, and the second-most populous city in Brazil, after São Paulo. Listed by the GaWC as a b ...

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

(currently closed), and, in the United States, the

Roosevelt Island Tramway The Roosevelt Island Tramway is an aerial tramway in New York City that spans the East River and connects Roosevelt Island to the Upper East Side of Manhattan. The tramway is the first commuter aerial tramway in North America, having opened i ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

and the Portland Aerial Tram in

Portland, Oregon Portland (, ) is a port city in the Pacific Northwest and the largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon. Situated at the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers, Portland is the county seat of Multnomah County, the most populous ...

. While gondolas used as transit offer many advantages such as the ability of build on terrain that precludes other surface transportations, cost-effectiveness, low emissions and energy efficiency, one of the disadvantages of gondolas is the risk of power outages. In case of a hazard or an emergency it is not possible to exit the cabins. However, Medellín Metro is ameliorating this problem by providing a communication system in every vehicle should an emergency occur. Studies have suggested strong correlations between the intervention of the Metrocables and dramatic reductions in crime associated with the areas where Medellín Metrocable has been introduced.