Well, it seems the system is set to start operating on 4 July. I took this photo in the Zhongxiao Fuxing MRT Station yesterday.
And this photo of the Taipei Zoo Station (taken this morning).
I will write some more about the project on my blog and upload some of the photos to flickr. And of course go to take a ride when it opens next week.
yes do give us a report . Seems exciting !
wix, could you find out if they allow people to bring their bicycles on? If so, I’ll be getting my downhill bike. 
My friend is supposedly responsible for the English voice recording. Let me know if it’s real sexy or silly so I can make fun of her.
Incubus: there’s a lovey road all the way to the top of the hill, and it’s only about 300m high. What do you need the gondola to carry your poor widdle bicycle for?
Oh, you’re a DH rider… explains a lot!
Signed,
road racer and hill climber.
Apparently, somebody forgot about the heat in those little boxes. According to the news reports, the gondolas do not have air circulation, and there are no fans or A/C. 
:help: :loco:
If this is true, maybe they were counting on the mountain air to keep them fresh, but still, the news and the people interviewed who had used the service were comparing the gondolas to “ovens”.
Even in the snow fields those damn things get too hot, and that’s with -5 outside. I can’t conceive what they would be like in the summer heat if there’s no airflow…
[quote=“urodacus”]Incubus: there’s a lovey road all the way to the top of the hill, and it’s only about 300m high. What do you need the gondola to carry your poor widdle bicycle for?
[/quote]
That’s a lovely road, indeed, except for that 530 bus that spews out its exhaust right in your face as it passes you as you make the climb up. God knows I’ve ridden up that hill and then hiked my bike up those stairs enough times to rightly wish for a gondola lift, and if the gondola does accommodate bikes, then the FFTA would have to rename the Maokong trail as the true Ski Lift trail.
Indeed!
I try to avoid the bus on that hill, it’s good incentive to push harder and overtake it…
probably not on a fully-rigged DH machine, though.
Ski-lift, hey? Now all we need is a metre of snow. Perfect!
Ok, they are about to fix the problem and they will add some more openings for ventilation. Duh! 
貓纜明通車 郝龍斌：將評估車廂加裝空調
tw.news.yahoo.com/article/url/d/ … /gpiu.html
Gosh I hope it wasn’t built by the same folks that brought HK it’s little gondolas!
[quote]On 17 June 2006, during the trial-run with the maximum of 109 gondola cabins on the ropeway, a cabin arriving Ngong Ping station had a slight collision with a late departing cabin. The entire system was automatically halted by the safety system. 500 people in the cabin were trapped for three hours. A further 600 visitors were trapped at the Ngong Ping station. After the incident, all trial-runs were canceled, and the commencement date of the system was postponed.
After service commencement, system failures still occur occasionally.[/quote]
Now if you aren’t par-boiled waiting for the thing to start moving again, there is always the prospect of a gondola suddenly plummeting to earth.
Apparently they’ve discovered that the unique weather conditions, pollution and some other nonesense, means these gondolas are wearing out twice as fast as they’d expected.
HG
[quote=“Huang Guang Chen”]Gosh I hope it wasn’t built by the same folks that brought HK it’s little gondolas!
[quote]On 17 June 2006, during the trial-run with the maximum of 109 gondola cabins on the ropeway, a cabin arriving Ngong Ping station had a slight collision with a late departing cabin. The entire system was automatically halted by the safety system. 500 people in the cabin were trapped for three hours. A further 600 visitors were trapped at the Ngong Ping station. After the incident, all trial-runs were canceled, and the commencement date of the system was postponed.
After service commencement, system failures still occur occasionally.[/quote]
Now if you aren’t par-boiled waiting for the thing to start moving again, there is always the prospect of a gondola suddenly plummeting to earth.
Apparently they’ve discovered that the unique weather conditions, pollution and some other nonesense, means these gondolas are wearing out twice as fast as they’d expected.
HG[/quote]
Holy Shit!
I LOVE those gondolas… I’ve always believed that a ride on those was worth the price of admission at OP.
Say it ain’t so!
The wires don’t like getting too hot as they stretch more when loaded. They don’t like high winds. They don’t handle people swinging the gondolas on purpose, as you get collisions with the other wire, or sagging bouncing cars which can unskip over the pulleys. They probaby won’t handle the inevitable freakouts and people pulling the emergency brakes too often either.
On the other hand, they were built and installed by some Swiss company or other so it’s not like it was installed by an amateur. I am sure they spent so long putting it up there to get rid of at least the worst of the gremlins. The maintenance will be the really important thing, though. I’d definitely be trying it out sooner rather than later!
Yea… I don’t know if the Taiwan people are Gondola friendly… is there any other big system like this in Taiwan?
I think this is the first . I dont know how the system is going to hold together in the next big 200mph typhoon tho?
Urodacus:
They already have gremlins -or at least, rabid squirrels, if there is such a thing.
From last night’s English news:
Taipei City officials are hoping a new cable car will provide an economic boost to the hilly areas in the south of the city. With the cable car to be launched Wednesday, city engineers were forced to issue assurances over the safety of the cars after extensive damage to the seals around the doors was discovered during a media day Tuesday.
Chen Shih-jie
Taipei New Construction Office
It was probably a squirrel that chewed the seals, said Chen Shih-jie from the New Construction Office. Out of 100 cars, maybe four or five have this problem. It does not affect the cars’ safety at all.
englishnews.ftv.com.tw/index.asp
I think this is the first . I don’t know how the system is going to hold together in the next big 200mph typhoon tho?[/quote]
Put all the cars in storage and hope the lines dont snap would be my guess but dunno if they will have enough sense to do that… probably just promo the new typhoon gondola see the typhoon upclose and maybe you can get a free ride cable free!
[quote=“Tigerman”]Holy Shit!
I LOVE those gondolas… I’ve always believed that a ride on those was worth the price of admission at OP.
Say it ain’t so![/quote]
Afraid it is. There is considerable financial pressure to get the thing back up and running, as the HK government is offsetting costs and losses for people that opened shops and stalls at the Big Buddha end of the line. I hope this doesn’t compromise safety!
Someone I know here who claims some knowledge of the bidding process reckons the losing bid had a three line system whereas the winner had two lines and was therefore cheaper. This person claimed that given the funneling effect through the area it should have used three wires/lines. I really dunno what that all means.
HG
[quote=“Huang Guang Chen”][quote=“Tigerman”]Holy Shit!
I LOVE those gondolas… I’ve always believed that a ride on those was worth the price of admission at OP.
Say it ain’t so![/quote]
Afraid it is. There is considerable financial pressure to get the thing back up and running, as the HK government is offsetting costs and losses for people that opened shops and stalls at the Big Buddha end of the line. I hope this doesn’t compromise safety!
Someone I know here who claims some knowledge of the bidding process reckons the losing bid had a three line system whereas the winner had two lines and was therefore cheaper. This person claimed that given the funneling effect through the area it should have used three wires/lines. I really dunno what that all means.
HG[/quote]
Probably means that the area is a bad idea for gondolas in the first place and they should have used extra cabling to support the gondolas and that the 2 wire system sux… yea…
Aaah! They used SEALS to build the doorframes? SEALS? How could they? The bastards. Little cute cuddly white fluffy baby seals… oh, I am in shock.
They must be a Canadian company. Next we’ll hear that they beavered away, long and hard, getting all the maple syrup hydraulics sorted out.