Plans for the cable car in Stuttgart are becoming more concrete - engineer: "What speaks against it?"
Created: 05/18/2022, 16:42
By: Sina Alonso Garcia
The city of Stuttgart has commissioned an engineering office to examine the feasibility of cable cars in the basin (symbolic image).
© Bernd Weißbrod/dpa
A cable car could relieve traffic in the Stuttgart district of Vaihingen.
According to engineers, up to 11,500 passengers a day would be possible.
Stuttgart - A cable car for Stuttgart?
What sounds crazy at first could actually soon become reality if the engineering office SSP Consult has its way.
In a feasibility study, it determined that a cable car in the Vaihingen district would be the best solution to relieve traffic and bring 11,500 people from A to B every day.
Specifically, a station could be built at the Vaihinger indoor pool in Rosental, according to the engineers.
From there, the route would lead in one direction through the Rosental to the new Eiermann campus and on the other side to the Vaihingen train station.
A cable car station on an indoor swimming pool has rarely been found - Michael Welsch, an engineer at SSP Consult, is well aware of this.
"That's not typical, but what speaks against it?" he asks in an interview with the
Stuttgarter Zeitung
.
In other countries, for example, there are examples of cable car stations that are on the seventh or eighth floor of a hotel.
A lot is possible.
Cable car in Stuttgart: engineer explains idea for Vaihingen
As Welsch explained in the mobility committee, the cable car would not be built on the roof of the swimming pool itself, but on an outbuilding.
For example, there are changing rooms.
Since the building dates back to 1970, there is "no harm" in renovating it or building a new one.
In this case, the cable car could be directly considered.
"The outbuilding with a cable car station would not be much higher than the swimming pool itself," says Welsch.
"So it wouldn't be a whole new look."
Cable car plans in Vaihingen: These route options are available
The engineering office SSP Consult examined various options for cable car routes in Stuttgart-Vaihingen as part of a feasibility study commissioned by the city of Stuttgart.
In addition to the original controversial route section, which should lead from the Eiermann campus directly through the Rosental to the Vaihingen train station, other proposals have now been worked out.
The first leads with two sub-variants to the school campus and from there to the train station.
The other route, now preferred by the planners, leads to a larger station on the roof of the indoor pool and on to the train station.
This would have the advantage that no additional floor space would have to be built.
Welsch emphasizes that the cable car station would be located at the indoor pool in the best possible way.
The station would be high enough so that the route of the gondolas over the Rosental conservation area and the Vaihinger Feuersee would not threaten the tree population.
He hopes that this idea will suit the citizens who are currently up in arms against the plans for the route.
It has not yet been decided whether the cable car will actually be built.
According to Michael Welsch, if the idea is actually implemented, there will be an architectural competition.
As an alternative to the cable car, the expansion of the city railway and improved bus routes are currently being examined.
The central goal of the considerations is to better connect the Eiermann campus to Vaihingen-Mitte and to get the traffic problem under control.
Cable car in Vaihingen: "The journey time would be 18 to 20 minutes"
Ropeways, as a new form of local transport in Baden-Württemberg, have recently become the focus of engineers more and more often.
The state capital of Stuttgart has had the idea of supplementing local transport for some time.
Two years ago, Stuttgart tested cable cars throughout the city.
A total of four possible connections were available.
So far, however, only the ideas for a route in Vaihingen are really concrete.
"The cable car could be continued to the A8 motorway," said Wolfgang Forderer, head of the mobility department of the city of Stuttgart, to
BW24
.
"The travel time for the whole route would be 18-20 minutes."
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The state capital is the focus of several projects - not only because of its topography does it lend itself to a cable car.
"Stuttgart is one of the model municipalities for the climate mobility plan in Baden-Württemberg," says Forderer.
The Federal Ministry of Transport is also taking a closer look at the southwest.
Ropeway systems are being discussed in a total of six so-called "high-flyer cities".
"Stuttgart is one of the six," said a spokesman for
BW24
.