BFF-03 La Paz’s colorful cable car system: no traffic and a great view

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BFF-03

BOLIVIA-TRANSIT-COMMUTING

La Paz’s colorful cable car system: no traffic and a great view

LA PAZ, July 16, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – “Now I’m going to get to work faster!”
exulted a smiling Rosa Lima, 52, one of the first passengers on a new cable
car line in La Paz that reaches into the heart of the Bolivian capital.

Draped in a bright orange blanket typically worn by indigenous people here,
Rosa says she lives in a neighborhood on the southern outskirts of La Paz and
that it takes her more than an hour to reach the building where she works as
a cleaner in the city center.

With the new cable car line, she says, she can be there in half the time.

The opening of the new “Celestial,” or sky-blue line was timed partly as a
tribute to the revolution of July 16, 1809 and to the heroes of the struggle
against Spanish colonizers.

With a route from the city’s south to its administrative heart, site of the
main public and private-sector offices — and above the noisy, winding and
traffic-clogged streets — the line’s opening was highly anticipated.

This is the seventh line in the city’s modern cable car system, inaugurated
in 2014 and with 16 kilometers (10 miles) of cable in La Paz and reaching to
the mountaintop communities of El Alto, at over 4,000 meters (13,100 feet).

It is the most extensive such network anywhere, certified as such by the
Guinness World Records site, according to the state-run Mi Teleferico (My
Cable Car) company, which manages the system.

The new line offers excellent views of the city and of snow-capped Mount
Illimani (6,462 meters, or 21,200 feet), while allowing passengers to escape
the capital’s steep and crowded streets.

– 106 million passengers –

In its four years in operation, the system has transported more than 106
million passengers. It now averages 159,000 a day.

Each line in the system is identified by a color. The first three lines
opened were identified as red, yellow and green, in homage to the Bolivian
flag. New lines were given the colors of white, blue, sky blue (the Celestial
line) and orange, corresponding to the wiphala, the checkered banner of the
indigenous people here.

The new line, inaugurated at a festive event featuring music and dance, is
2.6 kilometers (1.6 miles) long and includes 26 towers, four intermediate
stations and 155 cabin cars, while connecting with other lines that lead to
El Alto.

The new line is expected to be the network’s busiest and will travel 20
percent faster than other lines (86 meters, or 282 feet, per second), with a
capacity of 4,000 passengers per hour, said Cesar Dockweiler, Mi Teleferico’s
general manager.

“The line will primarily benefit public-sector employees, because the main
government offices are in the city center,” he said.

Hipolito Mamani, 45, works in a government office a few blocks from a
Celestial station and, like Rosa, plans to take advantage of it.

“I’m going to save a lot of time, especially when there are blockades,” he
said, referring to the frequent roadblocks and closures in the city center
caused by demonstrations.

Construction of the system has been overseen by Austrian company
Doppelmayr, at a cost so far of $750 million.

In the next few months two other lines — the purple and the brown — are
to be opened, with the former also serving the city center.

BSS/AFP/MSY/0817 hrs