Urban Cableway Systems: State-of-art and analysis of the Emirates Air Line, London

Cableway systems are often associated with mountains and skiing. Nonetheless, they established in several cities for public transportation in the last years. This paper describes the state of the art in urban cable car systems and focuses especially on advances and experiences of planning processes in Germany. For this purpose, we conduct a systematic review of academic literature regarding urban ropeway systems, including analyses of the international context, the methodologies used and different perspectives on the topic in an international context. Additionally, we investigate the Emirates Air Line which operates since 2012 in London in order to identify the challenges for urban ropeway systems for Germany. The results indicate that urban ropeway systems have a potential to establish in public transportation in German cities, but still exist several obstacles that need to be settled.