Urban ropeways, more commonly known as cable cars, are proving to be a viable, low-cost and compact feeder option for mass transport systems in developing countries, Eurist vice executive director Matthias Nuessgen said on Wednesday.

Ropeways have emerged as the mass transit system with the lowest life-cycle cost, boasting low infrastructure and maintenance costs, high energy efficiency, high levels of safety and reliability, and the ability to scale all obstacles, he told delegates at the African Association of Public Transport conference in Boksburg.

Such systems could carry between 1 000 and 7 000 passengers an hour, touching on the capacities of light rail and buses, with a system spanning up to 10 km.

Ropeway systems could provide direct public links within cities and their surrounds, as well as extend into regions where access by road was difficult.

The low-emission urban cable car system needed very little urban space and could bridge obstacles, such as rivers, highways, hills and mountains, and the general urban fabric, while operating at about $2 a km to $15 a km and boasting high availability, Nuessgen explained.

He indicated that the system was one of the most secure transport modes known, with built-in back-up and security, no chance of human error, no traffic to manoeuvre and the ability to withstand volatile weather.

Neussgen cited the success of a number of systems in South America.

The need to develop an innovative solution for law enforcement to access inaccessible informal settlements besieged by lawlessness had led Caracas, in Venezuela, to adopt its own cableway in 2008.

A proposal to build roads within the settlement had been met with resistance, as it would have led to the loss of 20% of the dwellings.

The success of the system, which connected to a number of multimodal stations, had led to the establishment of several more cable systems in the region.

La Paz, in Bolivia, had followed suit with the implementation of a similar system.

In Constantine, Algeria, there were 11 systems operational by 2011, with another two under construction and ten in the planning stages.

Once completed by 2017, Algeria would boast 23 urban ropeway systems – the largest number of these systems in the world.

Uganda, Abidjan, Addis and Lagos all had plans to build cableways to ease their own growing traffic congestion.