In Less than ten minutes from the Kaiserlei in Offenbach to the ice rink or the fairground on Ratsweg in Frankfurt – even during rush hour. In addition, float in a cable car over the Main and later over the Frankfurt Ostpark and all that for the usual ticket price of the Rhein-Main-Verkehrsverbund. What sounds like madness or at least a gigantic gimmick for some is a vision for others that could become reality within a year or a year and a half.
In order to be able to imagine the whole thing, students of civil and environmental engineering from the Darmstadt University of Applied Sciences, together with those from the Offenbach University of Design, not only determined the transport significance of such a project, but also visualized how this first cable car project in the Frankfurt region /Rhein-Main could look like.
Such an urban cable car could transport up to 5,000 people per hour on the 2.5 kilometer route. It would travel to three stations and not only connect a popular Frankfurt event location directly with Offenbach. Rather, there would also be a station at the Riederhöfe near the Ratswegkreisel, which would connect the commercial and industrial site at Frankfurt’s Osthafen with its around 9,000 employees directly to the Frankfurt underground network at the ice rink and to the S-Bahn route connect at the Kaiserlei in Offenbach.
For the budding engineers at Darmstadt University of Applied Sciences, this is therefore a promising variant, after all it will relieve the heavily overloaded Kaiserlei and Ratsweg bridges and at the same time connect numerous local public transport stations and thus strengthen its network.
For Thomas Horn, director of the Frankfurt Rhein Main regional association, such a cable car route would definitely be an innovative approach. “We want the traffic turnaround soon,” he says, and what could be more suitable than a means of transport that is “climate-friendly, inexpensive and quick to implement”. Horn has long been fascinated by the idea of creating an additional vertical traffic level.
Gondolas would prevent route congestion
Especially in a metropolitan area where there is constant talk of rising passenger numbers, congestion and streets full of traffic jams. Floating over congested traffic junctions with fully occupied gondolas is his vision.
Horn therefore invited representatives of the Rhine-Main region to the first cable car day four years ago and tried to win the region over to the project. If the CDU politician had had his way, the first line would have been built and the supports would have been rammed into the ground long ago. Because when the European Football Championship is held in Germany in 2024, i.e. next year, with five games in Frankfurt alone, then – according to the association director’s idea at the time – a cable car could have taken football fans directly from Terminal 3 of the airport to the Frankfurt stadium , maybe even further towards the city center.
Nothing came of it. Just like the proposal by the district administrator of the Hochtaunuskreis, Ulrich Krebs (CDU), to create a connection from Schmitten via the Großer Feldberg to the subway terminus Oberursel-Hohemark. According to a feasibility study, this should only make sense for day trippers, but not for commuters.
Horn has now invited to the second cable car day in the House of the Region. In his opinion, the conditions have changed fundamentally. Since November 2022, the Federal Ministry of Transport has published the “Urban cable cars in local public transport” guide. According to this, cable cars are eligible if they are an integral part of local public transport. “The funding is available,” said Jürgen Follmann, Dean of the Faculty of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Darmstadt University of Applied Sciences.
According to Horn, the only thing that is now needed is a reference route. Once built, the regional politician is convinced that such a cable car will quickly become a “game changer”. At least as long as all other transport projects have planning times of 30 years or more. With a view to the turnaround in traffic, Horn would like to “just try it out”.
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