Minister García provides details and announces the stations of the new Santiago Urban Cable Car
The service will connect four municipalities between Huechuraba and Providencia in only 13 minutes. It will have a total of 126 cabins that will be able to transport up to 6,000 people per hour. And, best of all, it won’t pollute.
Public Works Minister Juan Carlos García announced this morning that construction of the new Santiago Urban Cable Car will resume. This alternative clean transport initiative will connect the municipalities of Huechuraba, Las Condes, Vitacura and Providencia in a time of 13 minutes.
The construction works entail investment of close to US$80 million. Once completed, they will be able to transport a maximum of 6,000 people per hour across three stations.
This is a highly anticipated project. It will decongest traffic, reduce pollution levels and decrease journey times, making it a new transport alternative for people who live in the capital.
Minister García explained that the priority of the Public Works Ministry is to make progress on “sustainable, dignified and safe mobility. This is why we have given priority to moving forward with the Santiago Urban Cable Car project, which will offer a new alternative in connectivity by linking Huechuraba with the Tobalaba Metro station and the entire eastern sector.”
The project includes three passenger transfer stations, one in Ciudad Empresarial in the municipality of Huechuraba, at the intersection of Santa Clara Avenue and El Parque Avenue; another in Cerro San Cristóbal, to the eastern side of the Antilén swimming pool; and the third on the northern side of Vitacura Avenue, at the return road of the Costanera Center on the San Carlos Canal.
Acting director of the Santiago Metropolitan Park (Parquemet), Eduardo Villalobos, stated, “we are very happy, as this project will allow our neighbors from Huechuraba to access Santiago’s green lung. The Cable Car also enables us to democratize our spaces and thus achieve a greater number of people who connect with nature.”
Timeframes
Minister García indicated that the system would include 146 cabins, each with a ten-person capacity, mounted on cables supported by a total of 26 towers placed every 100 meters, with a height of between nine and 22 meters.
When it has been opened, the Cable Car will operate 16 hours a day during business days: from Monday to Friday between 6 am and 10 pm; Saturdays between 7 am and 9 pm; and Sundays and holidays between 8 am and 9 pm.
According to the schedule, the project is currently in the final definitive engineering phase (96% progress); construction works are therefore estimated to begin in the first half of next year. Construction will take 26 months, which means it will be finished and the system will be operational during 2025.
Minister García explained that it will be a means of transport built, operated and maintained to the most demanding international standards in terms of urban cable transport.
Iquique – Alto Hospicio
Alongside the reactivation of the Santiago Urban Cable Car, Minister Juan Carlos García announced that at the end of the year a new cable car connecting Iquique with Alto Hospicio will be tendered.
“We believe that investment in decent public transport should not only be concentrated in Santiago. That is why I want to tell you today that at the end of the year we will be awarding a tender for a new cable car between Iquique and Alto Hospicio, because in northern Chile they also need decent public transport,” he stated.
Minister García indicated, “here at the Public Works Ministry we are giving urgency to projects that transform people’s lives for the better.”