[1] With this form of lift, the grip of an aerial tramway cabin is fixed onto the propulsion cable and cannot be decoupled from it during operation.
Aerial tramways usually provide lower line capacities and longer wait times than gondola lifts.
Other firms entered the mining tramway business, including Otto, Leschen, Breco Ropeways Ltd., Ceretti and Tanfani, and Riblet.
[7] In the beginning of the 20th century, the rise of the middle class and the leisure industry allowed for investment in sight-seeing transport.
An 1893 industry publication said of a two-mile system in Hong Kong that it "is the only wire tramway which has been erected exclusively for the carriage of individuals" (albeit workmen).
[8] After the pioneer cable car suitable for public transport on Mount Ulia in 1907[9][10] (San Sebastián, Spain) by Leonardo Torres Quevedo and the Wetterhorn Elevator (Grindelwald, Switzerland) in 1908,[11] others to the top of high peaks in the Alps of Austria, Germany and Switzerland resulted.
[12] Many aerial tramways were built by Von Roll Ltd. of Switzerland, later acquired by Austrian lift manufacturer Doppelmayr.
Other German, Swiss, and Austrian firms played an important role in the cable car business: Bleichert, Heckel, Pohlig, PHB (Pohlig-Heckel-Bleichert), Garaventa and Waagner-Biró.
The 1976 Roosevelt Island Tramway in New York City, the 2022 Rakavlit cable car in Haifa, Israel and the 2006 Portland Aerial Tram are examples where this technology has been successfully adapted for public transport.
The Vanoise Express cable car carries 200 people in each cabin at a height of 380 m (1,247 ft) over the Ponturin gorge in France.
The CabriO cable car to the summit of the Stanserhorn in Switzerland carries 60 persons, with the upper floor accommodating 30 people in the open air.