EmailThrough its tinted windows, the gleaming-red cabin affords passengers a spectacular view of the glacier-capped Andes mountains as it glides serenely out of Bolivia's administrative capital, La Paz, ascending almost 500m up to the cliff-edge city of El Alto – the world's highest major metropolis at an elevation of 4,150m.
It's a far cry from the blaring horns, passengers hanging out of smoke-belching buses and pedestrians navigating endless rivers of traffic that is the usual rush hour experience for commuters travelling between these neighbouring cities, home to nearly 2 million people.
The region's new $234m (£140m) cable car system, which whisks passengers between sleek modern terminals in controlled silence, was given its first public outing this week. When all three lines are running they will be able to transport 18,000 passengers an hour over nearly 11 kilometres – making it the longest urban cable-car system in the world. It’s an innovation many Bolivians hope will turn their uncomfortable, seemingly interminable commute into a quick and modern ride.
Mariela Choque, 20, is one of tens of thousands who commute from El Alto down to La Paz every day. To arrive at her job in a La Paz cafe by 7am, she must wake well before dawn. It is only 10km as the crow flies, but the winding, zigzagging, traffic-clogged trip down the precipitous mountainside takes more than an hour.
It’s worse in the evening, when there are often not enough of the little white minivans, which serve as the major form of mass transport in La Paz and El Alto, to handle the number of commuters. “Everyone is fighting to get on a bus,” she says. “It makes people desperate.”
Now, however, she will be able to hop on a cable car at the very edge of the El Alto cliff, and zip down to La Paz in minutes – cutting nearly half an hour from her trip each way. “This is a great option for those of us who live in El Alto. I think the trip is going to be much faster, more efficient and less exhausting. I’ll get up later, have more time to get my things together, and not rush out the door forgetting my uniform.”
“Ninety-nine percent of our cable cars are built in high mountainous areas with large slopes, landslide and glacial areas that are equal to or more complex than La Paz,” he says.
The Mi Teleferico (My Cable Car) system, which runs on electricity, may also decrease air pollution by lowering the number of cars on the road. Urban cable transport systems are already working in Colombia, Venezuela and Brazil, and are often used to link distant and low-income neighbourhoods with city centres.
“This is a market in its early stages,” Telleria says of using cable cars for urban transport. He notes that they are useful in heavily developed areas like La Paz and El Alto because their physical footprint is so small. “The only option is to undertake huge development projects, demolishing many houses and making new roads – or install urban cable cars,” he says.
The red line will fully open to the public in May. But one big question remains: how much will it cost? Government sources suggest it will be competitive with ground transport: a bus currently costs 2.50 bolivianos (22p) from El Alto to the centre of La Paz, but the official cable car price won’t be released until next month. Choque thinks anything up to 3.50 bolivianos would be reasonable.
This October Bolivia will hold presidential elections, and Morales, first elected in 2005, will make his third run for office. Polls already show him with a large lead. If the cable cars succeed as a quick and affordable form of mass transit, they will be a feather in the government’s cap.
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