Table Mountain Cableway turns 88

Table Mountain Aerial Cableway Company has been in operation since 1929. Over 26 million visitors later it is celebrating its 88th birthday and the 20th anniversary of the current cable cars.

dieter55 via pixabay

The original steel and wood cable cars have been upgraded three times, first in 1958, again in 1974 and most recently in 1997 when the round cars with revolving floors called “rotairs” were introduced.

Today,1929- The Table Mountain cableway, one of the biggest tourist attractions in Cape Town, is inaugurated. pic.twitter.com/EAV1BZkdSl
— rareSApics (@RareSApics) October 4, 2017

Some fun facts about the current cable cars:

• The can each transport up to 65 passengers
• More than 800 people can enjoy the trip (weather dependent) each hour
• The trip takes four to five minutes, having previously taken up to 10 minutes
• Similar cable cars are in use at Titlis in Switzerland and Palm Springs in the USA
• Weighing 18 tonnes and attached to counterweights weighing 134 tonnes each, the cables for the cable cars are 1.2km in length
• The cable car base is a water tank with a 3,000l capacity. This provides fresh drinking water for visitors, and is used as ballast in windy conditons

Image Supplied

This month the Cableway invites locals to join the celebrations by taking advantage of special discount vouchers, which were printed in all the community newspapers during the last week of September. It will be reprinted in all the community newspapers the week of 9 October. Present the cutout voucher and you can purchase an adult return ticket and a child return ticket for R150 during October 2017.