Steer at the European Transport Conference: cable cars and Chinese containers

Steer will have two speakers at the annual European Transport Conference (ETC) being held from the 10th to 12th October at Dublin Castle by the Association for European Transport (AET).

Dick Dunmore from our London office will be speaking in a session on the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), China’s programme of investment in transport infrastructure and operations linking it to its markets around the world by air, land and air. At Steer, we have identified air, road, rail and maritime investments of over €100 billion, in a wide range of countries, benefitting from Chinese financial engagement. Dick’s paper, “The ‘Belt and Road Initiative’: impacts on TEN-T and on the European transport system” will present and update the findings of our study for the European Parliament describing the BRI and examining where and how it might affect Europe’s airports, ports and rail and road networks.

You can read more about our study 'The new Silk Route: opportunities and challenges for EU transport' or read our report on the European Parliament website .

Lucia Manzi from our Bologna office will be speaking in a session on the potential role of cable cars in local public transport. Since 2014, La Paz in Bolivia has opened the world’s largest network of urban transit cable cars, which now extends to 25 stations on eight lines, with a capacity for up to 4,000 passengers per hour per direction. While projects the size of the Cable Propelled Transit (CPT) network in La Paz are rare, other cities are experimenting with CPT lines which require little space on the ground, can cross motorways and rivers, and easily deal with major differences in level. Lucia’s paper “Are cable cars a viable form of urban mass transit?” will describe the opportunities presented by the mode in an urban setting.

You can read an article on cable cars here and the ETC presentation here.