In 1966, Madrid opened a cable car to connect the Argüelles district inside the Casa de Campo, its large park. To do this, he pulled a 2,457 meter long cable between the two points and put into operation dozens of cabins, with the intention of transporting citizens from the balcony of Rosales to the green lung of the city, through a private concession.
Fifty years later, in 2016, Madrid City Council recovered the service with Carmena, which was then operated by the leisure company Parques Reunidos, and managed it through EMT, a public mobility company that began to take care of its facilities. It did this until 2022, when it closed without notice – already with Almeida at town hall – and initially temporarily. We then learned that the wait would be longer because all the installations would have to be changed, without specifying many dates: the town hall assured in 2023 that it was necessary to change the wiring to function again and it was confident that the provisions would allow this after last summer. But it ruled out an early reopening and instead worked towards a complete renovation, which will also affect the stations and the technological system.
But the Municipal Transport Company of Madrid has just dispelled doubts. According to the tender file for the reconstruction of the cable car to which this newspaper had access, the new facilities can be put back into service at the beginning of 2027. This will be after the dismantling of the current facilities and the construction of new ones, with cabins of greater capacity and which will circulate at a higher speed, indicate the details of the tender consulted by Somos Madrid.
The action includes two phases, one for dismantling and another for construction and subsequent renovation. Firstly, the cabins and supports, five kilometers of cables and electromechanical elements will be removed. In addition, all existing terminals will be demolished, as well as the current Pintor Rosales and Casa de Campo stations. Subsequently, a new electromechanical installation, new support pylons will be erected and the two stations will be reconstructed. The work execution period from the signing of the contract is 14 months and the useful life of the installations will reach 50 years.
The work fell significantly behind schedule compared to the Town Hall’s initial forecasts. In a presentation to the media in early 2024, the mayor assured that work would begin in early 2025, but bureaucratic procedures have been delayed and the first trips could arrive before 2027, probably shortly before the local elections in May of the same year.
Construction details of the new Madrid cable car indicate that it will move from the old clamp cabins that run on two cables and accommodate six people to a single cable cable car with removable clamp cabins that can accommodate ten passengers. 49 cabins will be manufactured compared to 78 that existed until now, but the passenger transport capacity will be greater, because the transport speed will increase from 3.5 m/s to 6 m/s. This means that the cable car will be able to transport up to 1,800 people per hour compared to 1,200 for the previous model.
“Due to the uniqueness and characteristics of the cable car, it is not possible to partially renew it or maintain the electromechanical components of the current system to reuse them in the future system to be installed,” explains the EMT justifying the new project, which includes a total change of the terminals, the poles on which the cable car is fixed. Their number also increases from six to nine, although, according to the construction details, this increase will barely be noticeable on the current route, since the new facility will have the same length and slope, with higher safety standards.
The initial budget for the works is 36 million euros, which will be assumed by the Madrid City Council through direct exploitation, since Mayor Almeida has ruled out the privatization of the construction in exchange for the operation of this service for the next decades.
This is where the new facilities will be located, according to the plans to which Somos Madrid has had access:
Concerning the environmental impacts, the relevant report explains that the renovation works and the construction of new towers and cable car stations will cause the felling of six examples at the Pintor Rosales station and one at the Casa de Campo station. To compensate for them, the Town Hall will plant 20 specimens of Cedrus atlántica reaching 2.5 meters high in the first station and five others in the second.
Commercial operation of the cable car: two bars
The comprehensive reform of these facilities was one of the proposals that the mayor, José Luis Martínez-Almeida, included in his electoral program. During the campaign, he promised to make it “a cable car of the future” with which “the catering and leisure offer will be expanded in the Casa de Campo area”.
This promise will result in the opening of a bar-restaurant at the Pintor Rosales station, which will have 380 m², to which will be added 29 m² of kitchen, 12 m² of bar and a terrace of 173 m². It will be located in a six-storey building with a constructed area of 4,695 m², where the main cable car services will be located, including commercial spaces, catering areas “and other complementary services that allow greater dynamism of the stations, generating a more attractive and efficient environment for users”, underlines the specifications.
The model will be repeated, on a smaller size, at the Casa de Campo terminal, where the constructed area will be 3,879 m², distributed over four floors. There will be 392 m² of commercial space, 50 m² of kitchen, 10 m² of bar and 177 m² of terrace.
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