Liberec has the final design of the cabin for the planned cable car to Ještěd

cable car

Liberec - Liberec has finalized the design of the planned cable car, which will run to the hotel with the transmitter at the top of Ještěd. It is meant to evoke a landing UFO, which is why it will have special lighting in the lower part. The design was created by the studio Anna Marešová designers. The city spokesperson, Jana Kodymová, informed about this in a press release today. The aerial cable car with a different technology and a longer route will replace the old one, whose cabin fell in the autumn of 2021.

The first design proposals for the cabin were presented to the city hall by the designer last December. The city councilors selected a variant of the cabin with an organic wavy line for the floor and roof. "It was up to the design studio to refine some minor comments and present the final design," Kodymová stated.

According to Marešová, the design and overall appearance of the cabin is meant to evoke a landing UFO. She drew inspiration from Czech sci-fi works, such as the film "Tomorrow I Will Get Up and Pour Myself Some Tea" with the production by Theodor Pištěk. "Our cable car is minimalist, practical, and technologically advanced. We designed a small transparency in the floor, and it inspired us to add a subtle, playful light detail that references Czech sci-fi from the 60s and 70s," Marešová stated.

The cable car at Ještěd, which has a history of over ninety years, has been out of service since a tragic accident when one of the two cabins fell due to a broken towing cable, resulting in the death of a conductor. At that time, the cable car belonged to Czech Railways, which decided to stop operating it and sold it to Liberec for 38.6 million Czech crowns. The city is preparing to build a new cable car with a different system and an extended route to the final tram stop in Horní Hanychov. Instead of the shuttle operation of two smaller cabins, each carrying up to 35 passengers, there will be one large-capacity cabin for 100 people suspended on two cables, referred to as a tram.

The construction of the cable car will not begin earlier than 2026. The city is still preparing a competition to select a designer who will develop the documentation, which will take about a year. "At the same time, this will create a timeframe for further discussions about potential co-investors and partners for the construction," Kodymová stated.

According to a preliminary economic analysis from 2024, the construction of the cable car will cost between 360 and 440 million Czech crowns. The authors of the study anticipate that in the first years after its opening, the cable car should transport up to half a million passengers annually. The original cabin cable car was able to transport about a quarter of a million people annually before the tragic accident.