Unique cable car over the river in Chrastava has finished, it was looted

Chrastava (Liberecko) - The unique cable car designed by Martin Rajniš, which replaced the bridge washed away by flooding in Chrastava, finished its run after two weeks. Over the weekend, someone stole the cable and pulleys from it. The case is being investigated by the police as a misdemeanor, with the value of the stolen items not exceeding 2000 crowns. This was reported by today's Liberec supplement of Mladá fronta Dnes (MfD).
    Transborder, or a modified manually-operated cable car, served the residents of Andělská Hora for crossing the Lužická Nisa. Now they have to take a long detour to the other bank. The mayor of the town believes that someone intentionally stole parts of the transborder. "It doesn’t look like vandalism or that someone wanted to enrich themselves; rather, it seems like someone is getting revenge for having such a nice feature here. It’s terrible," the mayor Michael Canov told the newspaper. According to him, the perpetrators must have made an effort to steal it - the cable hangs at a height and the area is lit at night. Nevertheless, no one saw anything.
    Devices like the transborder have been transporting people and goods for centuries, and much larger versions have been used in ports. Rajniš admitted that he was inspired by the work of his colleague Mirko Bauma, who built a similar transborder on the Niers River in the Ruhr seven years ago. While the German device is made of iron, Rajniš's transborder is wooden and significantly cheaper - it cost about 650,000 crowns, which is roughly a third of the cost of the German equipment. Rajniš's realization was also significantly quicker - only 23 days passed from the first idea to the commencement of operations. The construction was funded by companies and citizens of Prague.
    According to the mayor, the construction was a great help for Chrastava. The footbridge washed away by the water was heavily used by residents of the local part of Kolonka, among other things, for getting to the train. The cable car was also intended to serve tourists. For this reason, the town hall wants to repair it again this week. Chrastava is among the municipalities in the Liberec Region that were most affected by the August floods. The water took four bridges and seven footbridges, and destroyed other municipal property worth more than 180 million crowns.