6 Asian cable car rides that will take you to new heights, from Japan to Singapore

Cable cars are having a moment. And they are appealing not just to skiers and tourists.

“The positive response to the second edition of Cable Car World at Messe Essen makes it clear that more and more local authorities see urban cable cars as a cost-effective and sustainable alternative to conventional infrastructure in local public transport,” reported Urban Transport Magazine, after the June trade fair in Germany. “Over 600 trade fair and congress participants from 21 countries […] came to find out about technologies, products and services.”

Among the more far-flung cities to have inaugurated a cable-car system this year is Antananarivo, Madagascar, where the new bit of kit is “capable of carrying up to 75,000 passengers a day”, reports africanews.com.

Few countries, though, are as ambitious as New Zealand, where 10 new cable-car lines have been proposed: three for Auckland; two for Christchurch; four for Wellington; and one for tourist favourite Queenstown.

Saudi Arabia is getting in on the act, too, with its fourth cable-car system scheduled to launch next year, whisking pilgrims and other visitors up to the Cave of Hira, where the Prophet Mohammed is said to have received his revelation of the Koran for the first time.

Although technically a funicular railway, Hong Kong’s Peak Tram is considered to have been the first cable-car operation in Asia, having started services in 1888, but many have been installed across the continent’s eastern half since.