Caracas Aerial Tramway

The aerial tramway of the city of Caracas, Venezuela, was inaugurated on April 19 1952 by the then president of Venezuela, General Marcos Pérez Jiménez. It remained open until the end of the 1970s but then a series of closures saw fruitless attempts to reopen it in 1986, 1988 and 1990. It wasn't until the year 2000 that the national government gave concession to reopen it to coincide with the new Hotel Humboldt and Parque Ávila Mágica, by the company Inversora Turística Caracas.

In 2000 on this development, the reconstruction of all the system of the cableway began, as well as the one of the stations. There are now more than 70 cabins, and can travel 3.5 km in little more than 15 minutes. In August of 2007 the concession was revoked and the park happens again to be in the hands of the State, renamed in October of 2007 with the name "Waraira Repano".

System

The original system had 4 stations and two sections, first between the city of Caracas (1000m), and the top of Avila hill (2100m), that also took the passengers down to the Hotel Humboldt, and the second section left of the Avila, station that passed over the town of Galipán and finished in El Cojo station in Macuto although the Estado Vargas (Vargas Station) fell into disuse and became obsolete.

The operating company before the concession was revoked, reconstructed all the first section ("Maripérez" - "Ávila"), and the state announced plans to further modernie the reconstruction and modernization of the second section of the system, a task failed to fulfill by the previous operator. A the beginning of 2008, the state put their pla into action and began the reconstruction of the second cableway system from Galipán - El Cojo.

External links

* [http://www.vive.gob.ve/inf_art.php?id_not=4666&id_s=6&id_ss=1&pag=1 Teleférico de Caracas regresa al Estado venezolano]
* [http://www.avilamagica.com/esp/index.html Portal de Ávila mágica son sección del teleférico] , Ávilmágica.com
* [http://www.primera-clase.com/2007/03/24/avila-magica-teleferico-de-caracas-y-hotel-humboldt/ Página de discusión sobre los altos precios del servicio]