Doppelmayr: Sustainability Assessment Of The BUGA23 Gondola

The gondola lift at the 2023 Federal Horticultural Show (BUGA23) in Mannheim was not only a visitor magnet but also provided an example of what sustainable mobility can mean. The Darmstadt University of Applied Sciences has conducted a study looking at the sustainability of operating the BUGA23 gondola versus the hypothetical alternatives of diesel and electric bus to carry passengers between the two main sites of the BUGA exhibition area. The results paper, which is now available, shows the ropeway to be the most sustainable solution in comparison with the bus options.

At the 2023 Federal Horticultural Show in Mannheim, a Doppelmayr ropeway was installed to connect the Spinelli and Luisenpark exhibition sites, which lie two kilometers apart. Over a period of 178 days, three million passengers used the green-electricity-powered ropeway. This installation was a detachable gondola belonging to the D-Line generation with 64 OMEGA V cabins, each providing room for 10 passengers.

By adopting the ropeway as the mobility solution, it was possible to implement a direct and cost-effective link between the Spinelli and Luisenpark sites. The straight-line routing using an independent and unhindered transport level made it possible to cross various obstacles and the urban area with minimal effort. As well as being part of the BUGA sustainability concept, this ropeway provided a perspective on new mobility concepts.

Comprehensive sustainability assessment

The Darmstadt University of Applied Sciences completed a sustainability assessment of operating the BUGA23 ropeway, which compares and evaluates three transport systems connecting the Luisenpark and Spinellipark sites: the actually built BUGA23 gondola lift, a fictitious electric bus and a diesel bus alternative. Attention was focused on three different aspects that are particularly important in transport design and the mobility experience: social, economic and ecological. The inherent characteristics of the ropeway enabled it to score in all three categories.

• Social

The comprehensive analysis of the transport systems considered and their social impacts encompassed not only the quality of the connection but also subjective aspects such as ride sensation, comfort and experience. Aspects such as risk of accident, social safety and barrier-free design are also considered. On the basis of this evaluation, the ropeway is the more socially sustainable mode of transport in comparison with the two bus options. In particular, continuous service availability without the need for a timetable and the barrier-free design rated highly. The ropeway also scores well in terms of emissions, comfort and experience.

• Economic

Alongside investment and operating costs, economic considerations such as energy consumption, personnel requirements and structural footprint were taken into account as well as downstream processes like dismantling, flexibility and recycling. In the overall assessment of economic sustainability, the ropeway ranks slightly ahead of the electric bus. One of the deciding factors was the low energy and land usage.

• Ecological

In all three areas investigated, ecology showed the greatest difference between the three different transport options. The ropeway was rated by far the best. The parameters examined in this context were soil sealing, noise nuisance and impact on air quality.

Bottom line

The sustainability assessment of the BUGA23 ropeway in comparison with two bus options performed by the Darmstadt University of Applied Sciences corroborates the decision in favor of the ropeway as a sustainable transport solution. In all three pillars of sustainability examined – social, economic and ecological – the ropeway ranked best in comparison with the diesel bus and electric bus.

The ropeway in Mannheim has proved itself to be a socially attractive, rapidly installed, cost-effective and environmentally friendly mode of transport and provided the impetus for possible further urban ropeway projects. Thanks to their small structural and ecological footprint, ropeways can make an efficient and sustainable contribution to urban growth and improvements in urban mobility. As another building block of interconnected multimodal mobility, they help to overcome obstacles in the transport network and close gaps in order to relieve congestion at specific points. They can be employed as an integral part of local transit networks and incorporated in ticketing systems and timetables.

Further information on the study:
Title:

Sustainability Assessment of the Operation of the BUGA23 Ropeway
An accompanying study for Doppelmayr Seilbahnen GmbH and Bundesgartenschau Mannheim gGmbH
Darmstadt University of Applied Sciences, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Haardtring 100, 64295 Darmstadt

http://www.fbbu.h-da.de/forschung/projekte/urbane-seilbahnen