Cabin fever

The Portland Aerial Tram's cable cars have been shipped from Europe

LocalNewsDaily.com, Sep 12, 2006, Updated Oct 30, 2009

Special to / Local News Daily

Two passenger cabins meant for the Portland Aerial Tram have been shipped to Portland from The Netherlands by a Swiss company. The cars are expected to arrive here Oct. 18.

A Swiss transportation company has shipped two bulbous passenger cabins destined to crisscross the skies above Southwest Portland as part of the Portland Aerial Tram, Oregon Health & Science University said Tuesday.

The tram cars, built by Gangloff Switzerland to the specifications of Angélil/Graham/Pfenninger/Scholl Architecture, were shipped from Rotterdam, The Netherlands, on Sept. 6 and are expected to arrive in Portland on Oct. 18.

OHSU spokesman Harry Lenhart said the cabins are meant to evoke the architecture firm's vision of soap bubbles in the sky.

Each handcrafted bubble weighs 12 tons and can carry about 26,455 pounds, the university said. Each cabin is 11 feet wide and 25 feet long, capable of transporting 78 passengers and an attendant between the two tram terminals - one at OHSU's new South Waterfront campus and the other at its existing Marquam Hill campus.

The 3,300-foot trip is expected to take about three minutes.

OHSU - www.ohsu.edu

Portland Aerial Tram - www.portlandonline.com/transportation/index.cfm?c=ebajf

Gangloff - www.gangloff.com

- LocalNewsDaily

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