When cars don’t move in your neighborhood, who ya ‘gondola’ call?

​​​​​​AUSTIN – The Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority is considering funding a viability study for a proposed eight-mile gondola line that would run above South First and Guadalupe St.

The Wire would be a high-speed, detachable gondola system using towers and stations above the city’s roads and would operate between Slaughter Lane and The University of Texas campus, said Jared Ficklin, partner and lead creative technologist at Argodesign.

The Mobility Authority is interested in funding a $15,000 viability study, which would ensure no barriers would prevent the project and also serve as a precursor to a more in-depth feasibility study that could cost more than $1 million.

The Wire would not have a schedule because a gondola would arrive every few seconds. 

The system could carry between 2,400 and 6,000 riders per hour. 

Ficklin’s initial concept includes 19 stations that would also be located above the road way, and ramps would connect to sidewalks or double as pedestrian bridges.

Estimated costs for building the system is anywhere between $290 million and $600 million, Ficklin said, adding the cost would be analyzed in a feasibility study.