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Say, Braehead or Science centre to Kilpatricks.
If London can do it, and even wee places like Gibraltar, then why not us.
Part lottery funded, Billionaire Arnold Clark could chip in the rest (the very least he could do)
Great tourist potential for john Muir way.
We could be in for much colder winters, so a great way to get some snowboarding, etc.
Yes, the idea was mooted before, albeit on a much smaller scale
First one to say 'monorail'...
We couldn't even get a train line to the airport...
Thats a fair distance and will pass over a lot of neds.
I'm oot!
If London can do it, and even wee places like Gibraltar, then why not us.
More people in London than the whole of scotland (and more tourists too). Theirs is a tourist gimic that I don't think has made any money (or certainly not without sponsorship) and is only 1km long. All the way to the kilpatricks would probably make it the longest cable car currently in use anywhere in the world. London has an impressive skyline. Is "dumbartonshire" really somewhere people would come to see from the air? even when there are truely spectacular views for free elsewhere in Scotland?
You'd be better trying to find two places that need a transport link, so that there is a regular flow of customers rather than tourists. To make it competitive it probably needs to cover terrain that land transport can't.
The London cable car is rubbish - it's in the tourist hotspot of East London, taking you between an exhibition centre and a cinema.
We could be in for much colder winters, so a great way to get some snowboarding, etc.
Its a long walk back to Braehead to get your next uplift 🙂
Good points here folks
I figured that it could be split into stages...Braehead to Bearsden and then up to Cochno hill.
I think the longest cable car ride is in Venezuela, 12.5 km.
I'm sure there would be demand, not least from fell runners and ramblers.
The way I see it, the Kilpatricks are due to have even more paths... they've hardly even started yet BUT they can be a hassle to reach. There's no direct rapid public transport links and even if you've got a car, Cochno road is one car wide and maybe not the kind of place you would leave your car.
>If London can do it, and even wee places like Gibraltar, then why not us.<
'Cos our civil servants and politicians are largely tits.
Or to give you a one word answer: Funicular
Besides, Braehead and the Kilpatricks? What an awful combination.
Oddly enough when I lived in Bearsden I used to [u]ride[/u] to the Kilpatricks, I don't see any reason why that isn't still feasible.
[url= https://canmore.org.uk/site/198436/milngavie-bennie-railplane ]More on the amazing railplane.[/url]
[img] 
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[img] 
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Huge infrastructure for the monoplane!!!
I figured that someday they'll relocate the sewage works away from the Southern general hospital...maybe that site would make an ideal base.
Big catchment area of people who need the opportunity to get outdoors in fresh(er) air.
Not just for the super fit, buy for the hordes of glaswegians with chronic health conditions.
I'm sure there would be demand, not least from fell runners and ramblers.
Why would you want to drive to braehead, park the car then pay to go on a cable car to go for a walk in the kilpatrick hills? Why not just drive to the hills?
And as for basing a massive infrastructure project on the possibility that winters 'could get colder', well that's a risky one.
Not just for the super fit, buy for the hordes of glaswegians with chronic health conditions.
Who quite possibly couldn't afford whatever it cost to use the cable car. And who says all these people with chronic health conditions either want to go for a ramble or are able to?
Why drive to braehead, etc?
Why not take the bus to braehead?
Big chunk of Glasgows demographic have a bus pass, not only the saga crowd but disabled too. (the fc have plans to incorporate disabled - friendly paths into the kilpatricks)
Why not just drive to the hills?
Cars are bad for your health. Really, really bad.
Imagine all the pollution to get up to cochno road. And you're still nowhere near the top of the hill.
Doesn't need to start at braehead/ govan, but good transport links there.
Its a vox pop so any suggestions welcomed.
There will also be an increased demand as hs2 reaches Glasgow.
Lots of students with time and a desire to explore the hills.
Doesn't need to be expensive to use. The initial capital infrastructure would be a good investment for the area.
If it was part wind powered then the running costs would be dramatically reduced.
The views up there can be pretty stunning for 'Dumbartonshire' and also allows the gentler folk to explore further afield, car free.
Imagine all the pollution to get up to cochno road
Is there a pollution problem there now? Why would it suddenly become an incredibly popular location to go for a walk.
All these people that are going to get the bus that have a bus pass what do they wear to go for a walk, their sandals and an anorak they bought in 1972?
There will also be an increased demand as hs2 reaches Glasgow.
Why would there be?
There's road traffic up in that vicinity now. So yes that qualifies as pollution.
Demand comes from the kilpatricks being linked into a broader network of paths and trails (not least the john Muir way).
I wouldn't be so dismissive of the saga louts...they're the ones with the gold card to the rohan shops. They'd be the ones elbowing you in the ribs to get on the thing.
They've got money and a LOT of time on their hands.
Similarly, hs2 will bring an increase in residents and tourists to Glasgow, though there would be sufficient demand from the sub million people already within reach of braehead (or wherever)
I wouldn't be so dismissive of the saga louts
I'm not, I was referring to the 'hordes of glaswegians with chronic health conditions', who generally don't have two pennies to rub together. How are they going to buy gear that they can use on the hills.
And if people are getting buses to braehead why not just have buses going to a base at the kilpatricks instead.
Surely the money would be better invested in the infrastructure we already have rather than having a cable car that will let you view the shite holes of glasgow from above.
I don't get where this demand you envisage is going to come from.
an uplift at inners would be much better
There's already this amazing service that gets you right from the centre of Glasgow to the hills pretty quickly - bigger hills than the Kilpatricks too, if you like. It was very popular with poor Glaswegians in the '30s.
It's called the train.
Outdoor gear doesn't have to cost a mint.
Roads heaving with traffic, it would be great to leap frog over it on the way to the hills.
A bus right up to the Muirhouses might feasible but would involve much alterations to the existing roads...and you would still be waiting in traffic.
Demand will come from the expansion of routes up there.
Yes, you could use the train to get further afield, but if you're short on time you could still get out of the city and back on a cable car.
I hope this turns out to be some kind of troll. You can't honestly think this is a goer? 🙂
Edit: Besides, by the time planning approval, fundraising, legal challenges and construction was done with, we will all be transported around by pods suspended from drones and your scheme will be well out of date.
Incase you haven't seen what the fc have already done...
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=M8dt93zIW4Q
Imagine if you could take your family up to cochno hill and beyond, via cable car and then return to town for a feast, having worked up a ferocious appetite.
Or would you rather spend time at m and d's?
Certainly not a troll!
Thanks for your input.
Though I still would envisage it as part of the general transport infrastructure, to complement it.
Is Cochno Hill really all that? It's a bit dull, isn't it? So your target market is short-attention-span people who have suddenly decided they want to go hill walking?
Why not take the bus to braehead?
Why not take a bus to the Kilpatricks?
So your target market is short-attention-span people who have suddenly decided they want to go hill walking?
...... who don't already get a bus to Clachan of Campsie to do exactly that already.
@poly "London has an impressive skyline"
Pales, compared to the view across to ben Lomond. Scenery up the kilpatricks can be truly stunning. Proper sunsets too.
Great vantage point on guy Fawkes night!
There's still an important question regarding the financial viability.
The last time I was on the one at Gibraltar, it wasn't exactly crammed full of people.
So on what point it breaks even, I don't know.
Once you get past the light emissions from Glasgow, it opens up opportunities for astronomy.
No shortage of people wanting to go up for a spot of angling.
Most likely scenario?
The city council will announce the project and use it to threaten people who object to any kind of redevelopment in their area!
Or would you rather spend time at m and d's?
Don't know, I've never been. What's it like? Probably cheaper than either getting the bus to braehead or paying for parking taking the whole family on a cable car then out for a meal in town mind you.
Id still like to know where the demand would come from.
Once you get past the light emissions from Glasgow, it opens up opportunities for astronomy.No shortage of people wanting to go up for a spot of angling
Ah, so short-attention-span astronomers and anglers as well as the hill walkers 😉
So the cable car would run all night in case anyone stumbles out of Xcape and fancies a look at the Perseids?
A look at the perseids?
Why not!
Doesn't have to be exactly at braehead but I was thinking of that area...like the Queen Elizabeth/sgh once they decommission the sewage works.
You've got the M8 a km away (approx).
Still doesn't answer the question of why people would take themselves or their family out the city for a walk/ cyle, great views (weather permitting) as opposed to sitting in front of the xbox, etc.
Why hike up the cobbler, why visit a museum, why go to the Edinburgh festival, etc.
Strong skunk around at the moment?
My ex- flatmate used to come up with similar well thought through ideas.
This post would make a great Dee Dee sketch
My ex- flatmate used to come up with similar well thought through ideas.
Guy at a place I worked used to do it when he was on night security shifts on his own. He'd come up with a problem at the beginning of the shift and propose a solution then spend the night testing it.
My favourite was the problem that the complexity and energy needed to launch a space craft left human space travel in the domain of the governments of superpowers and out of reach of commercial pilots and passengers.
He proposed a really tall tower - tall enough to make it easy to launch into orbit from the top with much reduced power / fuel requirements.
He spent the rest of the night working out how tall the tower needed to be to make a significant difference to launch costs - how wide the base would need to be, how deep the foundation would be and how many continuous truckloads of concrete would be required and a guestimate of time and cost to build.
The he worked out how many launches you'd need to have before the saving offset the build costs.
All this before the internet, incidentally - he couldn't google any of this. But he had spent some time labouring on a building site.
When I arrived at 8am the next morning he declared that 'its probably not worth it'.
Where's your 'can do' attitude?
You must have been living in Glasgow that you've no greater expectations than hoping that someone builds a driving range and/ or golf course nearby.
I can appreciate your pessimism regarding the recalcitrance of government to get involved in such a scheme as they have been shipping on us from a great height and don't wish to give up that monopoly.
Given the transformation thats going to take place up there, I cant see any other way to shuttle in that amount of people.
The fc have been given the mandate to increase visitor numbers up there and offer a 'wilderness experience'
They'd be failing if it isn't packed out.
Maybe some kind of corporation bus...but there still isn't scope for that many people arriving by motor transport.
Bear in mind that the Kilpatrick hills will be a major regional factor in recreation, and you might be surprised at the amount of people that come to Glasgow from far afield, even for shopping (there's not many music shops in Inveraray)
@bencooper ...plenty of trains, but not any that take you to the top of a hill. Maybe scotrail should add a stop near glen douglas on the way to arrochar.
@lobydosser and maccruisken
Not offended by any ridicule, but surprised to being compared to skunkweed types.
Could have been any other group of ridicule...bolsheviks, lib Dems, fifth columnists, ukip, etc. Who will it be next month?
Space flight is fraught with all kinds of complications, gondola/cable cars are a proven and to my surprise, common place technology.
Still don't know about the comparison to the limmy character.
The guy seems to be the uber-ned.
Nothing wrong with neds. Afaik, most took up careers in community education.
I've been watching limmys show on netflix, but a common thread seems to emerge that of restricting your thoughts and awareness, lest you face ridicule.
This is the time for radical ideas and solutions.
If he completely runs out of ideas he could present a show, exploring meditation and martial arts, the pasty little ffffffc!
Some really strong weed kicking about Glasgow just now 😆
You could start it from the finnieston crane, have a party with deedee up there!.
Da'. Wur we up that Finnieston cran' the other night?
😆
You could start it from the finnieston crane
Never gonna work. Remember what happened on the bus to Yoker? 😉
A once in a lifetime chance to travel to a pure mad fabled land.
The fc have been given the mandate to increase visitor numbers up there and offer a 'wilderness experience'They'd be failing if it isn't packed out.
This. Nothing screams wilderness like a packed out hill top full of day trippers.
Not saying the OP is a day tripper. But he sure is trippin!
There will also be an increased demand as hs2 reaches Glasgow.
But by then I can just use an autonomous hover car to drop me and my bike at the top of Ben Lomond instead
Go for it. The world needs more George Bennies and Greatbeardedones.
Are there plans for massive path development up there now then?
Thats new. Certainly not what the FC were saying when they ran all their public consultations on the Kilpatricks.
Brilliant lunacy, count me in for a shot on the cable car!
I'd never heard of the Milngavie railplane, nice one.
Sounds like more of a [i]Shelbyville[/i] idea
Still surprised that no ones offered up any more substantive critiques.
The last few posts are indicative of the way that neds think.
Has limmy given you permission [i]not [/i]to tuck your tracky bottoms into your socks.
Do you dare break out of your culturally sanctioned beliefs?
Again, why the reference to the skunk weed types...Ive never been [i]that[/i] hip, daddy-yo!
Now I feel like the coolest hep-cat in town. 😈
'Stowed out' and 'wilderness experience' aren't necessarily mutually exclusive.
There will be the 'honeypot' areas as well as parts that are way off the beaten track.
The website geograph.org gives an idea of the sheer scale of the area.
Have you been to the 'gates of sodom' yet? That's an interesting area, full of hanging valleys.
Thought you'd all be keeping abreast of the developments up there.
Kind of a dream area for those of you with cx bikes...miles and miles of gravel.
Better still, once you cycle beyond Dumbarton Muir towards balloch, you've got loads of quiet country roads to work at your intervals.
The finnieston crane area thing isn't so daft. Frankly I don't know if there's sufficient bedrock around govan to support the structures.
The volcanic rocks at the kilpatricks might prove ideal to build on. Though my main concern would be finding a way past the pylons. That's worthy of 'holby city'
Would be great if it could pass right over greenside res...people queuing up for bungee jumps, lol.
Anyway, back to my pals...they've stayed up past eleven pm, listening to jazz and having conversations about beat poets and the like. They're wild man, wild!!!
You'll have to scroll down to page 50, that's where they outline the recreational usage.
How do you interpret it?
Increased accessibility?
However it's full of Ned Zombie Pirates 😀Never gonna work. Remember what happened on the bus to Yoker?A once in a lifetime chance to travel to a pure mad fabled land.
Sounds as daft as haemophiliacs knocking back the radical notion of blood banks and clotting agents.
You do know that the city is going to have to come up with a method to curtail private car use in order to meet c02 regulations?
They might achieve this in the Paris style (odd/ even number plates) or even use the Oslo strategy.
Using a cable car to get from m&s at Braehead up to the new housing estates north east of baljaffray rd and then up to the kilpatricks might offer them a modicum of freedom from car dependency.
It's the way of the world that they'll build even more houses up there.
Statistically though, you probably stand a better chance of contracting cancer than seeing any radical transport plans.
That'll mean buying a new bike helmet after the chemo or wearing one of those buffs at the least.
why not reinstate the miles of underground railways then?
I thought it was going from Glasgow? Now you're going from Renfrew?
Still surprised that no ones offered up any more substantive critiques
We have, you just don't like them 😉
Basic critique: I don't see what the user base is. The crossover between people hanging out at Braehead and people who want to go hillwalking or MTBing is pretty tiny. Running it all night in case people want to go stargazing is just daft.
Another critique is the cost - it'd be very expensive to build, for the number of people it could carry - even if it was used fully which it wouldn't be.
If you want a more practical idea, here's one: reopen lots of the rail lines that were closed by Beeching, including the one to Strathblane, and build a funicular up the Campsies.
A cable car from Holyrood up to Arthurs seat would stand a chance of paying for itself.
A cable car from a god awful shopping centre full of fat weegies, up to the top of a hill that's bloody miles away wouldn't. Unless there was another god awful shopping centre up there, full of fat weegies.
Edit - and the light pollution up there would make star gazing a bit shit.
2nd edit! - and the OP posting at 4am and then not again til the afternoon? I'm calling Ganja.
I'm calling Ganja
I lolled
A cable car from a god awful shopping centre full of fat weegies, up to the top of a hill that's bloody miles away wouldn't. Unless there was another god awful shopping centre up there, full of fat weegies
That's a bit harsh..... Not all Weegies are fat.
Some of the junkies are so thin that the wan eye wid dae them. 😉
That's a bit harsh..... Not all Weegies are fat.
Some of the junkies are so thin that the wan eye wid dae them.
Skinnier than the gable end of a fifty quid note!
I imagine part of the reason is wind speeds are higher in the north
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I imagine part of the reason is wind speeds are higher in the north
Certainly wouldn't help in winter. Can't believe I'm even dignifying this with a serious response but the main reasons it wouldn't work are
There's no money for it
There's bugger all up the Kilpatricks
Folk can easily get out into the countryside from Glasgow and the surrounding area
Virtually the same view can easily be reached with no physical effort by parking at the Kyhber Rd car park at Mugdock and walking for 30 seconds
It encourages lazyness
It would cause even more congestion in and around Braehead
A cable car over some schemey estates is hardly prime tourist gold
We can't even get a train from the city centre to the airport
<cough> Science Centre Tower debacle <cough>
These negative responses are not going to go down well at the next board meeting of Kilpatrick Hills Cable Car Ltd.
"So, greatbeardedone, how did the focus group go?"........." They loved the idea, right?"
Calm down Perchy, he'll be getting out his bed shortly, then have a pure mad munchy sesh before reconvening with us, less hip mortals
cough> Science Centre Tower debacle <cough>
Well its not fallen over so there is that!
I think the only thing wrong with the OP's idea is it lack of ambition.
I can see Ben Lomond from Cathkin Braes.
Surely we can just string a wire from one to the other with a couple of stops along the way?
Using a cable car to get from m&s at Braehead up to the new housing estates north east of baljaffray rd and then up to the kilpatricks might offer them a modicum of freedom from car dependency.
Modicum is the operative word there - a small amount where a small amount is desirable. How many people can travel by cable car every hour? If the point is to provide a jolly for a few people who are prepared to pay enough for the spectacle for the costs to be covered then fair enough. But if you're talking about sustainable transport and weening people off cars then a cable car is an irrelevant sideshow - a novel way do doing a journey once for a small number of people.
Anyway... we're talking about building a line of pylons and cables across the approach route to an international airport. Even if everything else added up thats quite a problem.
a modicum of freedom from car dependency.
Countryside access around glasgow is very easy via train
cough> Science Centre Tower debacle <cough>
Well its not fallen over so there is that!
I think engineering debacle aside one thing you'll discover if you are one of the lucky few who've ever been up it (I managed a furtive private viewing during one of its periods of fubar) is that the view from the top is........ utterly unremarkable. There are plenty of better places to view the city from (the Lighthouse, Queens Park Flagpole, the M77) and plenty of better views of the surrounding skyline. The view from there is just dull.
OK what about an underground cable car?
There are plenty of better places to view the city from (the Lighthouse, Queens Park Flagpole, the M77) and plenty of better views of the surrounding skyline. The view from there is just dull.
Spent 5 years overcladding 70 odd tower blocks in Glasgow and can confirm that the best view of the city is to be had from the roof of Viewpoint Place in Balgrayhill, Springburn which is the highest point in the entire city.
Not often the words 'best' and 'springburn' are seen together!.
if you are one of the lucky few who've ever been up it
You can get up it now, it just doesn't turn any more, cheap Nigerian bearing IIRC.
<late to the party and immediately goes off-topic>
maccruiskeen - Member
My ex- flatmate used to come up with similar well thought through ideas.
He proposed a really tall tower - tall enough to make it easy to launch into orbit from the top with much reduced power / fuel requirements.
Space elevator will be cheaper https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_elevator
</as you were>
There are plenty of better places to view the city from (the Lighthouse, Queens Park Flagpole, the M77) and plenty of better views of the surrounding skyline. The view from there is just dull.
The view from the Armadillo across the river is pretty good, though 😉
[url= https://c6.staticflickr.com/3/2790/4317897309_3e09d811eb_z.jp g" target="_blank">https://c6.staticflickr.com/3/2790/4317897309_3e09d811eb_z.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/7zymrk ]Armadillo 4[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/cycleologist/ ]Ben Cooper[/url], on Flickr
Much better critiques, well done.
Much more refreshing than being compared to a character from that cererbral pansy's tv show.
Maybe the trick is to stick a big pie/ sweetie shop up there, after all as Frankie Boyle says "Glaswegians will drive 40 miles for crispy creme doughnuts".
@ben cooper...but you'd have a struggle getting a battery-powered wheelchair up the armadillo.
Like I said, Braehead might be a candidate...proximity to m8...underground goes to govan...ferry to yoker...loads of parking. Or place it at the sgh, once they've decided what to do with the sewage works.
As for running it at night, it might be your best chance of getting up there, what with the school trips to plant saplings, the hordes of silver surfers, people piling in from day care centres from all round Ayrshire and inverclyde...walking groups, walking groups.
By no means least, it would give mourners somewhere to scatter ashes, (lily loch???) other than into the sandwiches of anyone visiting the whangie.
Falkirks got the wheel. My looks alone are not a sufficient to tempt the tourists from Edinburgh!
Still questions about expense?
Lottery, the Arnold Clark cancer fund, corporate sponsorship (stick a greggs on top of the slacks?) and a chance of structural aid from the ec. We're still a long way from brexit and this could be their way of rewarding our solidarity.
Thing is, if we can manufacture most of the parts in Scotland, each pound will go a long way (multiplier effect) and unlike with cars, the cash doesn't just go into the pockets of the highly skilled car dealership.
Our pension companies need to start making a modal shift into more public transport investment as it's pretty much a guaranteed revenue stream. But I'm not naive enough to think that's the answer to everything, it's got to be a progressive shift or the public transport would drop dead. Hence we need in each city a transport czar to effect a systematic and logical transfer of transport use.
The cable car at Gibraltar also has to compete with minivans, plying for their customers and the rock's only got a population of 30,000? Plus tourists...
@boardinbob
Car, car, car!
A lot of working stiffs would gladly get ridiculous their car, what with the running costs and maintenance. But they hang onto them as it gives them a chance to get out the city.
I wouldn't say that it encourages lazyness. Quite the opposite, it's the opening up of the views that provides the motivation to keep on walking.
A cable car over the schemey estates would also afford great views of the doggers and cottagers at full pelt. How could you deny the hordes of Japanese tourists their first glimpse of real Glasgow culture one hundred feet below.How could you?
Last time someone took me up the khyber pass, the views were never this good. Better than the queens view? I'd say so. That's what 'wagnerian' means to me.*
I wouldn't drive your car right up, unless you've got the relevant keys. It would be fun, trying to get your car over a five bar gate...
*as well as fat ladies singing Norse and the smell of napalm in the morning.
@lobbydosser
Why not open up the underground tunnels? Probly safety?
Plain clothes cops need a cool place to hang out, other than the bushes at kelvingrove park?
Who knows? Still won't get you up the hill. mind
Bear in mind, most of the people that need to take advantage of the outdoors are in no fit state to scale a thousand foot hill. They need the views, not to pure boche on the way past the gavinburn.
At the very least the fc should be thinking about putting a ranger centre up there, maybe perched on the 'windy edge' at least for the views at sunset.
Realistically they should be thinking of adding a visitor centre, overlooking Glasgow.
Somewhere to serve hot beverages, and also function as a place to hold weddings, bar mitvahs, birthdays, etc.
Consider how such a place could dovetail with your existing lifestyle...
It's Saturday morning, you're slightly the worse for wear, so you take the gondola up to the jaw reservoir. You grab a coffee, perhaps some home baking. Then you take a stroll, maybe put in a pb round the 'humf'
Then it's back to the function centre at the 'jaw for another coffee, maybe check your Facebook profile, move some money around.
Plenty of time to get back home, shower and change into your neon socks and brothel creepers to restart the fun at clatty-pats.
You could even call the highest gondola stop on the kilpatricks ' cloud-nine', for all you hep cats out there..
://youtu.be/MhliLCJKZGA
youll be laughing on the other side of your faces when winter kicks in and you can't get to m&s for dishwasher tabs or fondue, cos the diesels frozen solid in your golf tdi 😆
Try again...
//
Brilliant- you've convinced me!
Sign me up.