Mi Teleférico (, English: My Cable Car), also known as Teleférico La Paz–El Alto (La Paz–El Alto Cable Car), is an aerial cable car urban transit system serving the La Paz–El Alto metropolitan area in Bolivia. As of October 2019, the system consists of 26 stations (36 if transfer stations are counted separately per line) along ten lines: Red, Yellow, Green, Blue, Orange, White, Sky Blue, Purple, Brown, and Silver. Further lines and extensions are in planning or construction.
Upon the completion of the Phase One (Red, Yellow, and Green Lines) in 2014, the system was considered to be the longest aerial cable car system in the world. Based on its master plan, the completed system, which is being built by the Doppelmayr Garaventa Group, is intended to reach a length of with 11 lines and 30 stations. While other urban transit cable cars like Medellín's Metrocable complement existing rapid transit systems, Mi Teleférico is the first system to use cable cars as the backbone of the urban transit network. In 2018, Mi Teleférico won a Latam Smart City Award in the category of "Sustainable urban development and mobility".
Mi Teleférico was planned in order to address a number of problems, including a precarious public transit system that could not cope with growing user demands, the high cost in time and money of traveling between La Paz and El Alto, chaotic traffic with its subsequent environmental and noise pollution, and a growing demand for gasoline and diesel fuel, which are subsidized by the state. The Red, Yellow, and Purple lines connect the neighboring cities of La Paz and El Alto, which are separated by a steep slope about tall, and which were previously only connected by winding, congested roads.
History
Background
The neighboring cities of El Alto and La Paz are the second and third most populous cities in Bolivia. Despite their proximity, travel between the two has always been a challenge, due to a difference in elevation of about . La Paz, the national capital of Bolivia, is located in a canyon on the Choqueyapu River, while El Alto, a poorer but growing city with a majority indigenous population, is located above it on the Altiplano plateau. Prior to the construction of the cable car, travel between La Paz and El Alto was limited to heavily crowded, winding streets, and the only public transit consisted of buses and minibuses that often got stuck in traffic. In order to alleviate this situation, the idea of connecting the two cities with a cable car has been proposed several times since the 1970s.
In the 1970s, a team planned an aerial cable car route connecting the neighborhoods of La Ceja in El Alto and La Florida in La Paz.
In 1990, a feasibility study was undertaken for a cable car between La Ceja in El Alto and the Plaza de San Francisco in La Paz. The most controversial aspects of the plan were the fare, the low passenger capacity, and the proximity to the Basilica of San Francisco. During the 1991 municipal elections, the Conciencia de Patria (CONDEPA) party candidate argued against a cable car, claiming it would cost minibus drivers their livelihoods and impact privacy.
In the 1993 municipal elections, mayoral candidate Mónica Medina, also of the CONDEPA party, made aerial transit one of her campaign promises, modifying the original idea of a single line into a system of interconnected cable car lines with a hub on Lainkakota hill.
In 2003, the project returned to the table, but details such as tower placement stalled the work. The planned San Francisco terminal was moved to the Zapata soccer field near the Higher University of San Andrés, but the idea was still too controversial to move ahead.
In 2011, the Municipal Government of La Paz carried out a study on potential ridership demand, and found that the city handles 1.7 million trips per day, including 350,000 trips between La Paz and El Alto.
Phase One
In July 2012, Bolivian President Evo Morales Ayma drafted a bill for the construction of a cable car to connect El Alto with the center and south of La Paz and sent it to the Plurinational Legislative Assembly. Morales called together the mayor of La Paz, Luis Revilla, the mayor of El Alto, Édgar Patana, and the governor of the La Paz Department, César Cocarico, to participate in the project. The project was financed by the country's National Treasury with an internal loan from the Central Bank of Bolivia.
The system's Phase One consisted of the Red Line (Línea Roja), Yellow Line (Línea Amarilla), and Green Line (Línea Verde), which are also the colors of the Bolivian flag. Phase One was inaugurated and began operation on 30 May 2014.