Europe’s longest urban cable car was unveiled at the weekend in the southeastern suburbs of Paris — some 17 years after it was initially proposed.
The new line, the first of its kind in the French capital, has been designed to connect the city’s isolated outskirts, poorly served by trains and buses, to the Métro network.
At 4.5 kilometres long, the route links Métro Line 8 in Créteil to Villa Nova in Villeneuve-Saint-Georges, and passes through Limeil-Brevannes and Valenton on the way.
The cable car system — which features 105 gondolas with 10 seats each — is expected to carry around 11,000 passengers per day above Parisian streets.
While the new cable car is the longest in Europe, it still lags behind the longest in the world, which connects the Bolivian cities of La Paz and El Alto over 20 miles.
The USP of the Paris cable car is its journey time: a total of 18 minutes, including stops along the way, compared with around 40 minutes by bus or car.
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It’s affordable, too. Commuters can use the cable car with a Navigo pass (a rechargeable smart card for Paris and Île-de-France public transport).
Anyone without the pass will need to purchase two tickets for the journey: €2.50 for the Métro Line 8, and €2 for the cable car.
Grégoire de Lasteyrie, Vice President for Transport of the Île-de-France regional council, said the €138 million project was a cheaper alternative to building subways to connect the isolated neighbourhoods.
He said: ‘An underground Métro would never have seen the light of day because the budget of more than a billion euros could never have been financed.’
The cable car, known as Câble C1, is France’s seventh urban cable car, with systems already operating in cities like Toulouse, Brest, and Saint-Denis de La Réunion.
Do you think London's IFS cable car could be improved?
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Yes
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No
What do experts think about the cable car?
Paul Herriotts, Professor of Transport Design at Coventry University, tells Metro that while he sees it as a ‘new and exciting initiative,’ transport is not just about cutting travel times; the passenger experience should ‘always be at the forefront of our thoughts when designing new transport systems.’
Additionally, he says it’s essential that ‘new transport solutions are fully accessible, offering a seamless journey to disabled and non-disabled passengers alike.’
Jack Parry, Track Design Engineer at Colas Rail UK, agrees that at first glance, the Paris cable car is a good idea.
He tells Metro: ‘Its purpose is to bridge the gap to areas that are not served by existing transport.’
As for whether it will stand the test of time, Parry notes that Europe has a good track record of cable cars — ‘think ski resorts and mountains’.
Could London get something similar?
According to Herriotts, transport projects are only successful when ‘people are at the heart of the design process.’
For example, ‘ensuring that their voices are heard while developing new solutions and working with engineers and designers to guide them on the right path.’
If London were to adopt this strategy when planning and designing a new network of cable cars, Herriotts believes there’s no reason why it couldn’t be achieved.
He says it would go a long way to ‘cutting journey times, improving the experience of the commute and connecting people who are currently not well served by existing transport modes.’
However, Herriotts says that while cable cars are a ‘potentially valuable addition,’ they would not be a mainstream form of transport in the UK capital.
He adds: ‘When we talk about transport, we steer away from talking about just one mode, because every journey we make is multimodal.’
So, even when taking a cable car, you have to start your journey by walking out of your front door and getting there. ‘Any new transport mode has to be part of a joint-up strategy to ensure that it meets with existing transport and connects you to the existing transport modes.’
‘As always, a variety of transport methods are needed and preferred.’
Parry points to London’s IFS Cloud Cable Car, which was originally built to be integral to the Tube network.
Pitched ahead of the 2012 Olympics, the car was intended to connect the Olympic Park to the ExCel centre and link transport hubs, like the Jubilee Line and the DLR.
However, it flopped and was rebranded as a tourist attraction instead — now costing £7 one-way, or £13 return.
Should it be expanded, and the capital’s commute transformed, Parry asks: ‘If it’s priced for commuters, does that mean it will be full of tourists? If it’s priced for tourists, will it be too expensive for commuters?’
As for the backlash it might receive, Parry says it ‘could impact flights into London City Airport, due to the height of the wires. Not to mention the fact that they are very maintenance-heavy.’
‘On a personal note, I don’t think they age well, a bit like London’s bendy bus scheme’ (brought in to help congestion but actually just made it worse).
Where in London could benefit from better connectivity?
Like in Paris, Herriotts says that a commuter cable car would be most helpful in London’s suburbs that aren’t well served by existing transport.
At a glance, parts of Southwest London and outer East London, such as Havering and the borough of Sutton, have weak travel links.
This includes a lack of Tube lines, less frequent buses, and over-reliance on National Rail, which is often plagued by delays and cancellations.
Busy bus routes in these areas, such as the 65 (Ealing to Kingston), are regularly criticised.
July 2025 TfL data reported that the route had the most complaints (a whopping 443) in the network.
It also stated that the average speed is 8.7mph, falling to 7.4mph during rush hour. Across London, the average bus speed is 9.1mph.
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