Carlos Castro is highly focused. The season is about to open and the operations manager of the Cologne cable car is responsible for ensuring that the complicated technology works smoothly. After checking the suspension cable again, he gives the start signal to the engineer at the station on the other side of the Rhine via a permanently installed telephone. “Klaus, I would now take a quick start and then I’ll take a look at the cabin and station and then I’ll drive over for a moment, okay?”
Just a test drive after the winter break
Shortly afterwards the ropes begin to move. Before Castro sits down in the cabin, he checks the safety equipment for the station staff again. To do this, he presses a red emergency stop button. “We use this emergency stop button to test that the train also comes to a standstill, that is now.” The technology boss is satisfied, everything works as it should.
1,000 maintenance hours before the start of the season
The end of the season last November marked the start of maintenance for him and his colleagues. Since then, there have been over 1,000 hours of maintenance in the historic facility. The reason for the construction of the cable car was the first Federal Garden Show in Cologne in 1957. There was no zoo bridge back then; it only came in 1966. The connection to the Rhine Park was inaugurated by the then Federal Chancellor Konrad Adenauer.
1957 die Most powerful passenger cable car in the world
At that time, 1.35 million visitors took the cable car across the Rhine. This made it the most powerful passenger cable car in the world at the time. Today Carlos Castro is driving the first lap. “Now everything will be checked thoroughly again and if I give the go-ahead, we can start the season.”
It starts with a small jolt and in a few seconds the gondola glides out of the station and hums quietly at the level of the zoo bridge. The operations manager is more than satisfied. “Now we are on the rope, it rolls really smoothly, just as I had planned.” And the weather is also playing along. The Rhine and the cathedral glitter in the sunshine, the noise of the zoo bridge is lost in the light breeze from the slightly opened window pane.
Prominent opening guests
Cologne veterans Ludwig Sebus and “Bömmel” Lückerath, ex-Bläck Fööss singer, also don’t want to miss the opening on March 14th. The 98-year-old Sebus can still remember his first trip well. “Yes, I was still pretty young then and I was afraid I would fall out. And then I held on to my father and he said: Young, it’s not bad, I can’t swim either.” Laughing, the two climb into the elephant gondola and Bömmel enthuses:
“Oh nice, a maiden voyage in 2024. And that in bright sunshine. If you see Kölle from above, then you won’t see the construction sites either.” Bömmel Lückerath, ex-Bläck Fööss singer
Floating over the Rhine
The cable car now floats over the Rhine every day from 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. The single ticket for adults costs 5 euros, for children up to 12 years 3 euros. And you get the feeling that the adults themselves become children again during the trip. They laugh and joke and are happy to get going again. Ludwig Sebus feels almost weightless.
“You feel like you’re floating a little bit, you’re floating above everything. The tempo is just right and you can luure a little bit.” Ludwig Sebus (98), singer and composer
Which is twice as much fun in this good weather.
WDR will also report on this topic on February 6th, 2024 on WDR television in the local time from Cologne.
2024-03-15 13:29:21
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