The cable car operating company assures that the Municipality of Quito has not yet requested information about the emergency that occurred on July 6.
One of the cabins of the Quito cable car, during the rescue maneuvers of the firefighters, on July 6, 2023.
The operating company of the Quito Cable Car is betting on a card up its sleeve to return to operation after the closure imposed by the Municipality of Quito on July 7, 2023.
That day, the Municipality closed the operation of this transport system after 75 people were trapped due to a failure in their brakes.
The company’s Operations Manager, Renán Flores, told PRIMICIAS that technicians from the Pomagalski company, manufacturer of the cable car, will arrive in the country in the coming days with the aim of evaluating the operation of this transport system.
“Pomagalski will audit the system and provide us with a certification of its operation, safety, and operability to regain the trust of our users,” Flores said.
The audit, he added, will last approximately one week and will be an input with which the company will seek to lift the closure.
Flores also indicated that the Cable Car is waiting for the Municipality of Quito to request information on what happened during the emergency.
“We have all the operating permits up to date. And we are also going to have international certification,” she insisted.
There’s no time for rescue
The cable car users remained trapped for more than 10 hours until the Quito Fire Department took them to safety.
The manager of the Cable Car, Renán Flores, assured that the security protocol establishes that in any emergency people must return to the point of origin in the same system, regardless of the time the repair takes.
However, he said that during the July 6 event, firefighters decided to implement vertical rescue “and we abide by that provision.”
This occurred despite the fact that the security protocols that the Cable Car manages do not contemplate this type of rescue.
According to Flores, the Cable Car is capable of operating again, since the problem with the braking system was resolved after 11:30 p.m. on July 6.
Data from the operating company shows that around 1,000 people used this tourist attraction every day. “A figure close to 1,200 people who arrived before the pandemic and that makes it a sustainable system,” said the manager.
Vulqano is operational
The Cruz Loma tourist complex, where the Cable Car was built, has another tourist attraction: the Vulqano Park amusement park.
The two attractions are managed by different companies, to which a third is added, which is in charge of operating the parking lots.
On social networks, the company that manages the Vulqano Park points out that this place is operating normally, since the closure only prevents the operation of the Cable Car.
