More than 170 participants from 20 countries attended the event held in Vancouver, Canada, from June 17 to 21.
The twelfth run of the Congress again brought together international ropeway experts, manufacturers, operators and representatives of public authorities from all over the world. The theme of this year’s event “Ropeways – Smart Transport Solutions” was structured into four different sessions that animated the two-day series of presentations.
The first session focused on the development of ropeways in the urban and tourist sector featuring reports on the experiences made with specific ropeway solutions in cities such as Mexico City, Medellin, Toulouse and Brest. It also provided an opportunity for looking into the future as it presented ongoing projects, such as the one to be implemented in Vancouver that will construct a ropeway as a link between a subway station and the university campus in Burnaby.
The second session was dedicated to the operation of ropeways. In particular, the presentations discussed issues related to maintenance, training and the attractiveness of workplaces.
With regard to new developments resulting from recent innovations in the ropeway sector, new solutions related to autonomous mobility, remote monitoring systems for ropeways as well as intermodal transport systems met with great interest among the attendees.
The two-day Congress concluded with a focus on sustainability, inevitably featuring references to climate change but also providing information on the optimization of snowmaking systems and interesting current data on their energy consumption and CO2 emissions as well as on the issue of energy savings that also characterizes the technological development of ropeways.
The two highly intensive days where shaped by almost thirty international speakers and an audience that showed great interest throughout the conference, which was also evidenced by lively discussions.
The Congress officially ended with a gala evening that offered an excellent opportunity for presenting the new president of OITAF, Aureli Bisbe from Catalonia (Spain), an operator representative in line with the rotation principle, and the new secretary general, Nicola Barbolini from the South Tyrolean Office of Ropeways (Italy). They succeed to the outgoing president, Jörg Schröttner, and the outgoing secretary general, Markus Pitscheider, who accepted the applause and thanks of the attendees.
> From left to right: new Secretary General Nicola Barbolini, new President Aureli Bisbe, outgoing Secretary General Markus Pitscheider and outgoing President Jörg Schröttner
(Photo: ISR)
Following the two-day conference at the Hyatt Hotel in the heart of the Canadian metropolis, the event was complemented by two highly interesting excursions to Grouse Mountain and Blackcomb/Whistler Mountain, the Eldorado of mountain bikers, with a short visit to the Sea to Sky Gondola – all of them significant all-year destinations close to Vancouver. Many participants were surprised about the high number of always friendly staff in the ropeway stations.
The International OITAF Ropeway Congress that takes place every six years was again an ideal opportunity for international comparisons and exchanges of ideas among experts from the ropeway industry. Thus, after the last conferences in Bozen (Italy) in 2017 and Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) in 2011, the Congress held in Vancouver also ended with a highly positive outcome.
All the presentations, including videos and original sound recordings, are accessible in the Program section of OITAF’s website at OITAF2024>>PROGRAM
Second day of excursions: Gliding across the 3 km long span aboard the Peak-to-Peak 3S ropeway (Photo: Gernot Tilz)
