STRMTG at Mountain Planet for the “Cableways - top level of safety” seminar (April 2022)

STRMTG at Mountain Planet for the “Cableways - top level of safety” seminar (April 2022)

One of the major events for mountain professionals is the Mountain Planet trade show in Grenoble, Isère (see box at the end of this article). Several STRMTG employees were at the event, which took place from 26 to 28 April 2022, particularly to attend the seminar organised on 27 April by OITAF Work Committee 6 entitled “Cableways - top level of safety”.

Here is a look back at the seminar, which showed just how vital safety has been for many years in the cableway industry.

Cableway installations, a worldwide history spanning almost 2 centuries

This OITAF seminar began with a brief introduction about the history of cableway installations, which have been around for centuries, with the use of textile ropes, but really developed with the industrial revolution.

From 1845 onwards, with the development of steel, which made it possible to produce cables with far superior performance to ropes, cableway installations were used to transport materials (for mines and quarries) and goods (particularly to transport arms and ammunition in the mountains).

At the same time, one of the first passenger transport systems was created near Niagara Falls in Canada (this facility no longer exists, but has been replaced by a funicular railway). Lyon was the first city in Europe to install a funicular railway in 1862.

This list is not exhaustive, and to find out more, please consult the presentation from the seminar on the OITAF website.

This was followed by numerous cableway inventions for ski resorts (from ski-tows and chairlifts to reversible aerial ropeways, funitels and gondola lifts) and, in recent years, in cities, such as the future urban aerial ropeway system in Toulouse.

Safety at the heart of development

Over the years, these cableway installations have evolved to improve speed, comfort, aesthetics, energy efficiency, automation and more. However the real underlying common theme for these installations has been the work done around safety. In fact, safety has been steadily improving to make this key mode of transport increasingly safe.

Enhanced safety through technological advances

• Improvements to the gripper system and the detachment/attachment process;

• Development of new-technology equipment (detachable gondolas, integrated
aerial ropeway recovery concept, D-Line generation aerial ropeways, etc.);

• The comfort of aerial ropeway boarding and vehicles has also been improved;

• Improved funicular railway boarding;

• Improved route monitoring with a cable derailment detection system;

• Cable monitoring and inspection;

• Automatic opening and closing of retention bars on some chairlifts;

• Improved communication systems for contacting service staff;

• Fire extinguishers and other fire-fighting equipment on funicular railways;

• etc.
Numerous European standards to enhance safety

The new European Regulation 2016/424 of 9 March 2016 on cableway installations, repealing Directive 2000/9/EC, has been fully applicable since 21 April 2018.
This regulation builds on the Directive* and is binding on all Member States of the European Union.

It lays down rules for placing safety subsystems and components for cableway installations on the market and their free movement. The associated harmonised standards detail the rules for the design, construction and entry into service of new cableway installations.

*A directive is a political framework with laws that serve as a basis for harmonised standards, which must comply with the essential requirements of the directive.

The application of these harmonised standards is a way to demonstrate compliance with the essential requirements of the regulation, without further specific substantiation. However, compliance of safety components or subsystems with essential requirements can also be demonstrated using other specific evidence (safety studies, other standards, tests, etc.). Harmonised standards are therefore not mandatory. The European Commission has entrusted the European Committee for Standardization (CEN) with the task of drawing up these standards. In the end, there are 23 harmonised standards (with very high safety standards) recognised worldwide and used in many countries where there are no historical standards.

Regulations and standards

Safety at every stage of cableway installations

There are three stages in the construction of a cableway installation: design, manufacture and construction.

• Design: Safety analysis, calculations, testing, CE certification. At the design stage, manufacturers think about the worst possible problems/combinations which their products will probably never encounter, make calculations and carry out tests, then come up with countermeasures and mitigation measures to produce a safe product. This is followed by certification of design conformity by a notified body (NB), which carries out its own checks and calculations to issue the CE marking. The CE marking appears on most non-food products. It represents the product manufacturer’s commitment to compliance with the requirements of Community regulations. It must be affixed before a product is placed on the European market.

• Manufacture: Automation, Quality Control. Manufacturing involves automation and pre-assembly, with quality control throughout. Reinforced concrete structures and reinforcements are inspected throughout the process.

• Construction: Quality Control, Testing. Finally, new checks are carried out with load tests and any other live tests before commissioning to verify that the design complies with the initial safety analysis.

An international organisation for safety: OITAF

OITAF (International Organization for Transportation by Rope) was founded in Milan, Italy, in 1959.
Today, OITAF has 155 members from 33 different countries.
The organisation was created to provide solutions to the problems faced by various professionals (operators, aerial ropeway companies, cableway manufacturers, supervisory authorities, etc.), and to make recommendations that serve as benchmarks for countries with no specific regulations.

6 work committees are currently active within OITAF:

• Work Committee no. I: Ropeway technology and recommendations

• Work Committee no. II: Characteristics and inspection of ropes

• Work Committee no. III: Electrical components and sub-assemblies in ropeway installations

• Work Committee no. IV: Legal, administrative, economic and statistical matters

• Work Committee no. VI: Optimization of operation of ropeway systems

• Work Committee no. VII: Environment

To find out more about OITAF, please visit their website

Staff training qualifications

The skills of operations/maintenance staff play an important role in the safety of cableway installations. A wide range of training courses are available for ropeway installation personnel including training for lift pilots, mechanics, operators, mechanical and electrical equipment, first aid, managers, avalanche specialists, standards and regulations, meteorology and snow conditions, workplace safety and ski patrol. Internal interviews are also designed to evaluate this staff.

Safety inspections and maintenance

Maintenance is provided to maximize safety and system life, and minimize unplanned downtime and operating costs.
Inspections and maintenance must be carried out in accordance with a maintenance plan that takes into account:

• Manufacturer manuals

• Standards (European CEN standards)

• National authorities (e.g France : STRMTG)

• OITAF recommendations

• Operating experience

At ski resorts, there is daily, weekly and monthly maintenance during the season, followed by annual inspections and major post-season inspections.

Safety Management Systems: the French example

Article R342-12 of the French Tourism Code requires that each operator of ropeway installations and mountain resort conveyor belts implement a safety management system covering all of their installations.

What is an SMS ?

Safety management systems are tools for ropeway installation and mountain resort conveyor belt operators designed to enhance user safety, as already exists for other modes of transport. They organise and structure all the organisation’s resources, rules, procedures and methods to ensure safety.

To find out more about SMS, please go to the dedicated section of the STRMTG

SMSs enable:

• better integration of feedback to improve safety levels.

• a system audited by certified auditors or by the Ministry of Transport department, meaning audits are more focused on safety issues.

• a system adapted to each operator, who can set up an approach tailored to their specific context.

Some feedback to round things off

Finally, the end of the seminar was devoted to presenting feedback from a number of countries on :

• managing chairlift boarding

• managing aerial ropeway & funicular railway boarding on cable cars & funiculars

• managing wind

• organising rescue services

• statistics

Article written by the STRMTG communication, communication, documentation, and archives division (PCDA) with the help of the OITAF presentation and proofreading by the STRMTG Department for cableway installations (DITC).