History
The Singapore government came up with the idea of an cable car to Sentosa from Mount Faber in 1968 as part of its masterplan for tourism projects in the country. 4 years later in 1972, construction on the S$5.8 million system commenced, and was officially opened on 15 February 1974 by then Deputy Prime Minister, Dr. Goh Keng Swee.
During its opening, the system had 43 cabins which required manual opening and closing of doors by cabin attendants. This was increased to 51 cabins in 1976. The show Hawaii Five-O was filmed on the system in the same year, while the world's first Mass Weddings on the cable cars was introduced in the late 1970s.
In 1988, the system celebrated its 10 millionth rider. It played hosts to the contestants of the Miss World Pageant when it was held in Singapore in 1989, as well as the sportsmen and officials who were here for the Southeast Asian Games in 1990.
The system's cabins were replaced in 1994 at a cost of over S$11 million. The new cabins totalled 80, and effectively doubled the system's capacity to 1400 passengers per hour in either direction from 700 passengers previously. The upgrade took 25 days to complete, during which time the system suspended operations.
A year later in 1995, the system welcomed its 20 millionth rider, and quickly reached its 25 millionth visitor just two years later in 1997. The stations at Mount Faber and Sentosa were also upgraded in the same year, while Lego presented to Singapore the world's only life-size cable car cabin based on the Singapore cable car's design.
In November 1999, the Singapore cable car system did another world's first with its glass-bottomed cabins at a cost of S$30,000 each. 6 more of these popular cabins were added in December 2000, giving the system a total of 81 cabins today.
For a week from March 16, 2004, the system conducted the 'Surviving the Sky' Challenge as part of its 30th anniversary celebrations. 34 two-man teams (2 teams withdrew at the last minute) from around Asia attempted the challenge to see who could survive the longest in the cable car for 24 hours a day.
A S$36 million upgrade of the entire system started on September 14, 2009 and re-opened on July 21, 2010. All the cabins are now metallic black cars with chrome trimming. There are 67 bigger cabins, including World’s First 7* VIP Jewelled Cabin. The two cables were raised cable by 30m to facilitate the bigger cabins, to stand 120 m above sea level. Seating capacity was also increased to eight passengers per cabin from six. There are also new flip-up seats and a new music system.
Read more about this topic: Singapore Cable Car
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