The future of freight cable cars application in the conditions of the North
Introduction. Freight cable cars (FCC) were widely used in the USSR and other countries in the first part of the 20th century. Only in the USSR the number of FCC amounted to 190 pieces, freight volume -116 million tons per year, ropeways length - 600 km. Research aim is to define the perspectives of using freight cable cars in the northern regions. Methodology and results. Comparison of engineering and economic indicators of motor, railway, conveyor transport, and FCC has shown that ropeways have a number of strategic advantages over other ways of transporting solid minerals, especially in the remote northern regions and the Far East. FCC advantages: independence from the surface relief and air conditions, good opportunity to track via the shortest distance between the points of loading and unloading, etc. With the account of the achieved performance targets, FCC can be used to transport from 0.5 to 7 million tons of load per year at a distance of several tens of kilometers. With almost similar capital cost of motor transport and ropeways, FCC have an advantage by a factor of 4-5 as soon as operational costs are concerned. Summary. Recent Russian engineering and technological solutions (application of rolling stock automated control, new materials, etc.) make it possible to consider FCC the most modern and manufacturable type of solid minerals transportation, which is easily integrated in the concept of the fourth industrial revolution.