Chris Allington: Whoosh CEO on the new urban gondola system developed in Christchurch

A new mode of transport could see travellers moving above gridlock traffic. 

Whoosh is a mix between an Uber and urban gondola, able to travel at 50 kilometres an hour on cables. 

It's been quietly developed in Christchurch over the last five years and will be first rolled out in Queenstown next year. 

CEO Chris Allington told Mike Hosking it's a cost-effective infrastructure, as installing cables are around $5 million a kilometre. 

He says an urban road is about a $20 million per kilometre, while in Auckland, it costs more than $100 million. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
So we get a look to what might be the
future of transports being developed quietly in christ Church over
the past five years. Whoosh, I don't know there were
that sort of emphasis. Whosh. It's a mix of ride
hailing and urban gondola anyway. The CEO is doctor Chris Ellington,
who as well as Chris very good morning to you.

Speaker 2 (00:18):
Hey, good mind, Mike.

Speaker 1 (00:19):
It's a lot, it's a lot of it's a lot
of cable. You don't like, you don't like the white anyway,
there's a lot of cable, isn't it. I mean we're
we're in christ Church. I know you're starting out in Coinstown.
Where in christ Church would you envisage it going from
and two?

Speaker 2 (00:32):
Oh, I know definitely. So we're we credit washed to
connect key locations to key locations, to things like from
the airports downtown or connecting to Carhart a new sports
stadium down to the sports and entertainment area around the
around the Avon River, or connecting connecting hotels, the hospitals
or remote car parks. Those are the sort of key
connections we're looking to create.

Speaker 1 (00:53):
Does it get to a point where it's too complicated
cable wise, No, because.

Speaker 2 (00:58):
We're working on really simple and prastriction. We took a
real first principle to approach and break it down to
keep the infrastructure really simple, really cheap and cost effective
with low maintenance, and then put smart vehicles moving on
that simple infrastructure. So long cable spans about one hundred
and fifty meters, so there's minimal cowers. And then rail
is to be able to navigate around through the complicated
urban environment, but have to fit in the urban environment

(01:20):
and give you a great experience when you're on it.

Speaker 1 (01:22):
And the cost per meter versus an uber versus a tram,
versus a bus versus a train.

Speaker 2 (01:28):
So the cost to install it's around about five million
dollars a kilometer to install, depending on the complexity of
the network and him the little stations you put. Compare
that to a road in an urban space, you're around
about twenty million a kilometer to build a road, and
I think light rail and Auckland was north of one
hundred million to kilometer. It's a really cost effective re
infrastructure to install.

Speaker 1 (01:48):
And the administration of getting it ticked off is that
easy or harder or.

Speaker 2 (01:53):
That's actually not too bad? I mean sort of works
for all all the legislations, as does everyone, but because
we're operating above the land and in the air rights,
we've worked really closely with Waka Katahi and the Ministry
of Transport and we have security of rights for the
projects we're putting it in Quenstown to operate above that space,
and there's actually quite good legislation to allow things like

(02:14):
this to work in the existing roading corridors.

Speaker 1 (02:16):
How does it fit in with Amazon delivering pizzas by drone?

Speaker 2 (02:20):
Well, the thing with delivering drones or delivering robots is
the robots still have to get close enough to your
house to be able to deliver your packages. And the
way most of Amazon systems work and others as well
have a big distribution network are hub by the airport,
I mean smaller ones located around the city. So they've
still got to get pass us from the big ones
the small ones. And that's where watching can work as well.
Get those delivery vans off the road, moving things closer

(02:44):
to the smaller distribution thinkers, freeing up room on the
road for more youth from you and meter do a
daily commute.

Speaker 1 (02:51):
Give me a date when you can come on this
program and say it's working. It's the jump on board.

Speaker 2 (02:57):
So the technology is working. We've got there working at
quarter scale and in our at top secret testing. We're
actually here in Krashi and then we early next year
we'll be doing shovels in the ground and in Queen's
Down to build the first pilot project fantastic that should
be should be riteable by twenty seven.

Speaker 1 (03:11):
Why is it top secret?

Speaker 2 (03:14):
We were working with a very large US corporate to
help them solve some issues on their corporate campuses where
they're trying to move one hundred thousand people around emphasis
every day. No, not going. They've got another issues of viewers.

Speaker 1 (03:27):
I just good luck, Chris. I appreciate your time very much.
Good to talk to you, Chris Ellington. It is I
think I think he was coming to us from him
coming to us from his top secret headquarters. The old gondola.
They go up to fifty kilometers an hour. By the way.
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(03:48):
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