The Table Mountain Aerial Cableway Company (TMACC) will be closed for three weeks in July for maintenance. TMACC celebrated its 90th-year last year.
The company revealed that the maintenance was to ensure the effective running and continued safety of the cableway. This year the cableway will be closed from Tuesday, July 7 to Sunday, July 26, 2020.
According to Wahida Parker, Managing Director of TMACC, the annual maintenance shutdown is an essential important role in ensuring that the cableway runs at an optimum, ultimately reducing any possible technical delays while also ensuring the safety of the visitors to the mountain.
“International and local tourists are encouraged to consider these dates when planning their holidays to Cape Town.
“For continued compliance with the Swiss Governing Body for Cableways (BAV) standards in terms of machinery specifications, maintenance requirements and procedures, extraordinary maintenance tasks require a shutdown and cannot be done in between normal operations,” said Parker.
She said the scope of work by the BAV standard for 2020’s maintenance shutdown will include inspection, testing and replacement of load bearing components in the cabins where necessary, maintenance of high use items in the cabins, such as door mechanisms, complete service of braking systems situated in the Lower Station machine room, servicing of the main drive motor and gearbox and major service of the hydraulic systems at the Lower Station and the Upper Station.
The work will also include maintenance of the docking guides and platforms, preparation of certain elements on the track ropes for the 2021 shutdown, upgrades to the interior of the Upper Station building and maintenance to the exterior of the Lower Station building.
Parker said the company took the responsibility of transporting visitors up a height of more than 1 000 meters extremely seriously and believe this is one of the key reasons that it attracts thousands of people to experience one of the world’s New7Wonders of Nature.
She said: “South Africans whose birthdays fall during the annual maintenance period will be able to collect and use their free tickets during the week before (June 30 to July 6 2020) and the week after (July 27 to August 2 2020) the shutdown.