Cableway & Technology
France: Cime Caron cable car at Val Thorens reopens after accident
The Cime Caron cable car at Val Thorens, France, will reopen this season after being out of operation last season due to a crash during a maintenance run before the season opened in November 2024.
New cabins
After the cabins were damaged in an accident, they were replaced with two new 150-passenger cabins from Calag, modeled on the original Streamline cabins built in 2011. The design has been largely retained to ensure the new cabins fit into the existing upper and lower stations.
To withstand the extreme wind conditions at Cime Caron, the cabin structure has been reinforced, and the front geometry reshaped with flatter radii, reducing the surface area exposed to falling ice.
Additionally, the operator platform and control elements have been upgraded to enhance functionality and safety.
Val Thorens’ new 150-passenger cabin.
Technical specifications and cabin Transport
With exterior dimensions of 4.1 meters in width, 9.38 meters in length, and 3.51 meters in height, the cabins posed a significant challenge during transport.
During transportation, the cabins traveled over 400 kilometers from Langenthal, Switzerland, to the French Alps.
Upon arrival in Val Thorens, they were transferred onto special mountain transport vehicles to navigate the final stretch to the lower station of the Cime Caron cable car at 2,320 meters above sea level.
There, the cabins were mounted onto the cable grips and prepared for the cable car’s return to service.
Two cabins were built in 15 weeks.
The 2024 accident
The accident occurred on November 19, 2024, while 16 construction workers were accessing the site for the new Caron 3200 complex at the top station.
The incident involved a collision of the cable car with the upper station at 3,186 meters, causing significant damage to the infrastructure and necessitating a complete refurbishment.
Eight workers were injured in the crash, two of them seriously. Following the incident, the 135-person cable car did not operate during the 2024–25 season while it underwent a precautionary refurbishment.
The Cime Caron tramway was originally installed in 2019, replacing the 150-person Cime Caron cable car that opened in 1982 and was the largest cable car in the world at the time.
