Secret Plan for a 40-Kilometre, Six-Line Cable Car Network in Berlin Revealed

A 40-kilometre cable car master plan for Berlin, drafted in 2024 by the Howoge municipal housing company, came to light on 22 October 2026 through a document request by the Pro Straßenbahn Berlin alliance. The scheme proposes six separate gondola lines serving underserved areas of northern and eastern Berlin. The longest, Line 1, would stretch 18 kilometres from Jungfernheide to the planned Urban Tech Republic at the former Tegel airport, then through Märkisches Viertel, Blankenburg, Blankenburger Süden, Wartenberg, and Hohenschönhausen — potentially the longest urban cable car in the world. Lines 2 through 6 would connect Buch, Pankow's Elisabethaue, Spandau, Falkenhagener Feld, Wasserstadt Oberhavel, and Gartenfeld. Berlin currently has only one cable car: the 1.5-kilometre Kienbergpark line at the Gardens of the World, opened in 2017. Senate transport officials assessed the Howoge plan as 'not goal-oriented,' citing insufficient passenger demand, engineering difficulties in densely built areas, safety concerns about enclosed cabins at off-peak hours, and conflicts with planned tram and U-Bahn extensions that would serve the same corridors more effectively and at far greater capacity.