Share your thoughts on the Amsterdam swing ferry

With more and more people living in Amsterdam-Noord, ferries remain the most popular way of crossing the IJ River. Discussions about increasing crossing capacity usually focus on adding more bridges and tunnels. But engineer Paul van Milligen (81) is frustrated by this approach. He’d like to see more imagination and, a few years ago, proposed a spectacular design for a swinging cable car. He even calls it, a bit daringly, a ‘Swingerset’.

The Het Parool newspaper (in Dutch) described the imaginary experience like this: ‘Imagine 500 people at once soaring across the IJ in a gold coloured titanium capsule, suspended from 100 metre long cables. It’s a cable car, but much lower. Energy efficient, since this leap across the IJ is powered by gravity: the swing principle.’

The design gets many engineers’ hearts racing, but it also raises countless questions about safety, feasibility, costs, risks, and more. Daniël van Duijn, a TU Delft alumnus, will hold a discussion on 21 November at AMS on the Marineterrein in Amsterdam, a former military site. ‘I want to gather people together to critically examine the design. It would be great to invite some brilliant minds from my alma mater’, he wrote to Delta.