A steam engine, fuelled by coal, provided power and, when one platform went up, another went down. The venture proved immensely popular in the rapidly growing city but was eventually forced out of business just six short years later by its new competitor, the High Level Bridge.

A plan to resurrect the funicular style lift to carry passengers up and down the river bank from Downtown East to Louise McKinney Park may yet to come fruition at long last. Years of dreaming and scheming by a small handful of planners and a few elected representatives, including Mayor Stephen Mandel, may yet get a much needed lift, so to speak.

Mandel has often talked about his fascination with the idea and the technology. Last year, he met with Harry Sjostrom, a director of the Swedish company Liftbyggarna, which designs ski lifts, chair lifts and funicular trams on rails. Liftbyggarna has installed lifts at Skärholmen, Stockholm, Sweden and the funicular at Four Seasons Hotel Sharm El Sheikh, in Egypt.

The cars used in funicular systems are available as enclosed or open-air models, automated or with human operators and typically hold 20 to 50 passengers. The speed of ascent and descent can be adjusted, but funiculars usually travel at a rate of one to two metres per second.

That’s the nuts and bolts of the technology. But finding the dollars and the political will to screw it all together has long been a challenge.

Budget cutting has pruned half of the dollars available this year for the Downtown East revitalization project. But $30,000 has been rescued from the $500,000 that remains and the city has hired a consultant to come up with the best plan for an installation atop Grierson Hill, east of 97th Street.

“We want to know what will work best for the hill – a funicular or a tram,” explains Bob Caldwell, special projects manager for the city planning department. “The project has loads of potential, but we need to move it forward.”

Over the years, Grierson Hill has done plenty of moving itself. The process of erosion and the forces of gravity are constantly working to encourage the slope’s glacial till to head for the bottom of the valley.

A funicular would traverse Grierson Hill Road across a new bridge, stop on the upper terrace of Louise McKinney Park and then continue further downslope to the park’s riverfront plaza. The instability of the hill does present structural problems, however, but such challenges have been overcome in other locations.

There are dozens of cities with funicular systems in use around the world. They include Hong Kong; Budapest, Hungary; Paris, Bergen, Norway; and Wellington, New Zealand.

An aerial tram would carry passengers in cars strung above the hill and avoid some of the stability issues, but would have to confront some others, like ease of access. The tram line would have to be high enough to pass above vehicles on Grierson Road and that would mean the upper terrace stop would have to be a considerable height above ground. Passengers would need to reach the station by elevator or stairs.

The tram option is viewed as generally more expensive, Caldwell says, and could well total $15 million. Two other North American cities are currently operating aerial trams – one for more than 30 years and the other a brand new venture.

In January, Portland, Oregon opened its $57-million Portland Aerial Tram, connecting the city’s South Waterfront to the Oregon Health and Science University. The spectacular 3,300-foot route takes passengers from the banks of the Willamette River up to the campus of the Oregon Health and Science University on top of Marquam Hill.

The tram, manufactured by the Swiss company Dopplemayr, makes the trip from the main university campus in less than five minutes, while driving can take 15 minutes or longer. The city managed the construction and owns the tram and the university footed all but $8.5 million of the building costs.

The Roosevelt Island Tramway in New York City spans the East River and connects Roosevelt Island to Manhattan. Opened in 1976, the tram moves at 28 kilometres-per- hour and covers the one kilometre crossing in four-and-a-half minutes. Each tram car holds 125 people but the system has had power problems over the last few years, resulting in at least two episodes of stranded passengers.

But all technology has challenges, financial and operational. Edmonton’s ability to move forward with something daring and innovative will depend on taking some chances. I’m inclined to think that’s the only way the city will get something truly uplifting.