The Government will be asked to help fund some of the estimated $15 million it could cost to run a cable car from the Exchange, in Dunedin, to the suburb of Mornington.
The Dunedin Cable Car Trust is confident the project to transport commuters and tourists up High St is of regional significance and that it should get the same sort of Government support given to Dunedin's Chinese Garden and the Forsyth Barr Stadium.
Chairman Phil Cole this week said the Government contributed millions of dollars to those projects and that the trust was confident the cable car scheme, running through a heritage precinct to deliver environmentally responsible transport, was just as compelling.
The trust will release details of the route and its stops at a public open day at High Street School next Saturday.
Ut will also ask what the community wants in the design of the Mornington terminus.
The design options included a building that reflected the Victorian or Edwardian heritage of cable cars in the city, or one of a modern design.
An international design competition could be held to finalise a design, but the trust was committed to having as much of the project as possible produced in Dunedin and Otago, Mr Cole said.
A pair of restored cable cars might come from a Christchurch trust, but further rolling stock - built from plans at the Hocken Library - would have to made from scratch.
If possible, and affordable, the trust wanted that work done at Dunedin's Hillside Engineering, and the terminus building by local contractors.
"This is a community project and, where we can, we want to make sure the community has a stake in it."
The trust will not ask the council to help pay for the project.
Instead, it will look for donations, Government assistance, funding from charitable trusts, and money from the Lotteries Commission.
