The cable lift utilizes a wire rope/cable loop in place of the traditional chain, which is attached to a short section of chain that engages the train's chain hook. Because a cable is much lighter than a chain, cable lifts are faster than chain lifts.
A cable also requires far less maintenance than a chain. Another advantage to park guests is that a cable lift is very quiet, partly because the main drive winch is located directly beneath the top of the lift, a location which will normally be relatively far from guest-accessible areas.[citation needed] The main disadvantage of a cable lift system is that it must return to the bottom of the lift hill after lifting each train, which does not apply to a continuously moving chain lift. This limits the usefulness of the cable lift in applications where the cable must travel a long distance and the interval between train departures is short.
