This could be used in certain areas such as mines and in mountainous regions. Instead of having to terraform zigzag stairs you can just sit on it and ride it down/up. In mines this means that you can dig deeper and have more of a mining roll. Then what if a trader has a kart that he has and cant get up to the trade post because it is at a higher level and the owners of the trade post have terraformed the land around to nobody can get up, he can use the elevator to put his cart and get to the level that is required.
This is an example.