Orbital station of the Noble Isle space elevator
Base of a Nezu orbital tether
A space elevator, orbital lift, or orbital tether was a cable that connected a planet's surface to a space station in orbit. A mag-lev carriage was a vehicle commonly used for moving along the tether.
Neelix spent two years working on one-tenth scale prototype models of orbital tethers on Rinax.
A Nezu colony planet in the Delta Quadrant had an orbital tether over three hundred kilometers long. Moving from the ground all the way to the station took twelve hours. When the planet came under bombardment by Etanian asteroids in 2373, Tuvok, Neelix, and several Nezu escaped the surface using the tether, rising above the interference in the ionosphere so that USS Voyager could rescue them. (VOY: "Rise")
An orbital tether was located on Koralis III, in the Koralis system, but it had been abandoned by 2375. (DS9: "Chimera")
Due to their planet Dulaine's thermosphere blocking transporters, the Dulainians built a system of orbital lifts to enable transport to and from the surface. In 2381, the USS Cerritos was assigned to repair one of the lifts and host the stranded travelers in the interim. (LD: "The Least Dangerous Game")
The only way to access the surface of Noble Isle was a space elevator, which served as the planet's starport. Thadiun Okona described the technology as "a bit archaic", but necessary as the planet's atmosphere was otherwise impassable due to ion storms. In 2384, the USS Protostar docked there so as to conduct repairs on its protostar drive. (PRO: "Masquerade")