please empty your brain below

Regulars? How about Where Eagles Dare re-enactment groups?
How about skier... oh. A cable car in a city you say?
is the 5+ reward thing new? i'm sure that didn't exist when it opened. I bought a 10 ticket £16 pass valid for a year, and i've used to three times now. does this work out more economical than that 5+ reward thing? (yes, i'm being lazy and want someone else to do the maths...)
Londoners who might use the cable car:

Oyster card holders had the Mayor chosen not to adopt the following London Assembly motion saying that it was "too early" to consider the idea - which I suppose is weasal wording for I will sneak it through when nobody will notice.
Quote

The Assembly welcomes the cable car river crossing, but regrets that some £25 million worth of public money has been spent on it being built when the Mayor had promised that it would be fully funded from the private sector.

This Assembly regrets that travel on the cable car will not be covered by travel cards, the Freedom Pass or the Oyster cap. It considers that the Mayor has missed an opportunity to integrate fully the cable car into the public transport ticketing system.

The Assembly requests the Mayor under section 60(1) of the Greater London Authority Act to:

Reconsider the exclusion of cable car journeys from the normal ticketing arrangements when he makes his 2013 fares decision;
Report to the Assembly, well in advance of his 2013 fares decision, on the cost of including cable car journeys in travel cards, the Freedom Pass and Oyster cap;
Consult with boroughs on how cable car travel could be included in the Freedom Pass.”
Unquote

The chief value of the cable car is that of a technology demonstrator - further examples built to meet real demands and to a realistic loading scale could be built. However it is important that the experience built up on this project and the lessons learnt are nor allowed to ossify.
It seems odd that the main selling point of that campaign poster's headline is the route's supposed swiftness, when they are also trying to sell it elsewhere as a way to enjoy those 'twinkling lights' on an 'evening flight'. Who wants to enjoy twinkling lights at anything other than a leisurely pace? Does it still travel at a slower speed during off-peak hours (it isn't very clear from the TfL website)?
Hang on....I've just found this on the TfL website:

Journey time

Before 10:00 and after 15:00 - approximately five minutes
Between 10:00-15:00 - approximately 10 minutes
(Please note, during busy periods, the extended journey time may not be available)


So after three o'clock in the afternoon, those twinkling lights are going to go by that much quicker. Hmm.
@ Mwmbwls - as the 2013 fares increase announcement must be imminent I doubt the Assembly will be receiving anything on cable car fare integration "well in advance" of the announcement.

I really do not see that a cable car has any practical application in London. If the manufacturer wants a technology demonstrator then they should have paid for it or else they can fly people to the Alps! It is a monstrous waste of money when other far more important projects remain unfunded.
Obviously the hundreds tens handful of commuters between 7am and 10am, or between 3pm and 8pm need a swift journey.

It would be interesting to see an hourly breakdown of when the few hundred passengers each day travel.
I've been on the cable car - an enjoyable experience, especially on a clear sunny day. However, it isn't right that £25 million of public money has been spent on that whilst a number of step-free access projects at underground stations have been removed from the programme due to 'lack of money' - see http://tinyurl.com/9m8nynv
I am no apologist for the cable car and agree that it does seem to be a very strange thing to have built.

However, there does seem to be a loss of perspective about the costs involved. The '25 millions pounds of public money' works out at about five pounds per taxpayer in London and am not sure how much step-free access could have been provided for the same amount of money. Also there is a very good chance that even with the apparently low usage the revenue generated will repay the public money spent on the cable cars.
Of course, when Rio de Janeiro hosts the Olympics in 2016, they already have a far more impressive cable car for tourists.

But a word of advice - don't join the queue behind Richard Kiel....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=woDyKekeTTg
I saw a cyclist on the dangleway, sadly I neglected to ask him if he was a regular user.
Perhaps one day they could extend it to the Cutty Sark (Dreadnought Wharf) via Mudchute Park. That would attract many more tourists
I remember that New York has a cablecar that serves Roosevelt Island and goes over the Quuensboro bridge. Roosevelt Island does have a subway station too. I don't know what usage is like there and if it makes money but it might be an interesting comparison. That said I think this area of New York is mostly residential and North Greenwich and Excel mostly aren't.
The NY cable car accepts Metro cards so it is fully integrated bus subway and bus ticketing, although it is apparently privately owned. It is rather oddly to our ears called a tramway and runs from about 6am to 3am. Like London at the Manhattan end at least it does not like directly with the subway which is a few blocks away.

I've no idea how much of the traffic is tourists. There is nothing interesting for visitors to see on the island but the trip on the cable car has good views.
@Jon: With a hat-tip to our friends at London Reconnections, your question has been answered by the Gondola Project. The short answer is that the cable car, with its surcharge, was roundly out-competed by the subway, without one. As you say, the situation is largely identical to that in North Greenwich (except the Roosevelt Island Tram predated the subway, which makes the decision to charge extra in London even more inexplicable).

Apparently, the fares on the cable car were later brought in line with the subway, which unsurprisingly led to a corresponding increase in ridership. It's difficult to imagine the same not eventually happening here.

@Whiff: That £25 million was pilfered from the rail budget. The latest estimate for Gospel Oak-Barking electrification is £50 million, so the cable car represents a sizeable chunk taken out of that.
Perhaps of useful the several thousands who work in Newham Council's new HQ at Dockside just east of Excel. Its cheaper and probably as quick from North Greenwich by DLR Jubilee and DLR, but its an alternative for the many times the DLR fails.
Nothing ventured nothing gained. It'll either fade into oscurity & be turned into soemthing else, or slowly develop into something taken for granted - tourist, or travel, who knows?
@swirlythingy Thanks for the link very interesting. I had forgotten that the Roosevelt cable car is integrated with Metrocard. As others have said I think this will have to happen.
Having spent a week on Roosevelt Island, I can confirm that the tramway is well used, but not as much as the subway.

As for our cablecar, the best way to raise ridership may well be to incorporate it into the existing fare network, but that's not going to help raise the money that's still needed to pay off construction costs.
Ok- this isn't so crazy as it sounds. Why not move it? Second hand cableways travel around the world all the time. There must be somewhere in London needing improved links. Waterloo station to somewhere on the north bank, say?
Perhaps, another Andrew, Waterloo to Bank, as the trains on that route are normally busy, and there would be some good views of St Paul's etc. for tourist passengers.
Why are people such moaners? I think it's a great thing for the area and sooner or later will pay for itself.

There was always going to be an initial surge when it opened plus the extra traffic from the Olympics. Get real - we are now in the Autumn with the winter approaching and of course usage will be down.

It will pick up around half term/christmas school holidays and again next spring. I would say though that TFL need to re-think the price of a one way ride - £3.20 is too steep, it should be the £1.35 the same as a bus fare or maybe £2 max.
@swirlythingy - it's not as easy as saying that the 25 million could just have been spent on something else. To take your example of the GOBLIN. My understanding is that the reason for the delay in electrifying the line is not because of lack of money for the project but because of petty political squabbling over who is responsible for paying it.
"It's an alternative for the many times the DLR fails."

Only if there's ticket interoperability (i.e. it accepts normal DLR fares when the DLR's up the spout or you can get a refund), otherwise you're being charged extra for the privilege.

As for the bloody dangleway, it's a tourist attraction in summer and a fresh-air conveying advert for Emirates at other times. Quite why this was a *priority* for funding escapes me, not so much the funding itself which, in the context of the whole budget, isn't much.

When I did a quick thought experiment on where a dangleway would make sense I came up with 'across the river where there's a tube/DLR/rail station on one side only', basically as a way of expanding the station catchment area on the west side. The current site doesn't meet that criterion, although Gallions Reach, for example, does.










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