Emirates Air Line

[harry42]

Could be the future transport method-imagine all roads being replaced by cable cars!

What's your views? Is it a tourist attraction rather than commuter?

 

[ValleyLines142]

Well, this article seems to think that the cable car is too expensive for Londoners to use regularly.

Without an Oyster card, it is INCREDIBLY expensive, at a staggering £8.60 for a return trip.

The two termini, North Greenwich and Royal Docks, serve the O2 and the ExCel centre respectively. I can't imagine many commuters wanting to use this; I expect it was mainly tourists/spectators for the Olympics that mainly used it.

I've yet to go on the Cable Car, but I am going on it on 19th August, so will feed back on my observations!

 

[transmanche]

Is it a tourist attraction rather than commuter?

At current fare levels, it's too expensive for commuter use.

 

[Eagle]

Also the maximum passenger throughput of it is very low. During the peaks each gondola makes six round trips per hour, and there are 34 gondolas each holding up to ten passengers, for a total of 34 x 10 x 6 = 2040 passengers per hour max in each direction. Compared to the Jubilee line which can handle more like 20,000 per hour each way.

And that would be assuming that the cable car is running at anything close to full capacity, which it isn't at all.

 

[Greenback]

The Emirates Air Line is much more of a tourist attraction than a viable means of transporting commuters. No public money should have been used to suppor this scheme, which, at best, serves a very limited purpose in connecting two specific venues.

As for cable cars replacing roads, I'm assuming that must be a very tongue in cheek comment!

 

[burneside]

As many predicted, the cable car has proved to be nothing more than an tourist attraction, and one that has drained millions from the public purse. The journey between the two points can be made on the existing transport network in the same amount of time, but at half the cost. Furthermore, the cable car has also proved to be an unreliable form of transport, with many unplanned closures due to high winds.

http://www.wharf.co.uk/2013/06/mayor-slammed-on-cable-car-clo.html

TfL is desperately trying to save face and portray the cable car as a success, when the passenger numbers clearly indicate that is far from the truth.

 

[Peter Mugridge]

Both times I've used it it has been quite busy; both occasions were Saturdays though.

 

[TEW]

I used on a Saturday when it was very sunny and had to queue for around 30 minutes. A single trip isn't too expensive if you look at it as tourist attraction not a means of getting from A to B.

 

[VTPreston_Tez]

I've known it to get quite busy, however sometimes it can be like a desert it's that barren.
My assumption is that the costs of riding the cable car are too high.
If, and this is very tounge in cheek, Emirates had decided to make this more central to London or perhaps offer a cross-London cable car from, say, Euston to Waterloo (just random station names, they might have turned some form of a profit.
I enjoy the cable car however and always attempt to get on it when I'm in London. The views are spectacular.

 

[ATW Alex 101]

Well I've been on it 6 times and purely because of the view you get, but it's not bad, if I wasn't travelling with an oyster or a travelcard it is a bit dear. The once when it was busy was when I went on it with Trainboy98 off this forum and it was heaving. Whats worse we were in it with some huge bloke who stank to high heavens!

 

[edwin_m]

There's a whole website dedicated to the possibilities of cable-suspended transport systems (and a load of other interesting stuff besides - you could spend hours on there!).

www.gondolaproject.com

Even they don't see it as replacing conventional bus or rail on busy transit routes, but there is potentially a niche for it particularly for routes in hilly places with reasonably low predicted passenger numbers.

 

[Bushy]

I've known it to get quite busy, however sometimes it can be like a desert it's that barren.
My assumption is that the costs of riding the cable car are too high.
If, and this is very tounge in cheek, Emirates had decided to make this more central to London or perhaps offer a cross-London cable car from, say, Euston to Waterloo (just random station names, they might have turned some form of a profit.
I enjoy the cable car however and always attempt to get on it when I'm in London. The views are spectacular.

Transport for London placed the contract for the construction of 'Cable Car for London' before Emirates became sponsors and it was badged as Emirates Air Line. I'm fairly sure that construction had already commenced when the sponsorship deal was announced. The Cable Car was designed to be a second transport link (after the Jubilee line) between Greenwich Peninsula and the north bank of the Thames.

The Wikipedia article says:

In January 2011, News International was planning to sponsor the project but subsequently withdrew its offer. In October 2011, it was announced that the Dubai-based airline Emirates would provide £36 million in a 10-year sponsorship deal which included branding of the cable car service with the airline's name.
The north-eastern terminal under construction beside Royal Victoria Dock, February 2012

Construction began in August 2011 with Mace as the lead contractor.

I wasn't aware of the News International bit but the rest is consistent with my knowledge of the project.


Regards

Bushy

 

[jopsuk]

As I understand it, the rate of use as is means that it barely, if at all, takes enough income to cover its operating costs. Given TfL also put around £30 million of tax money towards this project, it doesn't look like good value for money...