New Cable-Car for London: "Emirates Air Line"

[CoasterCrazyChris]

But after the Olympics, this thing is gonna look really pointless

Exactly.

Just like the Dome became after the millennium.

A huge waste of taxpayers money.

[Benzin]

Least the Dome has really found new life since becoming an arena...

Dunno about this... It's a very touristy thing, but is on a side which isn't very touristy... Gonna be interesting to see what happens with it tbh...

[Sam]

Gosh, since when did this turn into the Daily Mail comments section?

At the end of the day, it's a cable car. Going across the River Thames. It's going to be awesome. So who cares.

[CoasterCrazyChris]

Gosh, since when did this turn into the Daily Mail comments section?

At the end of the day, it's a cable car. Going across the River Thames. It's going to be awesome. So who cares.

Yes...and that's all good and well until you stop to realise that it's £60 million of OUR money, British taxpayers, going to fund this project in a time when unemployment is at a near record high and living standards are being squeezed drastically for many people.

I agree that the cable car is "nice" and all the rest of it, and personally I would love a go on it when it opens, but that is besides the point.

[thefatone]

It's another tourist attraction. Puts london on the map, another reason to visit, we love foreigners who bring their monies.. yada yada yada.

£60m, is it worth it? Most public projects aren't worth their money, but least we've got sommet good to look at. Hopefully they'll build up something popular both sides to get them used properly.

[Sam]

Yes...and that's all good and well until you stop to realise that it's £60 million of OUR money, British taxpayers, going to fund this project in a time when unemployment is at a near record high and living standards are being squeezed drastically for many people.

The "£60 million of OUR money" figure is misleading because any money that the cable car makes will be ploughed back into public projects, that the taxpayer would otherwise have had to pay. In effect, the profits from the cable car will go back to the taxpayer.

You can debate whether it will actually make £60 million back (I think it easily will) and pay for itself, but even if it doesn't, the taxpayer isn't losing anywhere near £60 million.

Edit: wow, guess what? £36 million of that is being paid for by Emirates for sponsorship rights. Some more of the money seems to be coming from the EU development fund. So the actual amount the taxpayer is paying is well under half of £60 million, and will easily pay for itself.

[SpinballEdders]

It will make £60 Million easy, Just imagine how many Oyster Cards are gonna get scanned? It should regain the money no problem

[Alex Tyler]

I'm guessing that it won't be long untill the gondolas start arrriving on site.

[Cariba]

The picture I posted 16 days shows them on site;

[Alex Tyler]

I can see one in the station (that I already know about) are there more in the photo or just that one?

[captain]

^ There's just one gondola for the whole route.

[Sam]

Service gondolas, with Orbit in the background:



North station:





Proper gondola, shrinkwrapped!





Overview:



I think this is odds on to be my favourite UK project of 2012!

[Mike]

The gondolas look identical in size/shape to the Towers ones - wonder if they're going to bee brightly coloured to stick out a sore thumb like the ones at Towers are too? :P

[BigAl]

Went to have a look at this project whilst we were in London yesterday. It's fair to say, it's bloody tall! I love the design of the supports and the station looks quite nice too (well, what we could see that had been put up any way :P ). I took a few pictures too, but the quality isn't great.

[Islander]

I don't know why, but I really expected them to use bigger gondolas. I wonder what the throughput will be like - Towers regularly get (admittedly short) queues for the Skyride, and this will no doubt be far more popular...

[Mi-Nigle]

I don't know why, but I really expected them to use bigger gondolas. I wonder what the throughput will be like - Towers regularly get (admittedly short) queues for the Skyride, and this will no doubt be far more popular...

So did I, they do look a bit underwhelming. I hope they're a little more fancy than the Skyride inside. Skyride's look clean and modern I suppose but are far from comfortable.

[Bote]

No doubt the gondolas will be the Sigma built ones used on Skyride. If you look at Sigma's site they have a piece of software where you can see how they can look inside. I believe they have the option for fabric benches, which I would expect this to use, like the Tube trains. As a pure guess, I would think Towers opted for the metal ones as they are easy to clean. Just wipe them over with a cloth :P

[Big Dave]

And they don't get damaged as easy, thus reducing maintenance costs.

[Jordan]

Service gondolas, with Orbit in the background:

Is it just me, or does the Orbit look like an Intamin Rocket for Stratford? :P

[CoasterCrazyChris]

Heaven forbid they are anything like those Skyride ones.