London cable car
London cable car
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London cable car

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London cable car

The London cable car, also known as the Dangleway and officially as the IFS Cloud Cable Car for sponsorship reasons, is a cable car link across the River Thames in London, England. The line was built by Doppelmayr and the total cost was around £60 million. The service opened on 28 June 2012. It is owned by Transport for London (TfL) and currently operated by FirstGroup. Since 20 October 2022, it has been sponsored by the technology firm IFS; prior to this, from its opening the line was sponsored by the airline Emirates, and known as the Emirates Air Line until 28 June 2022.

The service comprises a 0.62-mile (1.00 km) gondola line that crosses the Thames from the Greenwich Peninsula to the Royal Victoria Dock, to the west of ExCeL London. In addition to transport across the river, the service advertises "a unique view of London". On 28 June 2024, FirstGroup took over the operations of the cable car line.

The idea for a cable car linking the Greenwich Peninsula with the north bank of the Thames first emerged during the development of the "car free" transport strategy for the Millennium Dome (now The O2) in the late 1990s. Presented to planning authorities in early 1997 by Meridian Cable Cars, this link would have run from the Dome site to the DLR's East India station in Tower Hamlets.

The estimated cost of the cable car was £8–10 million, for 23 gondolas, each with seating for nine and standing room for a further six, that would have travelled at 5 mph (8.0 km/h) at between 50 and 80 metres (160 and 260 ft) in the air. Taking three minutes to make a one-way trip, it would have had a capacity of 2,500 passengers per hour each way. Full planning permission was granted in December 1997 and July 1998 for the northern and southern sides respectively, the northern side permission being one of the last acts of the London Docklands Development Corporation. An opening date of October 1999 was planned, but because of negative reactions from the administrators of the Dome project, financial backers pulled out and the cable car project collapsed in October 1998.

On 4 July 2010, Transport for London (TfL) announced plans to develop a cable car crossing over the River Thames, which would be the first urban cable car in the United Kingdom. Designed by Wilkinson Eyre Architects, Expedition Engineering and Buro Happold, it would cross the river at a height up to 90 metres (300 ft), higher than The O2, which is nearby. The cable car would provide a crossing every 15 seconds, with a maximum capacity of 2,500 passengers per hour in each direction, about 50 busloads. Bicycles could be carried, and passengers would be able to pay for their journeys with pay-as-you-go Oyster cards.

A planning application was submitted to the London Borough of Newham, using the name London Cable Car, in October 2010 for the "erection of a cable car for the length of 1,100 metres (3,600 ft) over the River Thames from North Greenwich Peninsula to Royal Victoria Dock at a minimum clearance of 54.1 metres (177 ft) above mean high water springs". The application listed the structures planned for the service on the north side of the Thames as an 87-metre (285 ft) north main tower at Clyde Wharf, a 66-metre (217 ft) north intermediate tower south of the Docklands Light Railway tracks roughly midway between Canning Town and West Silvertown stations, a two-storey gondola station and "boat impact protection" in Royal Victoria Dock. South of the river there is a 60-metre (200 ft) main support tower and a boarding station within the car park of the O2.

When the project was announced, TfL's initial budget was £25 million; they announced this would be entirely funded by private finance. This figure was first revised to £45 million, and by September 2011 had more than doubled to £60 million, reportedly because TfL had not included the costs of legal advice, project management, land acquisition and other costs. TfL planned to make up the shortfall by paying for the project out of the London Rail budget, applying for funding from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and seeking commercial sponsorship. €9.7 million of ERDF support, out of an estimated €65.56 million total budget, was agreed on 9 July 2012.

In January 2011, News International was planning to sponsor the project, but withdrew its offer. In October 2011 it was announced that the Dubai-based airline Emirates would provide £36 million in a ten-year sponsorship deal which included branding of the cable car service with the airline's name.

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