A joint planning application for the first urban cable car system in the UK have been submitted to Greenwich and Newham councils by applicants Transport for London and the London Development Agency.
The scheme will connect the O2 arena and emerging Greenwich Peninsula district with The Royal Victoria Docks and EXCEL Centre, with a further connection to Canary Wharf rumoured to be planned should the original link prove successful enough to warrant it.
The proposed scheme, which is intended to be operational in time for the 2012 Olympics, would comprise of stations at both North Greenwich and at Royal Docks, with futuristic steel towers of up to 85 metres allowing the cables to comfortably span the Thames. They will tower above a couple of stations designed by Wilkinson Eyre.
Although primarily aimed at commuters, the 34 capacity ten-person gondolas will also be accessible to wheelchair users, cyclists and mobility scooters.
When lit up at night, are likely to be visually arresting enough to make this development a tourist attraction in its own right. The backers of the scheme are banking on the fact that the spectacular views across the city, that they hope will rival the London Eye, will only serve to lengthen the queues.
Single fares are likely to be in the region of £2.50 for Oyster card users or £3.50 otherwise, with children and pensioners traveling at half price. The projections for ridership throw up figures of around 5,000 passengers over the course of the Olympics, rising to an expected 800,000 passengers per year by 2016.
business opportunitynaples real estate