London 2012 - London to get cable cars for Olympics
London is set to get its first ever cable car system in time for the Olympic Games, which will carry visitors over the River Thames.
The system will connect the Greenwich Peninsula with the Royal Docks in east London and will allow fans to travel from the O2 Arena to the ExCel exhibition centre in just five minutes.
The O2 Arena will host the artistic gymnastics and basketball finals at the Olympics, while boxing, fencing, judo, taekwondo, table tennis, weightlifting and wrestling will all take place at the ExCel centre.
London mayor Boris Johnson said: "A cable car spanning the majestic Thames will not only provide a unique and pioneering addition to London's skyline, but also offer a serene and joyful journey across the river.
"Passengers will be able to drink in the truly spectacular views of the Olympic Park and iconic London landmarks whilst shaving valuable minutes from their travelling time.
"It will also provide a much-needed enhancement of cross-river options to the east of the city."
The cable cars will be able to carry around 2,500 passengers per hour in each direction and will travel around 50 metres above the river.
City transport officials said they were in talks with private companies who are interested in the project.
Comment 102 - 121 of 121
The article infers that private money will be used to build this system, the only involvement from the Government seems to be to have given permission for the project to proceed.
This crossing will be a money making scheme for the private investor who eventually takes it on.
To Jamie M Message 118
Jamie how can you say that all the Games etc go to London, The Last Games we had in this country was the Commonwealth Games and I have looked on the map and cant see which district of London Manchester is in. Manchester is the most populous northern city and anyone who has been there in the last 20 years will realise it is as affluent as London. Check out the house prices in the North West and you will find they are very similar to the South East. If Margaret Thatcher had been a Labour Prime Minister she would have just subsidised the coal and steel industries with tax payers money until they bankrupt the country, instead of which she gave us back a country to be proud of, well that was until the latest labour government bankrupt us again.
It's funny...I never hear any Welsh or Northern Irish people complaining and whining about not getting "their fair share" from the government... Only ever get if from the Scotts really. Why is that do you think? Ah yes, I forgot. It's their inherent and most common tendency to be the most misery wallowing, self pitying, bitter, argumentative, fight picking race of pale skinned, wet through underachievers that I have ever had the misfortune to find myself in amongst... Almost forgot for a minute.
TO NIGEL M
eddie has a point tho i dont totally agree with him you have to admit that even the rest of England constantly moan about how all the games and big events go to London.So we Scots moved to London..... we had to as Thatcher closed nearly all of the Industry up here leaving us all with out work....so allow us our wee moan now and again mate please......Jamie M
London is starting to look like a giant fairground. They've got a Strong Man Striker (Big Ben), a Tunnel of Love (The Underground), a Roller Coaster (Docklands Light Railway), a 'Big Top' (Millennium Dome), a 'Ferris Wheel' (London Eye) and now this! I can't wait for the Carousel and Coconut Shy! ;-)
whats happened to the cuts the goverment says we all must make ?
Hey Eddie (comment 110) Do you realise that the population of London is greater than the whole of Scotland, and is seems half of Scotland has moved down there. There is more revenue raised in London than anywhere else in the UK (by the way I am a Northerner, not a Londoner) I just cannot abide the Scotish bleating, There is more money wasted on that useless Scotish Parliament that achieves nothing but spend money. Which English public buildings have cost more to build that that place???
well at least it will benefit the eastern europeans, they will get plenty of labour from it, same as the olympics where 90% of the workforce is foreign, BRITISH JOBS FOR BRITISH PEOPLE.
Whinge whinge whinge. Whinge. Cable cars sound fun. A nice idea. If you've got time to worry about what the government spends your taxes on, you're not working/investing hard enough or maybe you need a hobby or some mates
Great idea.
Thankfully all the top cable car manufacturers are German or Swiss and they can put these things up a mountain in no time at all. It can be done for not a right lot of money.
Give it to Doppelmayr please :-)
Another expensive and unnecessary white-elephant project for the capital, but at least cable cars will provide SE London's feral kids with somewhere to smoke dope after the Olympics are over.
All this hoo-ha about the BRITISH Olympic Games. Rubbish !! Like everything else that is "Let's do this in the London area, it will be good for Britain", ( it's not been 'great' for a long time). There's The Dome, The London Eye, and not to forget the Angel of The North. Tax payer's in Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland and the other parts fork out for England to rake it in. Come on, how many Scots / Welsh / Irish have seen or used these English attractions ? Honestly ?? I wouldn't waste the expense and travel time to go there. Worked in London for two years, and am not in a hurry to go back. It's about time the English government looked at the books, sorted the balance and spread what's left around the rest of the Isles.
Yup deffo a good idea, but as ever the Great British people are against it. It's as if they hate change!! and thats why the rest of the world is racing ahead of us and will are still stuck in limbo. Yer it has to be paid for but so does everything but its called moving forwards, the future. England has no future as it stands, soon to be a thrid world nation held back by its people who dont want to move with the times. pitty your small backward lil island in the rain with your depressing people
ok so I've read a lot of comments and basically this is a line in a long list of idea's they keep throwing out - wonder if they will actually take a vote on anything like it should be done.
Personally if I was in debt relatively speaking as much as the country was I would personally abstain from any unnecessary spending and really reign in my outgoings so that I was left with the basics of food, shelter, warmth and water. No tv no phone and certainly no ruddy great amusement park in my back yard!
i don't care if london gets a new cable car or whatever ....if some rich sod want's to pay for it that's up to them just as long as us poor sods don't end up getting taxed for it AS WE DIDNT AS FOR IT
MAOAN ,,,,THESE ENGLISH MOAN ABOUT E-V-E-R-Y-T-H-I-N-G
Those Mascots are really embarrassing...they look so stupid with one eye...I hope this cable car is not vulnerable to the lunatics...The cable car in London however on the surface seems a good idea,I hope that no one ends up below it.
the DOME or O2 Arena is one of the best and biggest selling venues in the world, how the hell is that a waste of money?? think you fools!!
Aggg how does this affect the RED BULL air racing in that part of the river...
Why cant we get rid of that stupid "Dome" which looks like
a half raised umbrella, and build council houses on the land,
which would be better all round, and I like the idea of the
cable car, but could'nt we have them all up and down the river,
in competition with the London Eye. We dont make enough of our rivers, especially in London.
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