Dear Jago Hazzard, Unfortunately your so-called "Special Offer" is a bit of a swiz. It's exactly the same as that offered on Surfshark's website; which is open to anyone. I thought I may really be getting something extra!
It's always been very busy with families at the weekends when I've tried to ride it, and there's usually quite a fun atmosphere. This was a slightly grumpy video from Jago in my opinion.
Good point. I only vagely noticed it had been re-branded when the map changed, and couldn't have told you what the new brand _was_ before watching this video. Although "FFS Clown Car" will be the text in my memory from now on.
Jago doesn't like heights and yet has still braved both early mornings and the dangly pointlessness of the cable car in order to get us this footage. That's real dedication to your audience.
I don't like heights, but things like cable cars and Ferris wheels are fine, it's ladders and anything where my feet might slip. (I even don't really like kick stools - also known as elephants feet, as I fell off one once, and bruised my foot!)
As someone who has lived in Canning Town and North Greenwich areas: 1. You can get a 10 trip ticket for £17. This is cheaper than the off peak and peak fares per trip. Sure, it would be better as part of the oyster card zones, but what can you do :( 2. It is always incredibly busy on the weekends, especially in the afternoons. A >20 minutes wait is not uncommon. This is why I am not suprised it is profitable. It also speeds up so it's only 5 minutes during busy periods. 3. It looks really good at night, the lights change for each cable car and really do add something to do the skyline. 4. The Victoria Dock parkrun is very good on Saturday mornings and is closest one to residents of North Greenwich. It is easiest to get to with the cable car. Try it!
If I'm a tourist and riding it to enjoy the views, if they speed up the trip from 10 minutes so it's only 5 minutes, I'm going to feel like it's a rip off!
I feel another major problem is the lack of direct connection to the rest of the network at either end. If the cable car actually had a direct platform-to-platform Interchange at North Greenwich and Royal Victoria I might be tempted to use it.
Agree - and way-finding signage is another issue. Admittedly I have not tried to use the cable car recently, but when I last tried to, there was no signage at North Greenwich station for anyone wanting to get to the cable car! Maybe that has improved - and indeed, though tube interchange signage is generally brillant, signage between tube stations and bus stops could often do with being bigger and clearer.
To be honest there are other places where it would be more useful and potentially much better used. One possibility is my home town of Portsmouth to cross the harbour entrance to Gosport. There was going to be a submerged tube around 2000 to give an LRT link which could have extended along the old railway line to Fareham, but this was scuppered by the new aircraft carriers which needed deeper water.
People forget this was something that Boris Johnson pushed through and burdened TFL with. Like his bridge which cost c£40m and didn't get off the drawing table this actually did get made. I recall him saying it would be a great success.
Just imagine if Beeching were still here doing his cuts. Presumably he'd kill off the Cable Car with his giant pair of scissors, all the cars falling into the Thames. Almost no risk of killing anyone anyone because it would be empty.
I was working at North Greenwich when they were building this. What amazed me was watching the engineers travel across in open caged cars and when they reached the pillars they would climb out of the top of the car and jump up on to the pillars. Rubber underpants required for a job like that.
If what we foreigners read in the news about the practice of the British sewer companies (brilliantly diguised behind the designation "water companies") is true it would not make any difference for the majority of the stretch if they wore no pants at all..
For public transport, it's ridiculously expensive. For a tourist attraction, it's ridiculously cheap. I live near the cable car and I've been on it probably around 20 times over the years. All but two of those were just for fun and not for transport. One time was because the Jubilee line had severe delays and as a result the cable car was being offered for free. Another time I was genuinely commuting across the river but wasn't in a rush so decided I felt like taking the cable car. But this is the sort of thing you only do once in a while because of how expensive it is.
The problem with the Cable Car is that it serves the wrong parts of both Greenwich and the Docklands, if it had gone from Greenwich town centre to Canary Wharf it might be a bigger success, since these are proper touristy areas, North Greenwich is a major interchange and a destination for the Dome, but Royal Victoria is no more developed than it was a decade ago
Yeah that's the issue. I live south of the river, have got the cable car a couple of times as something to do with the family but there really ain't much worth visiting or doing on the other side other than getting an ice cream from the ice cream van. It's not a nice area to walk around. North Greenwich is a bit better as there is more riverside to walk along but is slightly soulless. It's a lesson in the pointlessness of connecting two areas with no particular 'pull', which is why the lower Thames crossing seems such a bad idea.
@@Gallywomack Indeed, there has to be some natural usage pattern, current or future. The Lower Thames Crossing makes more sense as it provides an alternative route to the overcrowded Dartford Crossing (particularly northbound with the tunnel delays). So its main use will be for people travelling from well beyond the areas that it links directly.
Which says everything about why it's not happening. Edgar Bateman nailed it in 1994, Wiv a pair o' steps and glasses you could see to 'ackney Marches - it it wasn't for the tower blocks in between!
This was a surprigingly downbeat video from Jago I thought. I like riding it nearly every time I'm in London, which is maybe about 20 times a year, and it's always been pretty busy whenever I've tried to use it, especially at the weekends with families.
@@Andy_JS2 Yep it's not true to say no one rides it given passenger data shows it saw more riders in 2024 than 2019 (when it more than made its running costs back). The thing is packed much of the day, most days. It's just poor for commuting but apart from that the thing is popular and makes TfL money to spend on other transport modes.
I do wish it had been designed to actually connect somewhere to somewhere, and also wasn't the first major urban cable car in the UK. It's not left the technology with a good impression.
Yes. Cable cars are NOT gadget bahns they are a genuinely brilliant mode of transport in the right context, many many cities all over the world which are well used.
@@Benjamin.Jamin. They're right on the low end of the gadgetbahn scale along with monorails: They have their niche where they're Exactly the right thing and work brilliantly, but become a full on gadgetbahn very quickly when used outside of that niche. The narrower the niche, and the less practical the method, the higher up the gadgetbahn scale you go. Fundamentally, if the answer to 'why not just use a railway?' is anything other than 'the geography doesn't allow it', you first need to look Really Closely at why you're not using a bus. And if the reasons for not using a bus aren't solid and practical? You're Probably looking at a gadgetbahn. ... Also, anything involving the use of 'pods'. Pods are, at the end of the day, worse railcars. Where railcars are 'tram, but you didn't have to build new infrastructure', 'pods' are pretty much universally 'car/truck, but you had to build a whole new set of expensive infrastructure'. ... it tends to go downhill from there and by the time you fix all the problems you've 'invented' either the train or the bicycle (... that's true of most full gadgetbahns, actually).
It gives the thousands of people struggling to cross the river in East London who have to rely on the Blackwall tunnel something interesting to look at whilst they are stuck in the nightmare queues.
My guilty pleasure is waiting for Jago to release loads of videos and then binge watch them. Been watching this channel since 2020 when Jago transitioned from beer and model train reviews to what it is now! Well done for the hard work!
It really isn’t promoted as the tourist attraction that it is. Come on Transport for London! Disney is bold enough to call their monorail a ride, just admit the cable car is meant for tourism purposes.
Most cable cars in the world seem to either serve as tourist attractions in and of themselves or as the only pracitcal way to get to the one specific thing at one end of it from the everything else at the other (and is usually owned and operated by the same outfit that owns that one particular destination in that case). The few places where they're actually used as viable public transport and see regular use as such involve very specific geography (such as a city with very little flat ground and rather steep slopes).
@laurencefraser Most gondolas (cable cars) are used for ski lifts. Every major ski resort in the world has at least 1. But if there is no skiing, gondola systems are great for mountains. I took one to the castle of San Marino when I visited Italy/San Marino and I loved it. I loved riding the cable car in the Docklands as a tourist. You can't beat the views.
@@laurencefraser Actually you are missing the one very specific use that cable cars and gondolas (which this actually is) have, they are used extensively in a large number of ski resorts as a very quick method of transporting people up a mountain where alternative would be extremely expensive. So normally used as the first and fast method to the very tops of mountains from the resort level. Have been on them extensively in France.
One of the few uses for this would be for people living around the royal docks, or staying in the hotels around ExCel, to go to a concert at the O2. But you can't go back that way because it stops running at 9pm. Great planning...
There are hotels on the docks side of the link, therefore if they advertised it as a hotel shuttle post-o2-event (and actually operated it at event kicking out time) I feel like that’d be good for the ridership. Would need some form of verification of hotel booking and it’d become a easy USP as getting out of the o2 after an event can be a right pain in the proverbial
New York has the Roosevelt Island Tram,which was a short cut,before the IND station was built on the island! This line uses really big cars,and was built as a commuter operation! It accepts subway/bus cards,and has always been integral to the Manhattan transport system! Pretty successful in its role,and millions of passengers,with no accidents! Totally Swiss designed,and very overbuilt,which makes safety inbuilt! Anyway,a bit of NYC,transit,that is under most people's radar! Thank you 😇 😊!
And a key part of the Roosevelt Island Tramway's success is being the same price as the subway. If the Tramway was $6 and the subway next to it was the $2.90 the commuters who live/work on Roosevelt Island wouldn't use it and it'd be nothing but a tourist line. Think this is the issue with their cloud car mainly.
I have no problem with heights as long as I don't unexpectedly find myself falling from them. Seems unlikely for the IFSCloud as long as it's properly maintained. Anyhow, during our last London visit and after a home exhibition at the ExCel Centre we decided to do something different to get back to our AirBnB. We took the cable car over the Thames and thoroughly enjoyed the view. Then we took the ferry down the river to the Greenwich Pier. Then we walked under the river through the Greenwich Foot Tunnel and thence to Island Gardens station from which we took the DLR to the tube and home. So that afternoon we traveled over, along and under the Thames all within a couple of hours. I reckon we've 'done' the Thames now.... Thanks Jago.
@@RochRich. Actually, I think both worked that day, although on one side at least you had to cram in among the bicycles that people like to ride down to tunnel in apparent contravention of the signs that say not to.
@@tsegulin Pretty shocking that both the lifts actually worked. About the cycling, I live locally and it’s rare to see a dismounted bike in that tunnel. It’s one of those rules people accept gets ignored. Apart from commuters, I think most of the cyclists are food delivery people because the food delivery apps allow you to order anywhere within a radius and don’t care that there’s a river between you and the restaurant. And Cutty Sark station / the DLR in general is difficult for so many bikes to get into.
I used it once. At the last instant someone else got on. As the gondola began an unexpectedly steep ascent from the Greenwich end, this individual suddenly engaged in conversation with some invisible familiar. The higher the gondola rose, the more belligerent this conversation became. Outside was a vertiginous drop to the Thames, and I don't think the doors could be manually opened anyway. I was trapped. For 10 minutes or so I endured this often furious wrangling in what had become a very intimate and claustrophobic bubble. Finally, at the other end, the doors opened and he stormed off as though intent upon frightful vengeance. I gave him a few minutes head start. On reflection, it might've been a lot worse. He might've gone completely berserk. He might've been carrying a knife. I haven't used it since...
@@OpenbaarVervoer2D Bit late if you're stuck in a box over the middle of the river at the time, if the other person had actually been violent. Still, it's not like using any other mode of transport when such a situation arose would have made all that much difference, save perhaps being on foot or a bicycle...
@@OpenbaarVervoer2D What would they have noticed? Two blokes in a gondola and one's having a rant at the other. He didn't get violent or start vandalising it. He just sat there.
I enjoyed this - bonus points for getting through it without referencing the former mayor/PM responsible for it. I would have had difficulty not doing so. If you were interested in making a video on the subject, I think it would be interesting to learn more about the Riverboat services - I'd be curious about who uses them, how they're funded (Uber sponsership?), and if they'd be worth using time-wise if they were included in the TfL's fare structure.
I love taking friends that have not been to London much on this, it is very good value and a pleasant trip with great views. Yet I do agree with the truth of the video.
The cable car is basically a Boris Johnson vanity project. However, as a fairground ride, it's great fun and I've always been able to get a car to myself!
I used to be a regular commuter for many years. Working at the O2, living in Royal Victoria, this was the best way to transport, 10 minutes and you there! Even on the busy days, staff allowed me to skip the queue which I really appreciated. If traveling regularly, you can purchase a multi-ride ticket which is way cheaper!
London Cable Car Multi-journey ticket A Multi-journey ticket is £17 and can only be bought from London Cable Car ticket offices at the Terminals. Multi-journey tickets can be used for 10 one-way journeys and are valid for 12 months from the date issued. They are not transferable from one guest to another.
... and does make it more plausible for the hypothetical commuter, even an occasional one (assuming that mythical person both exists and knows of the multi journey ticket -- have TfL actually tried advertising this option?)
I was in the Philippines and they use cable cares to connect areas for commuters in the city centre. It goes on for miles and miles cost about a £1 and means people from poorer areas can travel to work in the city which would previously been inaccessible by slow busses or too expensive. Loads of people use it. Seems a success.
They’re popular in poorer countries because they don’t cost that much to build or maintain compared to other forms of onrails public transportation, and they can be planned, built, and opened within a single election cycle so politicians can campaign for one and then campaign for the change it made the next election. There are also some geographic features where they work comparably well, but those aren’t present in London.
@@donkeysaurusrex7881 Much like monorails, they're right at the low end of the gadgetbahn scale, where they have their niche where they're prefectly suitable and appropriate and do very well... but trying to use them as more than a tourist attraction outside that niche very quickly becomes vastly more trouble than it's worth compared to using a regular bus, train, or in some cases even boat. The high end is basically anything which starts going on about the advantages of 'pods'. For reference, cablecars are pretty much maximum practical pod. Anything that is more pod than a cablecar will have substantial problems and by the time you're done fixing them all you'll have 'invented' either the train or the bicycle. Possibly got most of the way towards 'inventing' the car on the way past, too, depending on the specifics.
As more of a view-loving flaneur who likes too explore obscure parts of London in detail most weekends, rather than a typical tourist, the cable car is right up my sky-alley. Something of a niche customer admittedly.
@@rogerblackwood8815you could plan the trip to get the Jubilee/DLR to "somewhere else" though. Do not have to go over and back. So, if it's a way to look at the skyline, agree it's far better value than either the O2 or the Eye as a trip.
To be fair to the dangleway, it is quite a pleasant ride with friends especially at night, doesn’t take too long or cost too much but memorable. Quite fun if there’s no queue.
Two things to keep in mind there are a lot fewer river crossings in East London, and you can take your bike with you at any time to Cable Car. Living in Canning Town, I use cable car a few times every week to cross to Greenwich and continue cycling from there. It's also fantastic that it is not crowded during rush hours.
If you compare the Cable Car with the London Eye it seems a lot less popular - largely due to its location and consequent lack of visible London landmarks close by. Maybe the whole thing should be taken down and rebuilt between say London Bridge and the City or between Waterloo and Somerset House - that way the tourists would actually see it and want to ride it.
It should always have been somewhere central... No idea what drove the business choice to plop it connecting two places that don't make any sense at all to connect.
In New York we have the Roosevelt Island Tram, which runs between said Island and 2nd Avenue and 60th street. Unlike this, there are only 2 cars that run independently but the 2 cars are massive compared to these little ski lift sized cars. It’s the same price as the subway and bus ($2.90). You could walk over to 3rd Avenue and 63rd street to take the F train one stop (it’s orders of magnitude faster, but you don’t get the nice view.)
Made for tourists but plopped down in an area of London tourists don’t visit unless they’re going to the O2. Would have been a lot more successful if it was somewhere further west.
Made specifically for Olympics visitors, back in the day. Now it's there, and the Commonwealth Games have also been and gone, it is a landmark looking for a controlled reason to exist.
As a non London resident, whenever I'm asked "what shall I do on my trip to London?", this is always my top suggestion. I'm not aware that anyone I've suggested to has taken my advice.
my dad who insists he isn't afraid of heights (He is deathly afraid of heights) went on this with me when it was still called the Emirates Cable Car, and safe to say he likely won't be choosing to return to it. Great view, though!
I have some fear of heights but I like playing with it, so sky rides like this are some of my favorite tourist attractions--I ride them when I get the chance. But on my last visit to London it was a bit too far out of the way to justify a trip just to ride it. It's telling that the London Eye gets huge crowds but this doesn't.
I used it to get to the 02 a couple of weeks ago, and it's great! We made a specific trip change to use it. Its completely impractical and silly. It's a sensational view and I'll be bringing people to use it but it's absolutely not a transport hub
As a visitor, I have stayed in two hotels near the Excel and have used this on both occasions to pop over to the O2 for dinner. Canning Town is not the easiest station to change at due to the split level DLR.
WE should all stop calling venues - the Millennium Dome, the Cable Car, football grounds etc by their advertising names to fight back against the insidious takeover of our environment and culture by corporate entities.
No comment on the route’s viability but I love the views you get over quite a fascinating part of London’s industrial heritage. I first rode it during the pandemic and actually fell in love with it as a way of lengthening my ever extending recreational bike ride. I live near Clapton on the river Lea and would cycle all the way down the river, via Hackney Wick, QE2 park, Three Mills, The BowCreek and Cody Dock, all lovely spots, stick the bike on a deserted cable car gondola and then cycle down to the Thames Barrier on the south side before coming back via whichever one of the foot tunnels had a working lift that day. On a sunny day it was extremely good for my lockdown mental health. So I’m grateful for the cable car’s part in that.
Another reason commuters wouldn’t use it is that it’s not reliable. As you say, it can’t operate in high winds, for which reason it’s closed today, as it has been several times recently. I would never go on it because I have absolutely no head for heights.
To be fair it is *particularly* windy today to the point you wouldn't be entirely surprised if regular public transit was disrupted (and perhaps it might have been were it not a sunday, and thus inevitably disrupted anyway).
@@Art3free-3 I refuse to set foot in the place since they closed Windsor Safari Park. If I can't have a chimp rip off my car aerial, I'm not interested.
I bought a multi-rider ticket which isn’t bad value at £17 for 10 journeys but I struggled to use it over the course of a whole year, last year. After the 1st few times, it loses its novelty. The London Cable Car feels like it’s in the wrong place to really see the skyline. It would’ve been better in the west of the city/ Surrey suburbs. There are just better transport options in its current location, not just the tube but the river boats are better and make more sense too. When the Silvertown Tunnel opens and the SL4 bus comes with it, it really will be pointless. I did enjoy using the cable car at night though.
@@amanda-we9fv Yes every time you use it, they clip a hole in the ticket so they know how many times it's been used. Also the ticket really stands out as it is purple. It was pretty worn out by the time I got to the 10th journey on it.
I live in Greenwich, about a mile from North Greenwich, and I’ve never used it. My sister and brother in law used it once, and they were disappointed to find that there was nothing of interest to see on the other side of the river.
It was pretty busy when I went on it in July. But then it was very warm and sunny at the time. And you do get some nice views. If you're staying in Docklands, it's a very handy ride over to the other side of the river. I just used my Oystercard. It actually gives access to O2 and we used it to get over to the walk through to Greenwich. Yes, you can get on the underground but it gets pretty warm when on it. The Cloud is very handy for tourists... not travellers in a rush. As for politics, best avoided.
In Mexico City we currently have 3 lines (with others planned). It was such an innovative way of getting around since the outskirts of this city are super hilly. The same happened in Colombia and in other places. The cable car offers a very good alternative for navigating the hills. However in London… well, yeah, I don’t think that really takes you anywhere 😅
I can see similarities with Sydney's monorail. When it reaches about 25 years old, don't be surprised if it needs major overhaul but closes permanently.
I like the cable car - ok it was a vanity project for the then mayor, but it’s there now, so I use it. And as a local I can get a ten trip ticket for £17, which is very good value for money. Much better than the awful, dirty, screeching tube.
I used the cable car once to access a flight from Heathrow Airport. Sort of. And I was the pilot! I'm talking of course about the Emirates Flight Simulator that used to be at the south end of the cable car. I flew an Airbus 380 from Heathrow to Gatwick (I only had 45 minutes maximum) where I landed successfully on runway 26L. Unfortunately I couldn't cope with the foot brakes so we ran into the grass. It was fun, but the Simulator closed some time ago now. From what you, say the cable car may go soon too.
Cable cars are good public transport alternative in hilly or mountaineus cities. Where I live we have a cable car that runs from the main train station downtown, up to the university campus on top of the mountain. It also has a station (stop?) in the middle of the way. The cost of a ride is the same as a bus ride, and all season tickets and discounts for busses and trains apply. it takes about 15 min. end to end including the stop in the middle station. A bus trip between the same locations on the winding mountain streets takes more than 30 minutes, depending of traffic. The drawbacks are (like in London) that it doesn't work when the weather is windy, and during rush hours there is sometimes a long queue.
As London visitor earlier in the year, I would have loved to ride the cable car for the view. IF I knew it existed. Calling it Cloud instead of simply Cable Car is idiocy. I would have loved to ride it for the view. IF it wasn't in the middle of nowhere, from one place tourists don't want to go to, to another place tourists don't want to go to. This is idiocy because a cable car is inherently a tourist thing. Seems to suffer from bad marketing, and stupid location. But the craziest thing to me is that only four passengers can make it profitable.
The "four passengers" thing refers to the average number of commuters using it in the hour after it opens at 7.00. Many more people, perhaps a few hundred tourists, use it later in the day. That, along with the sponsorship, makes it (just) profitable.
I've used it a few times when taking people round London who haven't been there much or after visiting a trade show at the excel. It's fun to get the cable car over and the get a boat back into town
Trying to use Oyster to go across, stay on board, return and go across again to fully appreciate the view was not straight forward. Nowheresville to Nowhesreville's little sister. Found myself explaining to the other summer travellers what they were looking at. A great view of nothing seeing as most of the industry has closed, Thames shipping is minimal and everything else is big rectanguloid buildings apart from the dome, which is now dwarfed by tall structures. The fad for calling things by the dullards' names who sponsor them really grates - it's a cable car, it goes from the dome to the exhibition centre, and it croses the (as yet unsponsored) River Thames.
Jago, until today, I had no idea there was even one species of shark to be found in the Thames, let alone five. Your contributions to the betterment of the human condition remain invaluable.
Using it at night, seeing the city all lit up, it felt very atmospheric. It reminded me of scenes in teen movies where they go on a ferris wheel after dark; maybe a good finale to a date night if you're in London.
I've got a friend who lives in Dorset who always makes a point of going on the cable car any time she comes to London just for the fun of it. But you can see why it's neither a convenient commuter route nor a tourist attraction. It's convenient for nowhere and the views are of building sites and skyscrapers. Unless you just want to go on a cable car, it's not worth going on. I can think of places where a cable car might be useful in London (Richmond station to Richmond Park for example -- there are some actual views there).
Pretty sure the official figures are something in the region of 20-40k passengers a week, which isn't great, given the capacity is some ten times that, but it does get used
I used to get the cable car pretty regularly because it used to be (and might still be) free for parkrunners to use on a Saturday morning for those attending Victoria Dock Parkrun.
If Britain was a serious country, we would have: *Crossrail 2, 3, 4 & 5. *An upgraded Elizabeth Line & Thameslink. *HS2 to Scotland. *4 Runways at Heathrow (with a 6 Runway Thames Estuary Airport shortly replacing it & Gatwick). *DLR to Abbey Wood via Thamesmead. *Replacement Lines for the Bakerloo & Northern Lines. Instead we have none of those things, hence why Britain is not a serious country...and why we have that useless Cable Car instead.
It will be more interesting as a grim tourist attraction when somebody finally closes it down, all creepy, melancholic, rusting and swinging dangerously with another bit falling off every couple of years. Some bore will probably dismantle it all though.
First rule of public transport: Make connections. The Underground stations connect to Overground stations. Bus and tram stops connect to both and each other. They left out the connections to the cable car. I wonder if they had ever intended to finish building it?
Maybe it's an unpopular opinion but I love a cable car. I've not made a trip yet but this inspires me! I love to ride on empty public transportation and I love cable cars! Thanks for the video.
This reminds me of the NYC Roosevelt Island Tram, but the difference is that USED to be useful because there didn’t used to be a subway line to the island, and the fair is the same as the subway (low).
Apparently it actually gets a fair bit of use, at least on nice days, since it's a free transfer to the 4-5-6 lines and it's more frequent than the subway at off-peak times.
Another name for it might be "Johnson's Folly", but there are quite a few competitors for that title. It's main disadvantage is that it goes from F-nowhere to F-anywhere, which isn't the most pressing of journeys. Elsewhere it might be a good idea or useful novelty, but where it is? Naah. [NB, the last time I was in a cable car was to go up Ben Nevis- b*ggered if I was actually going to climb - and that was quite fun. My kids discovered that as it wasn't much over walking pace, they could spend the whole journey playing Pokemon Go.]
Go to surfshark.com/jago for 4 extra months of Surfshark at an unbeatable price!
Dear Jago Hazzard, Unfortunately your so-called "Special Offer" is a bit of a swiz. It's exactly the same as that offered on Surfshark's website; which is open to anyone. I thought I may really be getting something extra!
...he said, complaining about the sponsored cable car :D
NO!
It's always been very busy with families at the weekends when I've tried to ride it, and there's usually quite a fun atmosphere. This was a slightly grumpy video from Jago in my opinion.
@@Andy_JS2 Jago has never been a fan of the cable car!
This thing has so little impact on my life as a Londoner I was completely unaware it wasn't still called the Emirates Air Line
Same
Same here. I don’t know when the name changed.🤷♂️
Good point. I only vagely noticed it had been re-branded when the map changed, and couldn't have told you what the new brand _was_ before watching this video. Although "FFS Clown Car" will be the text in my memory from now on.
And here. But now it’s the “FFS Clown Car” and for that reason alone I hope the sponsor stays!
We must close it down immediately. It has zero impact on your lives. 🤡🤡🤡
Jago doesn't like heights and yet has still braved both early mornings and the dangly pointlessness of the cable car in order to get us this footage. That's real dedication to your audience.
I'm pleased he didn't use the V word. The correct term is acrophobia.
I don't like heights, but things like cable cars and Ferris wheels are fine, it's ladders and anything where my feet might slip. (I even don't really like kick stools - also known as elephants feet, as I fell off one once, and bruised my foot!)
"dangly pointlessness"! Love it! ( Could also be used to refer to certain parts of RC clergy, of course! )😂😂
I think your term, "Dangly Pointlessness" might be a good name for such future as it has...(?)
@@caw25sha Had he used that, it would have given him an opportunity to end with "you are the clown to my acrophobe".
"FFS Clown Car" Brilliant. Without sponsorship, it will not be profitable. If privatised, it will close.
That was probably the best line in the whole video :)
Put it this way, John: Is there a chance the cable will bend?!
I didn't mishear. 😂😂😂
@@emjackson2289Not on your life, my Hindu friend
I thought my hearing was going bad. I like Jago when he is funny.
As someone who has lived in Canning Town and North Greenwich areas:
1. You can get a 10 trip ticket for £17. This is cheaper than the off peak and peak fares per trip. Sure, it would be better as part of the oyster card zones, but what can you do :(
2. It is always incredibly busy on the weekends, especially in the afternoons. A >20 minutes wait is not uncommon. This is why I am not suprised it is profitable. It also speeds up so it's only 5 minutes during busy periods.
3. It looks really good at night, the lights change for each cable car and really do add something to do the skyline.
4. The Victoria Dock parkrun is very good on Saturday mornings and is closest one to residents of North Greenwich. It is easiest to get to with the cable car. Try it!
this is still very expensive. Rip off britain. Someone said is a good crossing for the river in East London who have to rely on the Blackwall tunnel
@@panathasg13 Is this for a trip or a return trip please?
If I'm a tourist and riding it to enjoy the views, if they speed up the trip from 10 minutes so it's only 5 minutes, I'm going to feel like it's a rip off!
I tried to go on it once. I gave up. Too many people wanting to use it.
Those are all very good points that I for one wouldn't ever have heard of if it wasn't for you
I feel another major problem is the lack of direct connection to the rest of the network at either end. If the cable car actually had a direct platform-to-platform Interchange at North Greenwich and Royal Victoria I might be tempted to use it.
It's a 90 second walk to Royal Victoria and a 5 min walk to NG tube
@@richardarmstrong6513 5 min is not a very good interchange
Agree - and way-finding signage is another issue. Admittedly I have not tried to use the cable car recently, but when I last tried to, there was no signage at North Greenwich station for anyone wanting to get to the cable car! Maybe that has improved - and indeed, though tube interchange signage is generally brillant, signage between tube stations and bus stops could often do with being bigger and clearer.
Agreed, it needs to be extended so that more people can use it
To be honest there are other places where it would be more useful and potentially much better used. One possibility is my home town of Portsmouth to cross the harbour entrance to Gosport. There was going to be a submerged tube around 2000 to give an LRT link which could have extended along the old railway line to Fareham, but this was scuppered by the new aircraft carriers which needed deeper water.
People forget this was something that Boris Johnson pushed through and burdened TFL with. Like his bridge which cost c£40m and didn't get off the drawing table this actually did get made. I recall him saying it would be a great success.
More like £56 million, I'm afraid.
I also recall the big liar saying that the Clown Car would cost nothing to the tax payer, £60m later...
And how is the new mayor turning out? 😂😂
What has this got to do with the new mayor? He didn't spaff these tens of millions on stupid vanity projects
Never believe anything that Boris Johnson tells you!
Just imagine if Beeching were still here doing his cuts. Presumably he'd kill off the Cable Car with his giant pair of scissors, all the cars falling into the Thames. Almost no risk of killing anyone anyone because it would be empty.
Ok but if we're doing weird historical speciulations on it I really do wonder what Grand Paladin of Rail-Related Evil Yerkes would do with it
I doubt it.
There aren't any roads it is competing with, nor the possibility of building them🤔🤔
There might be a boat passing underneath. Though I grant you it's a long shot...
@@tedthesailor172 I don't think his paymaster had relatives in the shipping industry.
@@spencersfarm Elon would
I think it shows peoples age when we refer to it as the "Dome" rather than the "O2", it'll always be the Millenium Dome to me...
I think of it as 'that useless Tony 'Effing' Blair vanity project that I had to pay for but got mysteriously sold off cheap.'
Same haha
I was working at North Greenwich when they were building this. What amazed me was watching the engineers travel across in open caged cars and when they reached the pillars they would climb out of the top of the car and jump up on to the pillars. Rubber underpants required for a job like that.
If what we foreigners read in the news about the practice of the British sewer companies (brilliantly diguised behind the designation "water companies") is true it would not make any difference for the majority of the stretch if they wore no pants at all..
pants were brown colored of course!
And a steel resolve
For public transport, it's ridiculously expensive. For a tourist attraction, it's ridiculously cheap.
I live near the cable car and I've been on it probably around 20 times over the years. All but two of those were just for fun and not for transport. One time was because the Jubilee line had severe delays and as a result the cable car was being offered for free. Another time I was genuinely commuting across the river but wasn't in a rush so decided I felt like taking the cable car. But this is the sort of thing you only do once in a while because of how expensive it is.
The problem with the Cable Car is that it serves the wrong parts of both Greenwich and the Docklands, if it had gone from Greenwich town centre to Canary Wharf it might be a bigger success, since these are proper touristy areas, North Greenwich is a major interchange and a destination for the Dome, but Royal Victoria is no more developed than it was a decade ago
.......and, in fact, the immediate downward view on the ground is unattractive, in extremis!
If you build it they will come......well 。.. maybe.
Yeah that's the issue. I live south of the river, have got the cable car a couple of times as something to do with the family but there really ain't much worth visiting or doing on the other side other than getting an ice cream from the ice cream van. It's not a nice area to walk around. North Greenwich is a bit better as there is more riverside to walk along but is slightly soulless. It's a lesson in the pointlessness of connecting two areas with no particular 'pull', which is why the lower Thames crossing seems such a bad idea.
@@Gallywomack Indeed, there has to be some natural usage pattern, current or future. The Lower Thames Crossing makes more sense as it provides an alternative route to the overcrowded Dartford Crossing (particularly northbound with the tunnel delays). So its main use will be for people travelling from well beyond the areas that it links directly.
Agreed.
It connects the wrong bits together totally & costs extra beyond the daily cap and that renders it pretty useless.
11:34 The "W" in the Greenwich sign not working is actually helping us foreigners with pronunciation
'Sarf eest Lunners' have always called it 'grinnich', as in spinach.
Would be better still if the second E didnt work too!
Pronunciation!
But not helping foreigners with British spelling
@@trueriver1950 I have seen native speakers making far worse mistakes
It's a fun tourist thing to do in the docklands. When I went on it, it was sunset so the views were great.
Which says everything about why it's not happening. Edgar Bateman nailed it in 1994, Wiv a pair o' steps and glasses you could see to 'ackney Marches - it it wasn't for the tower blocks in between!
When I went on the cable car I noticed the main view was of landfill sites!!
I take Airbnb guests and always recommend the DangleWay to them as a much cheaper alternative to the London Eye. (Currently £33, I believe).
@@reececollison5101 There are no landfill sites around there. It's all construction sites
@@lordgemini2376 not now it’s not but it was 8 years ago which was the first and last time I went on it 😂
Service is permanently suspended.
Tsing-boom!
Oh well done!
Marvellous.
Not according to TFL web site today (26th Novrmber). tfl.gov.uk/cable-car/status/#line-lul-london-cable-car
Word play
The fact that only FOUR people use the London Cable Car as part of their regular commute will never not be funny to me.
Oh wow
Geoff Marshall should reconsider his 'least used stations' series. But yes, four people during rush hour in one of the world's major cities is a joke.
1 is me. I work in City Hall and live in Greenwich. the cable car is the best way for me
I hope they all share the same car every day and have never spoken to each other even once.
Nice!
I rode it a year ago as a tourist and loved it. Doing it again in a few days as part of my yearly trip to London.
This was a surprigingly downbeat video from Jago I thought. I like riding it nearly every time I'm in London, which is maybe about 20 times a year, and it's always been pretty busy whenever I've tried to use it, especially at the weekends with families.
@@Andy_JS2 Yep it's not true to say no one rides it given passenger data shows it saw more riders in 2024 than 2019 (when it more than made its running costs back). The thing is packed much of the day, most days. It's just poor for commuting but apart from that the thing is popular and makes TfL money to spend on other transport modes.
I do wish it had been designed to actually connect somewhere to somewhere, and also wasn't the first major urban cable car in the UK. It's not left the technology with a good impression.
Yes. Cable cars are NOT gadget bahns they are a genuinely brilliant mode of transport in the right context, many many cities all over the world which are well used.
@@Benjamin.Jamin. They're right on the low end of the gadgetbahn scale along with monorails: They have their niche where they're Exactly the right thing and work brilliantly, but become a full on gadgetbahn very quickly when used outside of that niche.
The narrower the niche, and the less practical the method, the higher up the gadgetbahn scale you go.
Fundamentally, if the answer to 'why not just use a railway?' is anything other than 'the geography doesn't allow it', you first need to look Really Closely at why you're not using a bus. And if the reasons for not using a bus aren't solid and practical? You're Probably looking at a gadgetbahn.
...
Also, anything involving the use of 'pods'. Pods are, at the end of the day, worse railcars. Where railcars are 'tram, but you didn't have to build new infrastructure', 'pods' are pretty much universally 'car/truck, but you had to build a whole new set of expensive infrastructure'. ... it tends to go downhill from there and by the time you fix all the problems you've 'invented' either the train or the bicycle (... that's true of most full gadgetbahns, actually).
Well it was, during the Olympics….
The one in New York is used by commuters
It gives the thousands of people struggling to cross the river in East London who have to rely on the Blackwall tunnel something interesting to look at whilst they are stuck in the nightmare queues.
That the mayors going to now charge for.
@@Trebor74 Is there something left they arent charging at least a £10 in england?
There’s a new tunnel coming to East London
As a tourist I really like it, ideally just after sunrise or just before sunset.
My guilty pleasure is waiting for Jago to release loads of videos and then binge watch them.
Been watching this channel since 2020 when Jago transitioned from beer and model train reviews to what it is now!
Well done for the hard work!
I need to go back and catch the beer and model train reviews
This cable car gets a lot of hate but its actually quite fun to ride. Its worth making a trip for at least once.
It really isn’t promoted as the tourist attraction that it is. Come on Transport for London! Disney is bold enough to call their monorail a ride, just admit the cable car is meant for tourism purposes.
Jago's point exactly. It is not for public transport
Most cable cars in the world seem to either serve as tourist attractions in and of themselves or as the only pracitcal way to get to the one specific thing at one end of it from the everything else at the other (and is usually owned and operated by the same outfit that owns that one particular destination in that case). The few places where they're actually used as viable public transport and see regular use as such involve very specific geography (such as a city with very little flat ground and rather steep slopes).
@laurencefraser Most gondolas (cable cars) are used for ski lifts. Every major ski resort in the world has at least 1.
But if there is no skiing, gondola systems are great for mountains. I took one to the castle of San Marino when I visited Italy/San Marino and I loved it.
I loved riding the cable car in the Docklands as a tourist. You can't beat the views.
@@laurencefraser Actually you are missing the one very specific use that cable cars and gondolas (which this actually is) have, they are used extensively in a large number of ski resorts as a very quick method of transporting people up a mountain where alternative would be extremely expensive. So normally used as the first and fast method to the very tops of mountains from the resort level. Have been on them extensively in France.
Pretty sneaky of you sticking "clown car" in there as a pun on "cloud car". Well done.
One of the few uses for this would be for people living around the royal docks, or staying in the hotels around ExCel, to go to a concert at the O2.
But you can't go back that way because it stops running at 9pm.
Great planning...
The O2 has a better range of restaurants than near Excel so we've often used it to go get food after a convention.
Absolutely why I used it and exactly what I found.
Oh the irony of posting this during Storm Bert. Not sure many people will be travelling on it today!
Indeed... it is closed completely today (24/11) due to high winds.
@@AdamJackson89 boring health an safety people, I bet it be quite the ride up there !
There are hotels on the docks side of the link, therefore if they advertised it as a hotel shuttle post-o2-event (and actually operated it at event kicking out time) I feel like that’d be good for the ridership. Would need some form of verification of hotel booking and it’d become a easy USP as getting out of the o2 after an event can be a right pain in the proverbial
Two thumbs up for the smooth transition to the sponsor segment. I barely noticed it. The sign of a true professional!🙃
( That's what we. call irony, kiddies. 8-).
New York has the Roosevelt Island Tram,which was a short cut,before the IND station was built on the island! This line uses really big cars,and was built as a commuter operation! It accepts subway/bus cards,and has always been integral to the Manhattan transport system! Pretty successful in its role,and millions of passengers,with no accidents! Totally Swiss designed,and very overbuilt,which makes safety inbuilt! Anyway,a bit of NYC,transit,that is under most people's radar! Thank you 😇 😊!
And a key part of the Roosevelt Island Tramway's success is being the same price as the subway. If the Tramway was $6 and the subway next to it was the $2.90 the commuters who live/work on Roosevelt Island wouldn't use it and it'd be nothing but a tourist line. Think this is the issue with their cloud car mainly.
I ride it and love it. I take an old friend who’s not too well and she adores it. This makes me even happier. The best 6 quid you can spend in London.
All I know about the Cable Car is that we all had a big laugh when it reached the top of Geoff Marshall’s Transport Poll/Bracket.
I have no problem with heights as long as I don't unexpectedly find myself falling from them. Seems unlikely for the IFSCloud as long as it's properly maintained.
Anyhow, during our last London visit and after a home exhibition at the ExCel Centre we decided to do something different to get back to our AirBnB.
We took the cable car over the Thames and thoroughly enjoyed the view.
Then we took the ferry down the river to the Greenwich Pier.
Then we walked under the river through the Greenwich Foot Tunnel and thence to Island Gardens station from which we took the DLR to the tube and home.
So that afternoon we traveled over, along and under the Thames all within a couple of hours.
I reckon we've 'done' the Thames now....
Thanks Jago.
I’d bet money at least one of the foot tunnel lifts wasn’t working
@@RochRich.
Actually, I think both worked that day, although on one side at least you had to cram in among the bicycles that people like to ride down to tunnel in apparent contravention of the signs that say not to.
@@tsegulin
Pretty shocking that both the lifts actually worked. About the cycling, I live locally and it’s rare to see a dismounted bike in that tunnel. It’s one of those rules people accept gets ignored.
Apart from commuters, I think most of the cyclists are food delivery people because the food delivery apps allow you to order anywhere within a radius and don’t care that there’s a river between you and the restaurant. And Cutty Sark station / the DLR in general is difficult for so many bikes to get into.
@@RochRich.
Frankly I was just impressed that London had managed to build a foot tunnel under the river so long ago and that it was still being used!
I think the main reason it’s not popular is because it’s bloody high up, and therefore extremely scary.
It does come down to ground level so you can get on.
I used it once. At the last instant someone else got on. As the gondola began an unexpectedly steep ascent from the Greenwich end, this individual suddenly engaged in conversation with some invisible familiar. The higher the gondola rose, the more belligerent this conversation became. Outside was a vertiginous drop to the Thames, and I don't think the doors could be manually opened anyway. I was trapped. For 10 minutes or so I endured this often furious wrangling in what had become a very intimate and claustrophobic bubble. Finally, at the other end, the doors opened and he stormed off as though intent upon frightful vengeance. I gave him a few minutes head start. On reflection, it might've been a lot worse. He might've gone completely berserk. He might've been carrying a knife. I haven't used it since...
Absolute nightmare. Much worse than the nutter on the bus...
There are cameras. Security should have noticed.
@@OpenbaarVervoer2D Bit late if you're stuck in a box over the middle of the river at the time, if the other person had actually been violent.
Still, it's not like using any other mode of transport when such a situation arose would have made all that much difference, save perhaps being on foot or a bicycle...
@@OpenbaarVervoer2D What would they have noticed? Two blokes in a gondola and one's having a rant at the other. He didn't get violent or start vandalising it. He just sat there.
people that think cctv stops crime need to switch on
I enjoyed this - bonus points for getting through it without referencing the former mayor/PM responsible for it. I would have had difficulty not doing so.
If you were interested in making a video on the subject, I think it would be interesting to learn more about the Riverboat services - I'd be curious about who uses them, how they're funded (Uber sponsership?), and if they'd be worth using time-wise if they were included in the TfL's fare structure.
I love taking friends that have not been to London much on this, it is very good value and a pleasant trip with great views.
Yet I do agree with the truth of the video.
The cable car is basically a Boris Johnson vanity project.
However, as a fairground ride, it's great fun and I've always been able to get a car to myself!
Boris Johnson is basically a Boris Johnson vanity project.
A fairground with only one ride. That'll attract the crowds.
@@johnrussell5245 It needs a Tunnel of Goats.
I used to be a regular commuter for many years. Working at the O2, living in Royal Victoria, this was the best way to transport, 10 minutes and you there! Even on the busy days, staff allowed me to skip the queue which I really appreciated. If traveling regularly, you can purchase a multi-ride ticket which is way cheaper!
I’m impressed that you have ridden this as much as you have, I also suffer with the fear of heights and couldn’t imagine riding the Cable Car
It's a pretty handy way to get a bike across the river. Easier than the Uber boat or the Greenwich foot tunnel (even when the lifts are working).
London Cable Car Multi-journey ticket
A Multi-journey ticket is £17 and can only be bought from London Cable Car ticket offices at the Terminals.
Multi-journey tickets can be used for 10 one-way journeys and are valid for 12 months from the date issued. They are not transferable from one guest to another.
same cost as a bus when brought that way, which I suppose isn't bad.
well that sounds like a bargain, coz I'd be happy to treat myself to a Dangleway ride about once a month just for the hell of it.
... and does make it more plausible for the hypothetical commuter, even an occasional one (assuming that mythical person both exists and knows of the multi journey ticket -- have TfL actually tried advertising this option?)
I was in the Philippines and they use cable cares to connect areas for commuters in the city centre. It goes on for miles and miles cost about a £1 and means people from poorer areas can travel to work in the city which would previously been inaccessible by slow busses or too expensive. Loads of people use it. Seems a success.
They’re popular in poorer countries because they don’t cost that much to build or maintain compared to other forms of onrails public transportation, and they can be planned, built, and opened within a single election cycle so politicians can campaign for one and then campaign for the change it made the next election.
There are also some geographic features where they work comparably well, but those aren’t present in London.
I’ve never heard of this cable car for commuters in the Philippines.. where abouts is it?
IIRC there's one (or several) in Rio de Janeiro.
Mexico City also.
@@donkeysaurusrex7881 Much like monorails, they're right at the low end of the gadgetbahn scale, where they have their niche where they're prefectly suitable and appropriate and do very well... but trying to use them as more than a tourist attraction outside that niche very quickly becomes vastly more trouble than it's worth compared to using a regular bus, train, or in some cases even boat.
The high end is basically anything which starts going on about the advantages of 'pods'.
For reference, cablecars are pretty much maximum practical pod. Anything that is more pod than a cablecar will have substantial problems and by the time you're done fixing them all you'll have 'invented' either the train or the bicycle. Possibly got most of the way towards 'inventing' the car on the way past, too, depending on the specifics.
As more of a view-loving flaneur who likes too explore obscure parts of London in detail most weekends, rather than a typical tourist, the cable car is right up my sky-alley. Something of a niche customer admittedly.
You can pay to go on the roof of the dome (O2). That starts at £35. The London Eye starts at £29. This is about £4.
£6 each way and most go over and back as we did. So £12 for a few minutes viewing the rundown parts of London🤔🤔
@@rogerblackwood8815you could plan the trip to get the Jubilee/DLR to "somewhere else" though. Do not have to go over and back.
So, if it's a way to look at the skyline, agree it's far better value than either the O2 or the Eye as a trip.
Most cable cars in Europe cost four times that amount to ride on!
To be fair to the dangleway, it is quite a pleasant ride with friends especially at night, doesn’t take too long or cost too much but memorable. Quite fun if there’s no queue.
Two things to keep in mind there are a lot fewer river crossings in East London, and you can take your bike with you at any time to Cable Car.
Living in Canning Town, I use cable car a few times every week to cross to Greenwich and continue cycling from there.
It's also fantastic that it is not crowded during rush hours.
If you compare the Cable Car with the London Eye it seems a lot less popular - largely due to its location and consequent lack of visible London landmarks close by. Maybe the whole thing should be taken down and rebuilt between say London Bridge and the City or between Waterloo and Somerset House - that way the tourists would actually see it and want to ride it.
It should always have been somewhere central...
No idea what drove the business choice to plop it connecting two places that don't make any sense at all to connect.
In New York we have the Roosevelt Island Tram, which runs between said Island and 2nd Avenue and 60th street. Unlike this, there are only 2 cars that run independently but the 2 cars are massive compared to these little ski lift sized cars. It’s the same price as the subway and bus ($2.90). You could walk over to 3rd Avenue and 63rd street to take the F train one stop (it’s orders of magnitude faster, but you don’t get the nice view.)
Some ski areas like Squaw Valley (renamed Palisades Tahoe in 2021) in California have big cable cars similar to the Roosevelt Island one.
Very much seemed like something made for tourists more than anything. Although, it still seems like less tourists are using it now than before.
Made for tourists but plopped down in an area of London tourists don’t visit unless they’re going to the O2. Would have been a lot more successful if it was somewhere further west.
It’s also quite near to the Excel centre, which is always busy..
Made specifically for Olympics visitors, back in the day. Now it's there, and the Commonwealth Games have also been and gone, it is a landmark looking for a controlled reason to exist.
@@theblah12 that wouldn't have worked for the Olympics, which was the original and officially official raison d'être.
As a non London resident, whenever I'm asked "what shall I do on my trip to London?", this is always my top suggestion.
I'm not aware that anyone I've suggested to has taken my advice.
my dad who insists he isn't afraid of heights (He is deathly afraid of heights) went on this with me when it was still called the Emirates Cable Car, and safe to say he likely won't be choosing to return to it. Great view, though!
I have a feeling he reacted like my mum travelling the Prater ferris wheel in Vienna
I have some fear of heights but I like playing with it, so sky rides like this are some of my favorite tourist attractions--I ride them when I get the chance. But on my last visit to London it was a bit too far out of the way to justify a trip just to ride it. It's telling that the London Eye gets huge crowds but this doesn't.
I used it to get to the 02 a couple of weeks ago, and it's great! We made a specific trip change to use it.
Its completely impractical and silly.
It's a sensational view and I'll be bringing people to use it but it's absolutely not a transport hub
As a visitor, I have stayed in two hotels near the Excel and have used this on both occasions to pop over to the O2 for dinner.
Canning Town is not the easiest station to change at due to the split level DLR.
FFS Clown Car station. LOL Jago you really took the mickey on that one and I'm all here for it.
WE should all stop calling venues - the Millennium Dome, the Cable Car, football grounds etc by their advertising names to fight back against the insidious takeover of our environment and culture by corporate entities.
No comment on the route’s viability but I love the views you get over quite a fascinating part of London’s industrial heritage.
I first rode it during the pandemic and actually fell in love with it as a way of lengthening my ever extending recreational bike ride. I live near Clapton on the river Lea and would cycle all the way down the river, via Hackney Wick, QE2 park, Three Mills, The BowCreek and Cody Dock, all lovely spots, stick the bike on a deserted cable car gondola and then cycle down to the Thames Barrier on the south side before coming back via whichever one of the foot tunnels had a working lift that day.
On a sunny day it was extremely good for my lockdown mental health. So I’m grateful for the cable car’s part in that.
Advertisement was flawless, well done! Your Victorian Christmas Card episode is a staple for the upcoming season. Just wanted to say thanks
1:24 Naughty Jago! It’s not called FFS is it!!
Or clown car for that matter.
I'm sure I heard "FFS Clown Car" at one point. I think that's what I'm going to call it anyway
Another reason commuters wouldn’t use it is that it’s not reliable. As you say, it can’t operate in high winds, for which reason it’s closed today, as it has been several times recently. I would never go on it because I have absolutely no head for heights.
To be fair it is *particularly* windy today to the point you wouldn't be entirely surprised if regular public transit was disrupted (and perhaps it might have been were it not a sunday, and thus inevitably disrupted anyway).
They should open it in high winds and charge double. At this time of year the theme parks are closed and TFL would rake it in!
@@chinnyvision Totally; I'd go!
@@chinnyvision Legoland Windsor is open a lot over winter.
@@Art3free-3 I refuse to set foot in the place since they closed Windsor Safari Park. If I can't have a chimp rip off my car aerial, I'm not interested.
I bought a multi-rider ticket which isn’t bad value at £17 for 10 journeys but I struggled to use it over the course of a whole year, last year. After the 1st few times, it loses its novelty. The London Cable Car feels like it’s in the wrong place to really see the skyline. It would’ve been better in the west of the city/ Surrey suburbs. There are just better transport options in its current location, not just the tube but the river boats are better and make more sense too. When the Silvertown Tunnel opens and the SL4 bus comes with it, it really will be pointless. I did enjoy using the cable car at night though.
I've always wondered how the multi rider ticket works/looks like. is it similar to the bus carnet tickets?
@@amanda-we9fv Yes every time you use it, they clip a hole in the ticket so they know how many times it's been used. Also the ticket really stands out as it is purple. It was pretty worn out by the time I got to the 10th journey on it.
Thanks Boris. Also thanks for the water cannons and the garden bridge. What a legacy.
I live in Greenwich, about a mile from North Greenwich, and I’ve never used it. My sister and brother in law used it once, and they were disappointed to find that there was nothing of interest to see on the other side of the river.
It was pretty busy when I went on it in July. But then it was very warm and sunny at the time. And you do get some nice views. If you're staying in Docklands, it's a very handy ride over to the other side of the river. I just used my Oystercard. It actually gives access to O2 and we used it to get over to the walk through to Greenwich. Yes, you can get on the underground but it gets pretty warm when on it. The Cloud is very handy for tourists... not travellers in a rush. As for politics, best avoided.
it's a tourist attraction!
@@CarolineFord1 An a not to shabby one If I'm fair to it. An according to TFL profitable.
Love that. "FFS Clown Car" is pretty much what I heard when you said it's name properly the first time.
In Mexico City we currently have 3 lines (with others planned).
It was such an innovative way of getting around since the outskirts of this city are super hilly.
The same happened in Colombia and in other places. The cable car offers a very good alternative for navigating the hills.
However in London… well, yeah, I don’t think that really takes you anywhere 😅
I can see similarities with Sydney's monorail. When it reaches about 25 years old, don't be surprised if it needs major overhaul but closes permanently.
I fully expect London to sell it off to the highest bidder, in about 10 years, rather than have to repair the useless thing...
I like the cable car - ok it was a vanity project for the then mayor, but it’s there now, so I use it. And as a local I can get a ten trip ticket for £17, which is very good value for money. Much better than the awful, dirty, screeching tube.
I used the cable car once to access a flight from Heathrow Airport. Sort of. And I was the pilot! I'm talking of course about the Emirates Flight Simulator that used to be at the south end of the cable car. I flew an Airbus 380 from Heathrow to Gatwick (I only had 45 minutes maximum) where I landed successfully on runway 26L. Unfortunately I couldn't cope with the foot brakes so we ran into the grass. It was fun, but the Simulator closed some time ago now. From what you, say the cable car may go soon too.
Cable cars are good public transport alternative in hilly or mountaineus cities. Where I live we have a cable car that runs from the main train station downtown, up to the university campus on top of the mountain. It also has a station (stop?) in the middle of the way. The cost of a ride is the same as a bus ride, and all season tickets and discounts for busses and trains apply.
it takes about 15 min. end to end including the stop in the middle station. A bus trip between the same locations on the winding mountain streets takes more than 30 minutes, depending of traffic.
The drawbacks are (like in London) that it doesn't work when the weather is windy, and during rush hours there is sometimes a long queue.
Right. Lima has like a dozen different cable car lines because it just makes sense in the highest-altitude capital in the world.
As London visitor earlier in the year, I would have loved to ride the cable car for the view. IF I knew it existed. Calling it Cloud instead of simply Cable Car is idiocy. I would have loved to ride it for the view. IF it wasn't in the middle of nowhere, from one place tourists don't want to go to, to another place tourists don't want to go to. This is idiocy because a cable car is inherently a tourist thing.
Seems to suffer from bad marketing, and stupid location.
But the craziest thing to me is that only four passengers can make it profitable.
I think cloud refers to the service provided by the sponsor (as in cloud computing) rather than the cable car itself.
The "four passengers" thing refers to the average number of commuters using it in the hour after it opens at 7.00. Many more people, perhaps a few hundred tourists, use it later in the day. That, along with the sponsorship, makes it (just) profitable.
It gives a breath-taking view of a part of London nobody really wants a breath-taking view of.
Too real 😂
London city is cool though
"... I just like historic ships"
Repeat my call for you to Collab with Drachinifel on the Jellico Special coal trains of WWI.
I've used it a few times when taking people round London who haven't been there much or after visiting a trade show at the excel. It's fun to get the cable car over and the get a boat back into town
Trying to use Oyster to go across, stay on board, return and go across again to fully appreciate the view was not straight forward. Nowheresville to Nowhesreville's little sister. Found myself explaining to the other summer travellers what they were looking at. A great view of nothing seeing as most of the industry has closed, Thames shipping is minimal and everything else is big rectanguloid buildings apart from the dome, which is now dwarfed by tall structures. The fad for calling things by the dullards' names who sponsor them really grates - it's a cable car, it goes from the dome to the exhibition centre, and it croses the (as yet unsponsored) River Thames.
Oh no! Are we going to be calling it the River Tesco in a few years time?
Jago, until today, I had no idea there was even one species of shark to be found in the Thames, let alone five. Your contributions to the betterment of the human condition remain invaluable.
I expect nobody uses it because it costs too much to go from nowhere to some other nowhere.
Used it a few weeks ago after visiting Excel to get back to the O2, purely as a novelty.
Using it at night, seeing the city all lit up, it felt very atmospheric. It reminded me of scenes in teen movies where they go on a ferris wheel after dark; maybe a good finale to a date night if you're in London.
I've got a friend who lives in Dorset who always makes a point of going on the cable car any time she comes to London just for the fun of it. But you can see why it's neither a convenient commuter route nor a tourist attraction. It's convenient for nowhere and the views are of building sites and skyscrapers. Unless you just want to go on a cable car, it's not worth going on. I can think of places where a cable car might be useful in London (Richmond station to Richmond Park for example -- there are some actual views there).
The best intro to surf shark yet
Pretty sure the official figures are something in the region of 20-40k passengers a week, which isn't great, given the capacity is some ten times that, but it does get used
I used to get the cable car pretty regularly because it used to be (and might still be) free for parkrunners to use on a Saturday morning for those attending Victoria Dock Parkrun.
It is, although I think the new opening hours mean you'll only be able to use it after the run in future, not before
it was terrifying to ride this thing because even the slightest wind swayed the carriage way too much to me
If Britain was a serious country, we would have:
*Crossrail 2, 3, 4 & 5.
*An upgraded Elizabeth Line & Thameslink.
*HS2 to Scotland.
*4 Runways at Heathrow (with a 6 Runway Thames Estuary Airport shortly replacing it & Gatwick).
*DLR to Abbey Wood via Thamesmead.
*Replacement Lines for the Bakerloo & Northern Lines.
Instead we have none of those things, hence why Britain is not a serious country...and why we have that useless Cable Car instead.
Tbf it’s a fine thing to ride when you’re visiting London, especially at night.
Hangin’ with Hazzard on a Sunday.
The cable car is extremely spooky in a way that shouldn’t be possible for a thing that is barely a decade old
It will be more interesting as a grim tourist attraction when somebody finally closes it down, all creepy, melancholic, rusting and swinging dangerously with another bit falling off every couple of years. Some bore will probably dismantle it all though.
The 'Get Carter' of London. Maybe Michael Caine, if he's still around then, could be persuaded to ride the last car!
I did not even know it existed, but I've not been to London for over 30 years, and I've got no reason to ever want to go again.
Good choice.
@@Sn00pyJ508 why
@@CIOZimbabwe Because it’s a sh1thole and a cesspit of depravity and lawlessness in many areas.
First rule of public transport: Make connections. The Underground stations connect to Overground stations. Bus and tram stops connect to both and each other. They left out the connections to the cable car. I wonder if they had ever intended to finish building it?
Maybe it's an unpopular opinion but I love a cable car. I've not made a trip yet but this inspires me! I love to ride on empty public transportation and I love cable cars! Thanks for the video.
"Snowy Snowy! I can see the pub from here!"
£1.80 for a cable car ride with a gorgeous view sounds like a great deal to me! 💙
The “dangle way” sounds like something a kid would come out with! Lol 😝
Possibly thought up by the then mayor . . . ?
I was absolutely sh*t scared when I went on it! The gondolas are so tiny, they rock around if you dare to move!
This reminds me of the NYC Roosevelt Island Tram, but the difference is that USED to be useful because there didn’t used to be a subway line to the island, and the fair is the same as the subway (low).
Apparently it actually gets a fair bit of use, at least on nice days, since it's a free transfer to the 4-5-6 lines and it's more frequent than the subway at off-peak times.
As someone who also doesn't do well with heights, thank you for making this video despite the terror!
3:40 "In which we live". Not like you, Jago!
I took it as a nod to the line "and in this ever changing world in which we live in" from McCartney's Live And Let Die.
@luxford60 Except that the lyric is "in which we're living"...
@@stevemoss7793 True, but people have been hearing it as "In which we live in" for 50 years now and many comments have been made in that time.
Another name for it might be "Johnson's Folly", but there are quite a few competitors for that title.
It's main disadvantage is that it goes from F-nowhere to F-anywhere, which isn't the most pressing of journeys. Elsewhere it might be a good idea or useful novelty, but where it is? Naah.
[NB, the last time I was in a cable car was to go up Ben Nevis- b*ggered if I was actually going to climb - and that was quite fun. My kids discovered that as it wasn't much over walking pace, they could spend the whole journey playing Pokemon Go.]
I was at an event at the Excel which lasted a couple of days, and using the cable car was incredibly handy to get over to the O2 for food etc.