Clive's UndergrounD Line Guides

Flying so high, with some guy in the sky
Is my idea of nothing to do.

- I get a kick out of you
Cole Porter

London Cable Car

A Cable Car

[Last modified: 2023-04-04]

History

Dates

Features

Services

Topology

Layout

Depots

Connections

Rolling stock

History

The London Cable Car is a cable car system crossing the River Thames between North Greenwich and the west end of the Royal Victoria Docks. Despite this, it is legally deemed to be a railway and, for management purposes, is part of the Docklands Light Railway.

The cable car proposal was officially announced in July 2010 and construction started in August 2011.

Emirates, the Dubai-based airline, paid over half of the total construction costs of the line via a 10-year sponsorship deal. On opening, therefore, the line was called the "Emirates Air Line", though this changed to "London Cable Car" when the deal expired on 2022-06-28. A new 2-year sponsorship by technology company IFS started on 2022-10-20, with the line renamed again to "IFS Cloud Cable Car". During the sponsorship periods the station names were prefixed with "Emirates" and "IFS Cloud" respectively. Except in this paragraph, CULG doesn't use the sponsorship names or prefixes.

Dates

Since there are only two stations on the line, locations are not given.

key to symbols

Features

The line runs straight between the two stations with three supporting towers. Gondolas are on the left-hand cable in the direction of travel.

Heights (above Ordnance Datum unless otherwise stated) are as follows:

Greenwich Peninsula station ground level		5.24 m
Greenwich Peninsula station platform level		11.85 m
Greenwich Peninsula station roof level		18.99 m
South main tower		88.837 m
Mean high spring tide		3.72 m
Mean low spring tide		-2.71 m
Clearance above mean high spring tide		54.1 m
North main tower		93.014 m
Intermediate tower		66.020 m
Royal Docks station ground level		5.60 m
Royal Docks station platform level		10.40 m
Royal Docks station roof level		17.60 m
Royal Victoria Dock water level		4.21 m

The Royal Docks station lies within the Royal Victoria Dock, while the two main towers are on the banks of the Thames.

Services

Gondolas depart every 30 seconds, though this can apparently be reduced to as low as 15 seconds if necessary. Normally around 20 gondolas will be in service at a time.

End-to-end running time is 5 minutes.

Topology

Layout

There are no official distances on the line. I have therefore arbitrarily set the intermediate tower to 31.0000 km, which puts it at about the same location as on the DLR. The line has its own fares and is not part of the zonal fare system.

key to notation

Locations are listed down the page in the northeastbound direction.

395798		30.179				Greenwich Peninsula
395798		30.2070				[building portal]
395799		30.3820				[south main tower]
398802		30.8130				[north main tower]
399804		31.0000				[intermediate tower]
401806		31.2273				[building portal]
401806		31.255				Royal Docks

Station locations are the approximate furthest extent of travel by gondolas.

Depots

Spare gondolas are stored and maintained at Greenwich Penisula station, which is capable of holding the entire stock.

Connections

There are no connections to any other line.

Rolling Stock

The line is operated by 34 gondolas that run on a single cable; each gondola can carry 10 people. The cable forms a single loop and is powered at Royal Docks station. Gondolas lift off the cable at each end of the journey.

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