The 'Emirates Airline' is
an aerial cable car system between North Greenwich and the Royal
Docks. It was opened as an attraction for Olympic visitors and was a
popular method of crossing the Thames during the time the games were
in in existence.
I tried it out
yesterday travelling from south to north, alighting from a tube train
at North Greenwich and strolling across to the ticket hall which was
almost deserted now that the Olympics have finished. By showing my
off peak day travel card I received a discount and paid my £3.20 to
the friendly ticket office clerk.
The cable cars keep
moving slowly around a central hub at the boarding station, giving
plenty of time to climb aboard before accelerating upwards. It was a
lovely warm sunny day so the views were perfect as we headed up
towards our maximum height.
The many tracks of the
Docklands Light Railway (DLR) were in full view as was the Dome and
in the distance the tall buildings of the City. Looking to the east,
London City Airport was in view but sadly no planes were using the
runway. The route of the cable cars appear to be close to the flight
path of the planes, but obviously that can't be the case and the
planes must take a steep climb to avoid them.
The ride was over and
done with very quickly and I couldn't help noticing that around half
of the cars were travelling empty. Maybe TfL should offer some
incentives to travel on this clever piece of engineering. Although it
duplicates the route of the DLR and the Jubilee Line it is worth
taking a trip and I would certainly recommend it.
The ticket hall at North Greenwich was almost deserted |
Well, here we go, David Hunter - my local guide for the day, looks a bit apprehensive as we wait for the doors to close and a member of staff takes our picture |
The London City Airport terminal can be seen top left, with the runway just to the right |
The Dome now the O2 Arena with the tall buildings of the City in the background |
Above and below, DLR trains can be seen as we enter the Royal Docks terminal |