Cable Car to Span London's Thames River

The Docklands: An animation showing the cable car spanning the River Thames between North Greenwich and the Royal Docks has been released.

On Friday London Mayor Boris Johnson revealed the cable car would be sponsored by Dubai-based Emirates, and called the Emirates Air Line. Gondolas, shown in the animation on this page, will carry up to 2,500 people an hour in each direction across the river.

A £36million ($56.6 million) sponsorship deal with air line Emirates over 10 years means Transport for London can recoup 80 per cent of the construction costs. The two cable car stations will be called Emirates Greenwich Peninsula and Emirates Royal Docks.

But the hunt for more sponsorship goes on before the cable cars open next summer.

Mr Johnson said: “There will be further commercial opportunities associated with the stations.”

However Mike Tuffrey, Liberal Democrat London Assembly budget spokesman, said: “Transport for London admit that this sponsorship deal only meets 80 per cent of the construction cost. This leaves many millions of pounds worth of funding to be found from TfL’s budget.”

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