Cable Car scheme
Transport for All
TFL announced yesterday that they had selected the...
TFL announced yesterday that they had selected the contractor who will build the Cable Car across the Thames in East London.
The cable car’s proposed route is from North Greenwich to Royal Victoria and will transport approximately two million people per year.
It will be totally accessible. Great!
What is not so good is that until yesterday Boris had been adamant that the scheme would not be funded out of TFL’s budget. It now appears that TFL will be footing the bill, and then hoping to recoup the cost through sponsorship deals.
The cost is being estimated at £50 million.
This seems to Transport for All like an excessive amount of money to be spent out of TFL’s budget, on something that appears to be little more than a tourist attraction. Especially given that the same journey is already pretty well covered by the (accessible) Jubilee Line and DLR.
After the recent news that London passengers face years of above inflation fare rises, this news is a little hard to swallow.
There are vast sections of the transport network in London that need upgrading and making more accessible. For example, in TFL’s recently published draft business plan, there are no plans to increase the number of Dial-a-Ride trips over the next 4 years. Couldn’t this money be better spent elsewhere?
