Users of Greenwich’s cable car are being promised better services after a new company takes over the Thames crossing from the summer.
FirstGroup will run the London Cable Car from June 28, the crossing’s 12th anniversary. It is currently operated by Mace, one of the companies that built the link to the Royal Docks.
The cable car, opened under Boris Johnson’s mayoralty, flopped as a commuter link but has proved hugely popular as a tourist attraction.
It charges premium fares – £6 for Oyster and contactless holders – but regular users can cut this to £1.70 per trip with an annual carnet ticket.
FirstGroup says it is “working on plans to improve the service” during the eight-year contract with Transport for London and wants to deepen links with schools in the boroughs of Greenwich and Newham.
The contract is worth £60 million to FirstGroup – the same sum that the cable car cost to build in 2012 when it opened as the Emirates Air Line. It is now known as the IFS Cloud Cable Car after a new sponsorship deal was struck in 2022.
Graham Sutherland, FirstGroup’s chief executive, said: “We are delighted to have been awarded the contract to operate the London cable car, the only urban cable car in the UK.
“We are looking forward to working with Transport for London in order to develop the customer proposition for this iconic London experience and landmark and place the service at the heart of its local community.”
FirstGroup is a partner in the troubled Avanti West Coast rail service, which regional leaders in the north of England have said should be stripped of its contract. And the company has been criticised for its operation of Croydon’s tram system, where engineers are due to start a five-day strike on Sunday.
Similar problems with the cable car would be hugely embarrassing for Transport for London’s chair – which will be Sadiq Khan if he is re-elected on May 2 – since the gondolas pass the mayor’s office at City Hall, next to the Royal Docks terminal.
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