The cars are smaller than I expected, each with room for up to eight passengers - no on board trolley service here. The initial climb to 295ft is steep on the Greenwich side and it does feel very high up. The cars seem to be travelling slowly though they approach quite fast from the opposite direction so the speed is deceptive. An on board voice orders you to remain seated and informs you that your actions are being filmed by CCTV - any misbehaviour would need to be completed quickly as the whole crossing takes no more than ten minutes.
At the North side the descent is gentler with views of water skiers in the dock. Shadows passing overhead and the roar of engines are a reminder that real airlines take off quite close by at City Airport. This Emirates Air Line is well worth the price of a visit although cloudy conditions or high winds might spoil the fun.
4 comments:
I think most men are well capable of misbehaviour within the the time limit of ten minutes, sadly, Mr Evans. I hope that you did not give in to such temptation, however.
The new cable car is proof that there is so much potential for the Royal Docks other then being the location of the London City Airport, which blight the area.
Why can't they turn the Royal Docks into the South-Bank of the East End?. I love the street entertainment and all the great things in the South Bank.
The nearest thing, I have seen is the London Pleasure Gardens. (although there are recent issues, but the day time entertain they had was fantastic).
It was the first time, I saw a lot of 'hip' 'cool' 'trendy' and 'creative' people in the Royal Docks. You need such people to inject some magic to make it an interesting place to live.
Last week, the London City Airport celebrates its 25 years. It has the cheek to blame local residents for "choosing" to live there. What about all the people who were in the Royal Docks before the airport opened?. When the airport opened it was restricted to 30,000 flights, they now have permission for 120,000 using some of the nosiest jets.
The airport claims it bring in jobs, well that is a big joke. If this is the case, then why do need to turn the area into a big Enterprise Zone?
Our Planning Systen is flawed, when the London City Airport put in a planning application it stated how many jobs it would create, but it did not produce a single figure of how many jobs the airport would cost. So you have local residents, who don't have either the time or access to consultants who can provide the data to challenge big business.
How many people were living in the Royal Docks area 25yrs ago? Probably far fewer than today. How much business does the City Airport generate for London? Probably much more than a few street artistes and aspiring Banksies would do.
But hey, why worry about how to generate finances when you can have fun thinking of ways to spend money, after all we can always borrow some more, can't we.
@judith London City Airport has cost the local economy at least £2billion in investment.
£500million - Royal Docks Business park. They built one luxury waterfront office block (Building 1000), which was vacant for 5 years. In the end, it cost Newham taxpayers £100million, who bought the building, to save face. The remaining £400million of development was abandoned. Which company wants offices next to a noisy smelly runway.
£1.5billion failed regeneration in Silvertown Quays. That was another one that flunked. They were going to built the biggest aquarium in Europe Biota!. (They complained additional flights would cause vibration and problems for their fish tanks).
Then, go look at how many people have left the area, because of the airport. Newham is the poorest Borough in the country. Compare that before the airport was around.
If the airport does so much for the economy, why is the airport ownership, split into multi-companies and some are registered in off shore tax-havens?. I wonder if they pay tax?.
Or perhaps you don't know about "CityJet, the biggest airline at City Airport, was found guilty in a French court last Tuesday of paying its French-based employees using Irish contacts"
So much for jobs and taxes to the UK economy.
The enterprise Zone status, means the government is subsidising companies to set-up. That is a loss of tax revenue.
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