Boris cable car will cost £6m to run in first year, TfL admits

- Cable car passenger numbers plummet in wake of Olympics- Mayor wants to re-market it as commuter option not tourist attraction- TfL paid £15.5m towards building it- Tfl declines to reveal how much cable car has taken in fares
Stumped: Boris Johnson did not know the cost of a fare
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Ross Lydall @RossLydall10 January 2013

The running costs of Boris Johnson’s £60 million Thames cable car are set to hit £6 million in its first year.

Transport for London has admitted operating costs of around £500,000 a month since the sponsored scheme, called the Emirates Air Line, was launched by the Mayor last June.

More than 1.7 million passengers have already taken the five-minute trip between North Greenwich and the Royal Docks, surpassing its first-year target of 1.3 million trips.

But passenger numbers have fallen from 180,000 a week during the Olympics to as few as 300 travellers a day, leading for demands for the Mayor to do more to attract commuters and cyclists rather than marketing it as a tourist attraction. Last month about 20,000 passengers a week used the cable car.

Now a freedom of information request has laid bare the operating cost to TfL in addition to the £15.5 million it had to pay towards the construction costs, despite Mr Johnson’s hopes of building it “entirely from private finance”.

TfL spent £2.296,000 in the first 20 weeks of the cable car’s operation - meaning its costs are on course to hit £6 million in its first 12 months. The project also received £8 million from the European Commission.

Caroline Pidgeon, Lib-Dem transport chairwoman on the London Assembly, said: “The Mayor promised Londoners that the Thames cable car would not cost a penny of taxpayers’ money, but in reality even in 10 years’ time the sponsorship deal will barely pay for half of its construction, let alone running costs.

“The Mayor’s false claims have also been exposed by the fact that too often the cable car is not even generating enough fare income to pay for its daily running costs.”

TfL charges £4.30 for an adult to cross the Thames by cable car, reduced to £3.20 for pay-as-you-go Oyster cards. Oyster travelcards are not accepted.

TfL declined to reveal how much had been taken in fares on the cable car, on which is has spent £171,000 on marketing. The cable car has been closed on 21 occasions, each for an average of more than three hours.

“Having poured so much public money into the scheme the Mayor must now ensure it operates as an integral form of public transport as this is the only way to drive up passenger numbers,” Ms Pidgeon said. “A good start would be to ensure that people with a Travelcard are not charged for using this form of transport.”

Danny Price, TfL’s head of the Emirates Air Line, said: “The Emirates Air Line is a remarkably low cost option for providing a new and much needed river crossing in east London.

“It is envisaged that revenue generated will, over time, cover all costs including the operating costs. The Emirates Air Line should make a modest surplus in the medium term and any surplus made will be reinvested into the transport network. Revenue figures for the Emirates Air Line will be provided in the TfL Annual Report."

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