London cable car facts and trivia

London’s only cable car that travels up to 90 meters above the River Thames has been operating since 2012 🚠 🎉

A lot has happened in that time, here are some facts and interesting figures 👇

Cable car facts

📆 Date opened	2012
📍 Location	Terminals at North Greenwich and Royal Docks
⏱️ Journey times	Approx 10 minutes each way
🙌 Line length and height	1km long and 90 metres above the River Thames at its highest elevation
🚠 Operating speed	14 mph
👯 Trips made	14,189,132
💍 Proposals	Approx 200 proposals on the cable car

Cable car trivia

🚌 The cable car can move up to 5,000 people per hour. That’s the same as nearly 60 double decker buses.

🐘 The cabins weigh almost another 40 tons, passengers (when cabins are full) add almost another 25 tons, and the wind, even on a mild day, can mean that the drive motor for the cableway is moving up to 200 tons. That’s the same as almost 75 adult elephants!

⬆️ The main towers are 90 metres high. That’s the same height as 20 double decker buses stacked on top of each other. The smaller tower is 66 metres high.

🏙️ The main haul rope is a single loop that is 2.2km long. If stretched out it would be more than seven times taller than the Shard, and more than twice as tall as the Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world.

🚠 Each cabin can lift 750kg of passengers

✈️ The crawler cranes used to build the main towers came on over 70 flat-bed lorries and were so large that the one on the North bank appeared in the radar of London City Airport when at full height

🚢 The concrete base of the South Tower (the one in the Thames) weighs over 100 tons. It was so heavy that it couldn’t have been lifted if placed on the South bank of the Thames (near the O2) so it was instead built on the North bank (where it could be placed closer to deep water) and then lifted across the river into position by a special boat.

🌻 The three towers are made of steel, which expands and contracts as it gets hot and cold. Because of this and how they are built the towers follow the sun like sunflowers. However, even when they are moving in the sun the overall deviation is less than 40mm (less than the width of the average adult hand)

Visit the cable car

📍The cable car runs between Greenwich Peninsula (by The O2) and the Royal Docks. You can start your journey from either terminal

You can enjoy an unforgettable trip any day of the week, including bank holidays. Find out how to find us and opening times on our website.

If you want to see the city in lights, take a night flight from 19:00 each day. ✨

🎟 You can book tickets online, purchase them at the ticket office or use contactless. Fares start from £6 for one-way for adults and £3 for children aged 5-12. Children under 5 go free with a fare-paying adult.

Have you been on the cable car? Tell us your favourite memory in the comments 👇