Dock it to me

The weekend of the London Marathon, I manoeuvred my way through the crowds at Canada Water station to North Greenwich to check out the infamous London Cable Car. Built for the 2012 Olympics, it has come under criticism for being underused and unprofitable, because we all know public transit usually makes oodles of money. In fairness, the cable car does only connect Greenwich Peninsula, site of the O2 arena, restaurants and public parks, with the Royal Docks, an area you probably wouldn’t go to unless you happened to live there. Indeed, of the folks making the trip that day, we appeared to be the only ones getting off at the Royal Docks; everyone else had opted for the round trip. The two endpoints are already connected by the Tube and DLR and, even with the transfer, this method is faster than the cable car and cheaper.

However, given the frequency with which subways would break down in Toronto, I don’t think it’s the worst idea to have a little redundancy in the public transit system. Also, while the £3.20 you pay by Oyster card is more than the £1.60 you would pay by Tube (assuming I’ve calculated the Zone 3 fare correctly; that is a bargain compared to the £2.80 you could pay to travel from Zones 1-2), you really get your money’s worth: nice views, a car to yourselves (there is a sign saying this will not necessarily be the case, but I guess one of the advantages of running so far below capacity is you get to ride in style) and the very nice man helping load people in who will take a cheesy picture of your group as you “take off” (the cable car is sponsored by a certain airline company and the ride is referred to using flight terminology).

North Greenwich

I would love to enjoy the river, but there’s this big barrier in the way

Looking across to the Royal Docks

Maybe I will Google. Maybe I will.

Okay, earlier defence of the cable car aside, I’m not sure having five giant car parks (all closer than the nearest connecting DLR station) next to your transit link really sends the best message.

Thames barrier in the distance

I feel like several of these warnings could have been covered with just “Don’t stick anything outside the car”

The O2 with the sculpture Quantum Cloud in the foreground. Canary Wharf in the distance.

Coming in toward the Royal Docks

They had this crazy water skiing thing that is just on a track that drags you around and around so you can go off these ramps.

The building on the right is called The Crystal, which, I never thought I would say this, but Toronto’s is better.

Watch out for that last step (this is a pedestrian bridge with an elevator before the gap on the left.

Millennium Mills and a cruise ship?

Also, it’s not as if there’s no reason to make the trip across the Thames. With a bit of a walk, you can see alpacas. And when would you not want to do that?

The shire horse has a serious neckbeard

Alpacas! (and a goat)