After media news a few weeks ago that the new exciting cable car would not be ready in time for the Olympics and the following statement from Transport of London that it had never been planned to be open in time for the Olympics, the cable car opened today. A month before the Olympics.
Apparently people started queuing from 5:00am (it opened at 7:00am) - but when I came home tonight at 6:00pm there wasn't even a little queue anymore. Seems as if the excitement wore off rather quickly.
Costs had spun just slightly out of control and Boris Johnson had originally claimed that the costs would be covered by sponsorship alone, it now turns out that £16 million will have to come from taxpayers' money.*
Boris - always the optimist - went on to declare though that really the cost for the taxpayer would be minimal, if not zero, as there was all this income to be generated from ticket sales, shopping facilities at both ends and merchandise. Merchandise? Really?
I was also wondering who came up with the pricing policy:
Single fare £3.20 (with pay-as-you-go Oyster card) and £6.40 for a round trip...
* That's what I heard on the news. I read an article though that only £36 million out of the total of £60 million has come from sponsorship.
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