£60m cable car is only used by four regular commuters

Just four London commuters regularly use the Emirates Air Line cable car, which cost £60m, according to new figures.

Oyster users get a discount if they use Boris Johnson’s link from Greenwich Peninsula to the Royal Docks more than five times a week – but that discount was only activated by four users in a whole week.

That’s down from the 16 regular commuters who used the cable car more than five times in the same week last year – from Saturday 13 to Sunday 19 October.

The figures were released via Freedom of Information requests obtained by The Scoop.

They also showed a significant drop in the number of trips taken in that October week compared with the same week in 2012, from 42,463 in the seven-day period last year to 23,029 this year.

Transport for London said in a statement issued with the figures: “Passenger numbers fluctuate due to a wide range of factors from week to week, however overall numbers this year are in line with forecasts.

“Since opening in June 2012 the Emirates Air Line has carried nearly three million people and as a vital new crossing in east London it continues to play a key role in attracting investment to this strategically important part of the capital.”

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