Thames cable car opens for passengers

The new Thames cable car, spanning the river in east London, is set to open to the public later.

The Emirates Air Line, which links the O2 Arena in Greenwich with the ExCel exhibition centre at the Royal Docks, will open at 12:00 BST.

The service can carry up to 2,500 people an hour.

A single adult fare on the pay-as-you-go Oyster card will cost £3.20 while the cash fare will be £4.30, Transport for London (TfL) said.

The service will operate through the week from 07:00 BST until 21:00.

The gates will open an hour later on Saturdays while the service will run from 09:00 on Sundays.

Passengers will also be able to make a non-stop round trip on the cable car, with views of the City, Canary Wharf, the Thames Barrier and the Olympic Park, at a cost of £6.40 with Oyster.

The Dubai-based airline Emirates is sponsoring the cable car for 10 years at a cost of £36m.

The total cost of the project is about £60m, £45m of which went towards building it, TfL said.