Firstgroup steaming ahead: Company wins iconic London cable car contract
Firstgroup has won the tender to operate one of London’s most iconic transportation and leisure sites.
Its contracts for the IFS Cloud London Cable Car, which links the Greenwich Peninsula with the Royal Docks on the Thames’ north bank, will come into effect on 28th June 2024 for an initial five-year term with the option to extend for a further three years.
The transport giant said it anticipates revenue of around £60m over the eight-year period of the contract. It will support TfL in its vision to promote the cable car as a leader in London’s leisure market.
Opened in time for the 2012 Olympics, the cable car’s ridership has fallen over the past decade, but TfL data from November shows that more than 1.5m people used the east London crossing in the 2022 financial year, up by 200,000 compared to 2021.
Among the plans being developed by Firstgroup are ways to improve the service during the period of the contract, as well as creating educational outreach and work placements for school students in the local boroughs of Greenwich and Newham.
Graham Sutherland, Firstgroup chief executive officer, said: “We are delighted to have been awarded the contract to operate the London cable car, the only urban cable car in the UK.
“We are looking forward to working with Transport for London in order to develop the customer proposition for this iconic London experience and landmark and place the service at the heart of its local community.
“Firstgroup has been one of the largest transport operators in the country for nearly three decades, working with a wide range of partners under various forms of contract types, growing passenger demand, creating economic benefits for our communities and delivering significant infrastructure projects,” he added.
“We are actively pursuing opportunities to grow and diversify our portfolio and earnings through further opportunities in the UK, including participating in TfL tenders such as this.”
Shares in Firstgroup have risen 73 per cent over the past year following a string of positive trading updates from the group, which has benefitted from surging demand for public transport.