Work on London cable car across River Thames begins

Work has begun on a £50m cable car project to link two Olympic venues on opposite sides of the River Thames.

Digging for the foundations of the two new stations in the Royal Victoria Dock and on the Greenwich Peninsula began on Thursday.

Once finished, the cable cars will run 50m (164ft) above the river carrying up to 2,500 people an hour.

It will connect the O2 arena in North Greenwich to the Excel exhibition centre at the Royal Victoria Dock.

The North Station in the Royal Victoria Dock is in east London while the South Station in Greenwich is in south-east London.

A Transport for London (TfL) spokeswoman said completing the project by next summer was an "aspiration", but trying to get it up and running for the Games would be "challenging" and was never a plan.

She added that the cable car project was not a part of TfL's Olympic transport strategy and it was not essential for the Games.

TfL is providing the upfront costs for the project.

A consortium, led by Mace, is carrying out the building work and will later run the cable cars.