Would you like to ride the Dangleway for free for 20 years? That's the prize in TfL's latest marketing promotion and it's all to celebrate the cable car carrying its 20 millionth visitor. To be clear you can't ride it for 20 years non-stop, you'd have to pause overnight and during maintenance weeks, but otherwise you could pretty much spend your life up in the air for nothing.
All you have to do to win is enter a prize draw that started yesterday and ends on 16th August, and one lucky winner will get the prize of a lifetime. You access the draw by scanning a QR code at either of the two Dangleway terminals, or for legal reasons (because this is essentially a raffle) you can also enter online. But perhaps read the terms and conditions first.
You have to be over 18, resident in the UK and unconnected to TfL. The winner "may be requested to take part in promotional activities" so must provide proof of identity, address and age with photograph. The prize is one non-transferable 'Golden Ticket' entitling the winner to unlimited travel on the London Cable Car for 20 years. Friends and family would still have to pay, so unless you enjoy riding solo I suspect two decades of free travel could get boring pretty quickly. And crucially "the Golden Ticket is only valid for one way or round-trip journeys and excludes all other ticket types and promotional offers at the London Cable Car", so no glass floor, no fast track and no Engi-Bear's Football Adventure.
Can the cablecar really have had 20 million passengers? Well yes because it's averaged 1¼-1½ million passengers every year since it started, lockdown excepted, indeed these are impressively consistent figures for an aerial gimmick in its fifteenth year.
If you're the kind of obsessive who maintains a spreadsheet you'll know that 19,300,000 passengers had ridden the cablecar by the end of 2025. Alas TfL's stream of data mysteriously halted in February so I can't tell you precisely when the 20 million milestone was achieved, but typical figures would suggest June or early July.
I shan't be taking part in the draw because I doubt TfL would want me winning a Dangleway-related competition. But I am particularly intrigued by one thing in the terms and conditions, specifically the email address in paragraph 14.
14. The surname and county of the winner will be made available if requested in writing to Guest.services@londoncableway.com within 56 days from the Closing Date.
Hmmm, londoncableway.com... I wonder. There is currently no attraction in the capital called the London Cableway. However TfL have recently statedtheirintention to seek a new vision for the London Cable Car, evolving from "being a transport mode to one of London's must-do tourist attractions and, importantly, a commercialised leisure attraction." My prediction is thus that the cable car is going to be rebranded the London Cableway, a fresh name for a new tourist offer, at some point in the future. Why else would anyone involved in this competition have a londoncableway.com email address?
Update: The cable car has been operated by First London Cableway Limited since June 2024. Truth is often mundane rather than intriguing. But that doesn't stop London Cableway being a better name than anything TfL have ever called it.
