Uber Boat by Thames Clippers carried 5.2 million passengers in 2024 — 23% above pre-pandemic — and in December 2025 launched the UK’s first all-electric cross-river ferry.
The Thames Clippers network — branded Uber Boat since 2020 — has become a genuine commuter artery: 24 piers from Putney to Barking Riverside, 5.2 million passengers in 2024, a fifth more than before the pandemic. The network passed its 50-millionth passenger in May 2022 and keeps adding boats.
The December 2025 launch of the Orbit Clipper — the UK’s first all-electric cross-river ferry, shuttling between Rotherhithe and Canary Wharf — starts the fleet’s transition; more electric vessels are on order as the diesel cats age out.
Behind the passenger boats, the Port of London remains one of Britain’s largest: tens of millions of tonnes a year move through Tilbury, London Gateway and the Thames terminals, and cruise ships still berth at Tilbury and Greenwich.
For visitors the freight Thames is invisible; the working Thames that matters is the passenger one — plus the Woolwich Free Ferry and the IFS Cloud cable car for the east-London crossings.
Treat the river as London’s second Circle line. The RB1 from Battersea Power Station to Canary Wharf beats the Underground on comfort and often on time, and the hop-on hop-off ticket doubles as the cheapest sightseeing cruise in town — same river as the £20 tour boats, Oyster/Contactless pricing. Two decisions worth making: commute hours (boats are full of actual commuters, board mid-route before 8:00) and the Greenwich run — arrive at Greenwich by boat, return by DLR from Cutty Sark, and you get the maritime approach and the fast way back in one day. Skip the cable car unless you are already at the Excel end; it is a view, not a transport link.
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