Silvertown tunnel to open on 7 April
Transport for London have revealed that the Silvertown tunnel is set to open on 7 April 2025.
Spring of this year has long been the predicted date and external work looks all but complete both sides of the river, as images taken in recent days of the tunnel’s northern road network show.
Opening in four months does throw Greenwich’s 18-month trial of Low Traffic Neighbourhoods in Greenwich into disarray.
Schemes take time to settle, and in four months when that process is ongoing the tunnel opens.
Cycle bus
TfL have also revealed the route of a cycle bus and stand for cyclists to board a vehicle to drive them under the river. The stop in Greenwich will be on Millennium Way in an area extremely hostile to cycling.
If approaching from much of Greenwich you are faced with reaching the site via Blackwall Lane that includes no cycle lanes, multi-lane roads and an area many will avoid.
Despite the £2.2 billion cost of the tunnel not a penny was allocated to improve these streets in Greenwich for improvements to pedestrians and cyclists.
TfL did recently announce extra funds for streets north of the river, but nothing for the south.
It’s such a glaring oversight it deserves its own post. One wonders if TfL and Greenwich Highways staff know the area at all, or expect everyone to cycle a convoluted route to reach a cycle bus. Either that it it’s a sop and tick box exercise.
I’ll leave that up to you to decide.
The cycle shuttle is a gimmick so they can point and say “look! We care about being green!” but if they did the retrograde street network across east Greenwich and Charlton would have been improved by the time the tunnel opened but it hasn’t and won’t be.
I asked at a consultation event about the recommended route to reach the cycle bus from Deptford/west Greenwich (I live in the flats near the creek) and they said use the new footbridge bridge over the A102. I said have you ever even been there on foot or bike and seen just how bad it is? Silence. One actually said why not cycle all the way round the end of the peninsula on a route that’d add a huge distance. Yep that’ll get people using it!?! They were incredibly uninformed of local geography and streetscape issues. Hadn’t the faintest how poor and unsuitable Tunnel Avenue route is. I thought TFL and Royal Greenwich council would make at least a token gesture in Greenwich for this bus but nothing. Nada. Zilch
Free DLR travel between Woolwich and King George V for a year bizarrely as well.
https://tfl.gov.uk/modes/driving/new-silvertown-tunnel
Good way of avoiding carrying a pedal bike up the Woolwich Foot Tunnel steps I guess.
Yep that’s a trip very few are taking. Who would use it realistically? Want the Superloop route SL2 then DLR not exactly close. Maybe it’s to accept that after 2 1/2 years the lift isn’t being fixed anytime soon though in reality it smacks of another “green” gimmick for PR purposes. Same as cycle bus and Cutty Sark to Island Gardens free trips for a year when Cutty Sark station has no working escalators.
Indeed no working escalators at CSG DLR and no sign of a timetable from TfL as to their replacement.
A petition has been launched at http://www.escalate-now.com .
The cycle bus has the potential to work – I’m thinking of the ‘HereEast’ shuttle service from Westfield to the business park near Fish Island at Hackney Wick, which ran even through the pandemic. As the article points out though, it’s getting to the pick-up site at the first place. Certainly there are enough who will want to bring a Lime bike aboard (and likely discard it there) that the service is eventually cut back over cited abuse/underuse concerns.
As for the buses, SL2 would be better off starting at North Greenwich before making the run to Walthamstow. Currently the options to get to those parts of East London all involve a combination of tube and one bus minimum, with attendant tissues for those with limited mobility.
Hopefully the public transport issues will be improved rather than downgraded as feedback is returned from the numerous opposition elements to the project, and from the Mayor’s critics in particular. Meanwhile I’ve booked the tunnel opening week off as I’d rather not try my luck on the new system at 8am Monday morning. That’s a game for younger, braver people.
That should be good news as the A102 Blackwall Tunnel can get so busy during rush hour and at peak times and it’s ideal to have another road tunnel built underneath the River Thames.
Woolwich should be moved into zone 3 to compensate for this
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