All three bus routes serving the Blackwall Tunnel and the new Silvertown Tunnel will be free of charge for their entire length for a year, Transport for London has confirmed.
TfL’s offer means that canny passengers on both sides of the Thames will be able to travel free on services that don’t involve crossing the river.
The new tunnel, between Greenwich Peninsula and the Royal Docks, is set to open on Monday April 7. Drivers will have to pay to use both the new crossing and the existing Blackwall Tunnel, with the user charges paying off the £2 billion cost of the Silvertown Tunnel.
TfL also hopes the charges – which have been part of the plans since Boris Johnson was mayor – will stop neighbourhoods around the tunnel from being swamped with traffic from day one, something critics of the new road have long feared.
It is also offering free travel on two bus services – an extended 129 service and the new SL4 service – which will run through the tunnel, in an attempt to lure drivers out of their cars for cross-river trips. Passengers will still need to have an Oyster or contactless card, and the concession will last for at least a year.
The routes using the Silvertown Tunnel will be:
- 129: The existing bus from Lewisham town centre to North Greenwich, then through the new tunnel to Pontoon Dock, London City Airport, Tollgate Road, Beckton and Gallions Reach, finishing at new housing at Great Eastern Quay.
- SL4: A new Superloop bus from Grove Park to Lee, Blackheath station and the Sun-in-the-Sands roundabout which will then run without stopping via the new tunnel to Orchard Place, near Trinity Buoy Wharf. It will then run via East India station, Baffin Way and Trafalgar Way to Canary Wharf.
A TfL spokesperson confirmed to The Greenwich Wire that route 108, which runs through the Blackwall Tunnel, would also be included in the free travel, and that the concessions would apply for the entire routes, and not just trips that cross the river.
So passengers taking the 129 from Lewisham to Greenwich town centre would not be charged while those taking the 199, which follows the same route at this point, would have to pay a fare.
Similarly, someone taking a bus from the Royal Standard in Blackheath to Lewisham would not be charged on the 108, but would be charged on the 54 or 380, which also link those points.
Greenwich Council had supported the tunnel’s construction for ten years up to 2022. After construction work had started, it finally reversed its stance following years of pressure from campaigners and Labour activists. The council had believed the tunnel would provide an economic boost.
Its reward for that decade of support will be a pair of free buses enabling residents to shop in neighbouring Lewisham, rather than its own main centres of Woolwich or Eltham.
TfL has also confirmed that the short trips on the 108 that run late each evening between North Greenwich and Lewisham will also qualify for free travel. The late-night service, operated with double-decker buses, is intended to clear crowds at the O2 and is treated as a separate route by TfL.
The 108 will also remain as frequent as it is now, despite rumours that the service would be cut when the tunnel opens.
Consultation documents for the new buses, published in 2022 and still live on the TfL website, featured the 108 running every 12 minutes, rather than every 10 minutes as now. However, TfL decided to keep the service running every 10 minutes, the spokesperson said.
There will, however, be one minor amendment to the 108 – southbound services will be able to use a new bus lane when leaving the Blackwall Tunnel to head straight to North Greenwich station.
The bus network has come in for criticism with only one new route – the 129 – serving stops close to the new tunnel. The original traffic assessments for the tunnel were based on 37.5 buses per hour – including the existing 108 – with early plans showing east London routes being extended to North Greenwich and a service from Eltham to Beckton.
However, this was cut to 20 buses an hour during the public hearings into the new crossing, with the current plans working out at 21 buses per hour.
TfL said the proposals matched the passenger numbers it expected and that the network would adapt as travel patterns changed.
Sir Sadiq Khan said on Wednesday that he hoped to attend the tunnel’s opening and said that Londoners should be “incredibly proud” of the £2 billion crossing.
He told the Local Democracy Reporting Service: “It will transform life for those in south-east London and those in east London who’ve experienced, for years now, record congestion, poor air quality, and an impact on productivity.
“What this tunnel is doing is it’s self-financing, with those that use pay the toll. It will not only improve air quality, improve congestion, alleviate pressures, but also have a lane reserved for double-decker buses.”
The bus lane that Khan referred to will also carry HGVs that are too large to fit through the Blackwall Tunnel – one of the prime concerns for critics who fear the crossing will simply exacerbate traffic problems.
Additional reporting by Noah Vickers, Local Democracy Reporter
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