The £2.2bn Silvertown Tunnel linking Silvertown to the Greenwich Peninsula in east London is open (7 April 2025), with drivers now required to pay a toll at both the new crossing and the Blackwall Tunnel.
Silvertown Tunnel stretches almost a mile (1.4km) under the Thames from Greenwich to Newham next to the Blackwall Tunnel. Controversially, both Silvertown and Blackwall tunnels are now subject to tolls - costing from £1.50 up to £4 in peak times to drive a car through - making the Silvertown Tunnel the first road access charging scheme in London since the congestion charge in 2003.
The implementation of the user charge was a requirement of the Development Consent Order, approved by the transport secretary in 2018.
The tolling scheme:
- User charges apply for those using the Silvertown and Blackwall tunnels between 06:00 and 22:00, seven days a week, with standard off-peak charges available at most times for vehicles registered with TfL Auto Pay.
- Peak charges only apply northbound between 0600 and 1000, and southbound 1600 to 1900, Monday to Friday.
- Low-income residents in 12 east London boroughs and the City of London, and on certain benefits, are eligible for a 50% discount on tunnel crossing charges.
- Small businesses, sole traders and charities registered and operating from Greenwich, Newham or Tower Hamlets are also eligible for a £1 discount on the off-peak charge on a maximum of three vehicles.
- For at least 12 months, the new cross-river bus routes serving Greenwich, Newham, and Tower Hamlets – routes 108, 129 and the new Superloop 4, will also be free for pay-as-you-go users.
- Cross-river journeys on the DLR from Greenwich or Cutty Sark to Island Gardens, and from Woolwich Arsenal to King George V will also be refunded for at least one year.
- All taxis and blue badge holders registered with TfL will not be charged for using the tunnel, and tunnel charges will also be reimbursed to NHS staff and patients eligible through the NHS reimbursement scheme.
- Only one Penalty Charge Notice for non-payment of user charges, set at £180 (but reduced to £90 if paid within 14 days) would be issued per day irrespective of the number of unpaid trips made in the vehicle on that day.
The project has been delivered by Transport for London (TfL) and Riverlinx Limited - which is made up of aberdeen, Invesis, Cintra, and SK ecoplant - through a design, build, finance, operate and maintain contract. Riverlinx will operate and maintain the crossing over the next 25 years.
The majority of the scheme costs were privately financed by Riverlinx, which took the majority of the risk associated with construction and responsibility for any associated cost overruns.
In return, TfL will pay Riverlinx 'availability payments' over 25 years following the scheme's opening, subject to its performance in maintaining the new tunnels. The investment will then be paid back via the tunnel user charge to the tune of around £100m a year.
At least 25,000 people a day are expected to use the Silvertown Tunnel.
The Riverlinx CJV (Construction Joint Venture) was contracted by TfL and Riverlinx SPV to complete the design and construction works. Riverlinx CJV is a joint venture between BAM, Ferrovial Construction and SK ecoplant.
Opposition and support
Mayor of London Sir Sadiq Khan once appeared to be an opponent of the scheme. In 2016, during his first mayoral election campaign, he suggested he might reconsider the case for the crossing and said a toll road could be considered 'tax on east and south east Londoners'.
However, following a review of the scheme in 2016 when he came into office, the mayor changed his approach and argued the new tunnel would alleviate congestion and tailbacks at the Victorian-era Blackwall Tunnel, which shuts around 700 times a year.
Mayor Khan said: 'The new Silvertown Tunnel will help to address the chronic congestion and poor air quality around Blackwall Tunnel. The new tunnel will reduce journey times, help to manage pollution levels and improve cross-river public transport.
'The original plans for the Silvertown Tunnel were developed by the previous Mayor of London in 2012. We made a series of significant improvements to make the scheme greener and to include a package of measures to support Londoners, local residents and businesses. This includes ensuring there are discounts and concessions in place, reserving a lane for double-decker buses, a free innovative cycle-shuttle service and free bus travel for pedestrians, which will encourage more people to switch to greener modes of transport.'
Andy Lord, London’s transport commissioner said: 'Supported by the user charges for the Silvertown and Blackwall tunnels, the new tunnel will also help reduce congestion and associated air quality issues around the Blackwall Tunnel, making journeys faster and more reliable, with average journey time savings expected to be up to 20 minutes at peak times. We have worked hard to ensure that, alongside the user charge, there is a package of supporting measures for Londoners and businesses.'
Borja Trashorras, project director for the Riverlinx CJV, said: 'The Riverlinx CJV joint venture has delivered the Silvertown Tunnel project on time, to budget and at the highest standard of delivery and engineering. Our collaborative approach with TfL and Riverlinx SPV has enabled us to leverage international expertise from our three partners: Ferrovial through its construction division, BAM and SK ecoplant. The construction here has included advanced engineering techniques with world firsts for a Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM) of this size, exemplifying our commitment to excellence and innovation.
'To have delivered this project in five years despite all of the recent world challenges is truly exceptional. I congratulate our team, everything we have achieved, and the positive legacy we leave not only for London but also for our industry.'
The scheme has proven controversial, not least because the Blackwall Tunnel, which is used by around 100,000 drivers a day and has been free for over a century, is now subject to tolls. However, critics have also questioned whether the tunnel will reduce congestion at Blackwall Tunnel, as intended, over the long-term.
Campaign group Stop Silvertown Tunnel Traffic and Pollution said: 'Silvertown takes a different alignment to Blackwall - so very little Blackwall traffic diverts this way. Instead, it creates a new route via Canning Town - & this new route creates new traffic - about 25,000 more trips a day.
'And this new traffic creates substantial new congestion, particularly on the already saturated A102 south of the river, where the two tunnels converge. So, far from acting as a relief road for Blackwall, as TfL & the Mayor claim, opening Silvertown makes things far worse for existing Blackwall users, who will suffer more traffic, congestion, & delays on the roads they use to access the tunnel.'
It argued that TfL was relying on tolls to limit the increase in traffic caused by the scheme and to 'pay off the immense debts it has incurred building the project'.
Construction fact file
- Construction of Silvertown began in 2021, with more than 1,860,000 tonnes of material transported to and from the site via river rather than using roads – helping to remove around 125,000 HGV trips from local roads around the construction site.
- The tunnel boring machine, Jill (named after Jill Viner – London’s first female bus driver), was turned around within the rotation chamber in Greenwich to then bore the second tunnel back towards Newham – a UK engineering first.
- The Silvertown Tunnel has supported and retained more than 120 apprenticeships across the supply chain, as well as supported the hiring of more than 90 people who were previously unemployed and offered more than 1,500 days in placements for the next generation of engineers.
- The land previously used for its construction will be returned to the Greater London Authority and Silvertown Homes Limited to begin work on Thameside West - a unique riverfront development set to deliver 5,000 new homes, strategic industrial land and a new DLR station.
