Silvertown and Blackwall Tunnel tolls start in April

Transport for London (TfL) has announced that the controversial Silvertown Tunnel in east London will open on 7 April.

From then, drivers using either the Silvertown or existing Blackwall Tunnel will have to pay a toll, with car drivers paying £4 at peak times each way and £1.50 at off-peak times.

TfL said the tolls will suppress the amount of traffic and pollution, and is adding free bus routes for the first 12 months, along with a cycle-shuttle service across the River Thames.

But opponents say the new tunnel will attract more congestion to the area and impact air quality.

First announced in 2012, Mayor of London Sadiq Khan reviewed the scheme when he came into office, saying it would be a vital link across the Thames to east London.

Mr Khan, who is the chair of TfL, gave the tunnel the go-ahead - funded with a Private Finance Initiative (PFI) against future earnings - at a cost of £2.2bn.

He also increased the number of bus services that will use it, and there will be a bus to carry cyclists and their bikes across.

In September, Conservative councillor for Bexley in south-east London, Richard Diment, said the tolls will create a "two-tier London", adding: "In central and western London, where there are far more crossings, no tolls are charged.

"It will make south-east London even more isolated than it is already."

He is particularly against the decision to introduce a toll for Blackwall Tunnel, "which has had no toll on it since it opened in the 1890s".

"Over here in the east, where we have relatively few river crossings, people are going to have to pay."

But on three bus routes that use the tunnel there will be free travel for "at least a year", the mayor said.

There will also be free travel for the same period on the Docklands Light Railway (DLR) between Cutty Sark and Island Gardens, and from Woolwich Arsenal to King George V stations.

Discounts are also available for those on low incomes and small businesses.

The London mayor has said the toll charges for motorists will help with current congestion at the crossing, adding: "The current Blackwall Tunnel is, on an average basis, closed 700 times a year.

"A five-minute closure leads to a three-mile tailback, leads to problems for small businesses, those trading, those using the tunnel.

"The most unreliable bus in London is a single decker that uses the Blackwall Tunnel. By having a charge on both tunnels we can have improved public transport, improved river crossings, less congestion, better air quality."

Victoria Rance, on behalf of Stop the Silvertown Tunnel Coalition, said: "The tunnel is now built but there is the opportunity to take away the car and HGV lanes and repurpose if for clean public transport, cargo bikes and cycling.

"Instead we have new capacity for up to 30,000 extra vehicles daily, including juggernauts in and out of Newham, already the most polluted borough in London.

"Those vehicles will worsen the health, safety, and quality of life for children there in the short term, and worsen the wellbeing of future generations in the long term."

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