The Silvertown tunnel, which opened to traffic today, drives London backwards. The extra HGVs and cars it brings to east and south-east London will exacerbate air pollution, and undermine efforts to deal with climate change.
The tunnel reinforces London’s motor-traffic-centred transport system, when resources should instead be focused on public transport, and active travel such as cycling and walking.
The tunnel, between Greenwich and Newham, a few metres east of the Blackwall tunnel, has been opposed by local campaigners since 2012. Newham, Greenwich, Hackney and Lewisham councils all cautioned against it.
The Stop the Silvertown Tunnel coalition, set up in 2019, united community groups, climate scientists, medical and transport researchers, transport trade unions and environmentalists. We went to City Hall again today, to hand in a letter to the Mayor, calling on him once again to consider repurposing the tunnel for public transport, cyclists and active travel only.
“We are in a climate crisis”, we wrote. “New fossil-fuel infrastructure that encourages the use of HGVs and cars is something that no conscientious leader should be considering.”
We reminded the Mayor of the decarbonisation targets he announced in 2022, linked to a reduction in vehicle kilometres driven in London of 27% – or, still better, 40% according to the research he commissioned – by 2030. It seems clear to us that this outdated tunnel goes in the opposite direction.
The tunnel does not even solve transport problems. It does not rectify the lack of a 24/7 accessible cycle crossing east of Tower Bridge. It is free for HGVs at night, surely a nightmare for nearby residents. And it will bring many more vehicles per day to Newham, already one of the most polluted boroughs in London.
City Hall says the tunnel will reduce congestion. But transport researchers say the opposite: more roads produce more traffic. And there is no evidence that tolls, now charged on the Blackwall and Silvertown tunnels, will hold down induced traffic. They never did on the Dartford crossing.
We are proud of the way our Stop the Silvertown Tunnel coalition gave voice to local communities. And we are not going away.
We have lost this battle, but not the war.
Some of our supporters have joined forces with public transport trade unionists and others, to found the Fare Free London campaign, which argues that free public transport, already a reality in dozens of cities internationally, is the sort of drastic, demonstrative action needed to tackle climate change. It would strike a blow for social equality. A funding shake-up would be needed, but that’s better than pouring money into new roads.
We will also campaign, with the Transport Action Network and others, against the government’s ruinous decision to build the Lower Thames Crossing – a monstrous £14 billion six-lane motorway under the Thames at the Medway, which we believe would repeat all the Silvertown tunnel’s mistakes on a bigger scale.
We don’t need more tunnels. We need rational, low-traffic, socially just transport policies, to make our city an even nicer place to live.
Simon Pirani is part of the Stop the Silvertown Tunnel coalition
