Silvertown tunnel opening: Video shows trip through tunnel and future bus journeys
With the Silvertown tunnel now just a week from opening a video has been uploaded showing bus route training in advance of services starting on 7 April.
I was just alerted to this video on social media which offers a good insight into how it should work – and it can be seen on Youtube here.
The video starts at Silvertown and the newly extended Tidal Basin roundabout. There’s numerous traffic signals here so it may well become congested pretty quickly though extensive money has been spent on landscaping.
Far more than south of the river in Greenwich which often appears very much an afterthought and forgotten step child.
Layout issues
The tunnel’s bus lane is shared with HGVs and only begins at the tunnel mouth. We could well see many other vehicles trying to undertake right up to that point as general traffic approaches on both lanes given the layout.
Expect some horn blowing as drivers attempt to edge in – with buses held up by that.
The tunnel itself features footways for emergency exits on either side and a speed limit of 30mph. At the tunnel exit south of the Thames there’s a pretty sharp left curve before traffic exits and meets that leaving the Blackwall tunnel.
It’s this convergence of two tunnel’s worth of traffic which has scope for enhancing congestion and traffic jams in years to come when heading southbound.
TfL publicly never mention this fact despite their own internal reports stating traffic levels will rise and traffic modelling being revised last year in a report that went before local councils via the Silvertown Tunnel Implementation Group.
TfL and advocates only like to mention morning peak traffic reductions when heading north rather than the flipside each afternoon through Greenwich borough heading through Greenwich, Blackheath, Kidbrooke, Eltham and Falconwood.
Greenwich layout
One of the biggest potential issues is revealed on the video as the bus travels through Greenwich after leaving the £2.2bn tunnel on a recently widened but short four lane stretch underneath the recently installed footbridge. The bus lane ends immediately at the tunnel exit so no assistance here.
There’s not much space for vehicles exiting the Blackwall tunnel to cross two lanes for the Greenwich peninsula exit. It’s not exactly a little used exit as cars head to the o2 and the 108 bus – which will continue to run through the Blackwall tunnel as now – exits for North Greenwich bus station.
The SL4 bus has the opposite issues; it needs to cross two lanes to the right to continue ahead whilst other traffic changes lanes to the left. This has the recipe to be accident central.
In the video this stretch starts around three minutes and ten seconds in.
Two into one doesn’t fit?
This stretch where traffic from both the Blackwall tunnel and Silvertown tunnel meets has always stuck out as a potential problem since day one and often highlighted on this site – but TfL have been so determined to have two tunnels mostly use the existing roads in Greenwich that they’re trying to squeeze a quart into a pint pot.
Much of the tunnel’s design from day one has seemed to treat the south side with far less thought than the north. In the north both tunnel’s entrance and exits are some way away spreading traffic. Not so in Greenwich.
In Silvertown TfL have spent millions on landscaping – and recently allocated millions more. In the south across Greenwich very little has been spent and many streets – including roads and approaches to the cycle bus – remain dismally outdated.
What has been spent was out of necessity. For example the replacement footbridge was required due to road changes and approaches remain extremely poor on foot and cycle.
I’ve been down there in recent days to see how it is looking shortly before opening and will write up about it soon. You can probably imagine what it’s still like.
The tunnel opens in a week’s time and in coming days they’ll be posts on both the footbridge and approaches in Greenwich as well as road changes around Bow which I’ve also headed over the see.
Interesting video. Nothing in it makes me think this is the right location for a new tunnel as further east always made more sense around Thamesmead/Belvedere given that location would disperse traffic across a wider area. By utilising the same approach and exit highway network in Greenwich for a new crossing that ensures its ripe for long term problems and liable to failures at pinch points. Not just through general daily congestion but only having one road (a2 and a102) to reach and leave what will be two tunnels means any incident on that road and both tunnels are immediately impacted.
Khan seemed to just push whatever Johnson wanted when he took office to we ended up with this when Livingstone and the TfL of his tenure seemed much more aware. Boris cut many decent schemes and Khan just carried on with halfassed replacements. I suppose that was a precursor to Starmer and Johnson/Truss/Sunak etc.
I also note the new sound barriers in Greenwich (the only “investment?”) are already heavily graffitied and the side of the road including the flyover is utterly filthy. Spending £2.2 BILLION and can’t even do basic cleaning?
I live along the stretch that hasn’t been given the barriers (the part closest to Westcombe Park bridge) so have a fine view of traffic in both directions throughout the day. I have no doubt I’ll be in for a rough summer if the south-bound traffic continues to pile on past 8pm.
Correct me if I’m wrong but the current 108 is normally ok when in the Blackwall tunnel but problematic on approach and exit? Which this tunnel looks exactly like except it has a bus lane but that offers no assistance in east London and then south east London either side! Traffic merging towards the tunnel is going to be a big issue as you point out as drivers attempt to jump the right-hand queue. We see drivers getting off approaches to the Blackwall tunnel to avoid straffic so there’s no doubt that will happen and greatly slow down buses reaching the bus lane. Odd oversight unless the bus friendly claims are a sham…
I don’t see drivers jumpin queues meself so don’t know where you mean on ere? But there’s loss of work goin on the A13 they’ve closed dahn the left lane leadin into the BW so you ave to drive right up the A13 ere until there’s a small lane filterin into the Tunnel rahnd there.
People head off the before the flyovers in greenwich to go around the roundabouts and rejoin to avoid seconds right now. No doubt drivers will try to undercut up to the bus lane start.
Why did they not build a tunnel after the bridge at Thamesmead /Becton bridge was abandoned. All the road infrastructure was already there.
that was the plan until boris scrapped it. This half baked plan turned up for whatever reason khan stuck with it.
watching the vid and it seems buses are an afterthought and a gimmick to say it benefits many of them as – they have to wait at traffic lights as main flow goes by (delays) then join a queue as drivers in left lane slowly merge to right and drivers in right not wanting to let them jump in (delays) then through tunnel before exiting and joining more queues as traffic from blackwall has to cut across to exit. give it a year or two and it’ll be a mess.
What a total waste of money, anybody with half a brain can see from the video that it’s obsolete before it even opens. All these mugs have added is one extra lane northbound and southbound, yes there are two lanes but one is a bus lane. Why on earth was it not made wider..?? Two lanes for cars would have helped but it’s deja vu, just a reminder of when the M25 officially opened, the next day they started work on widening sections of it.
My thoughts go out to the poor motorists who have not only been conned but now to add insult they’re going to be charged for the privilege….