Drivers using the Blackwall tunnel would have to pay more than £10 a day for a return trip if the proposed levy kept pace with inflation, it emerged on Wednesday.
The twin-bore road tunnel, in east London, is currently free to use but a toll will be imposed from 2025 to help repay the £1.2bn cost of building the nearby Silvertown tunnel, which will also be tolled.
Mayor Sadiq Khan has written to Transport Secretary Mark Harper pleading for Government help to allow “low income” Londoners living in boroughs closest to the tunnels - Greenwich, Tower Hamlets and Newham - to be given a discount to use the crossings under the Thames.
The intervention suggests Mr Khan is becoming increasingly concerned at the backlash against tolling the Blackwall tunnel – especially after ongoing protests over the Londonwide expansion of the Ulez.
In his letter, Mr Khan revealed that the £4 peak charge that was under consideration when the Silvertown plans were consulted upon in 2015 would now be £5.25 due to inflation – raising the prospect of drivershaving to pay £10.50 for a return trip.
Transport for London is not due to announce the size of the toll to use either tunnel until this time next year, and mayoral sources insist no decision has been taken.
Mr Khan said a toll was needed at both tunnels to repay theSilvertown construction costs, “manage traffic demand” and avoid worsening air pollution.
He wrote: “There was an extensive public consultation onthis in 2015, and the suggested tunnel charge level for cars at peak hours was £4 - the equivalent of around £5.25 today, allowing for inflation.”
The Silvertown tunnel is being built under a PFI scheme that was set in train during Boris Johnson’s mayoralty and approved by the Tory government in 2018.
Last month Government documents emerged showing draft road signs that indicated that car drivers would have to pay £4 per trip to use the tunnels from 2025.
Mr Khan chose to press ahead with the Silvertown plans, in the face of sustained criticism from eco campaigners, when he became mayor in 2016.
The Blackwall tunnels – which link the A2 and A12 - areused by about 100,000 vehicles a day but suffer all-day congestion,particularly the older and narrower northbound tunnel. Mr Khan says the areasaround the entrances are “among the most polluted” parts of London.
In his letter, Mr Khan said it was “neither financially norenvironmentally viable” to ditch the tolls.
But he said he had “become increasingly concerned about theimpact of introducing a user charge for the Blackwall Tunnel on residents onlow incomes living in the neighbouring boroughs”.
He has previously suggested allowing local residents to paya discounted toll. He has now asked TfL to carry out work to “define the openinglevels for the user charges, as well as any accompanying discounts andexemptions”.
Eco campaigners want the Silvertown tunnel to be repurposed as a car-free tunnel, enabling it to be used by buses, pedestrians and cyclists.
The Stop the Silvertown Tunnel campaign group said:“Despite united opposition from climate, transport, air quality, and publichealth experts, and from local residents and health workers, who all told him it would be a disaster, the mayor has spent billions on a scheme that doesn't have any of the benefits he claims - and now he's asking East London residentsto pay over £10 a day to use a crossing that used to be free, just to clean up the mess he himself has created.”
Peter Fortune, a Tory member of the London Assembly, told the Standard:“This is, once again, classic avoidance behaviour from Sadiq Khan - trying to blame others when he’s been mayor for over seven years.
“It is clear that it’s Khan who has the power to determinewhether or not there should be a charge, and what level it should be. It is hewho has taken the decision, as he did with the Ulez expansion, to hammerhard-working motorists in east and south-east London.”
Sian Berry, a Green member of the London Assembly, said: “The Silvertown road tunnel should never have been started.
"Now the mayor is tying himself up in knots trying to reconcile the new costs the tunnels will impose on drivers in the area with the need to limit pollution from those motor vehicles."
A spokesperson for Mr Khan said: “Tolling both tunnels wasthe idea of the previous mayor, Boris Johnson, and agreed by central Government in 2018. However, Sadiq believes more must be done to mitigate the impact on lower income residents in the area.
“The Mayor has also made it clear to ministers that any exemptions and discounts, which might impact income from the scheme, shouldn’timpact future discussions on wider TfL funding."
