Drivers will have to pay a toll to use the Blackwall tunnel from 2025, Sadiq Khan has confirmed.
The mayor said the charge should not come as a surprise as it had been in the pipeline for years – and was needed to help pay for the nearby £2bn Silvertown tunnel, which is due to open in two years’ time.
“There’s nothing sudden about it,” Mr Khan told the Standard. “The intention is for both the Silvertown tunnel and the Blackwall tunnel… to be tolled. What we don’t want to see is displacement as a consequence of one being tolled and not the other.
“Also, the [Silvertown] tunnel hasn’t been paid for using taxpayers’ money or the TfL budget. It’s being paid for by borrowing against future receipts coming in through the tunnels.”
Government documents published last week suggested that car drivers could be charged up to £4 per crossing to use the Blackwall tunnel. Transport for London, which runs the tunnel, insists the levy has yet to be decided.
It is thought the cost of using the Silvertown and Blackwall tunnels will be similar to the M25 Dartford Crossing, which is currently £2.50 for cars and £6 for larger vehicles.
Asked if he feared a Ulez-style backlash from motorists on discovering the Blackwall tunnel would be tolled, Mr Khan said: “There is nothing sudden about it. I think Boris Johnson was going to fund the Silvertown tunnel using a toll as well.”
TfL consulted on the toll in 2015, during Mr Johnson’s second term as mayor, as part of its wider plans to build the Silvertown tunnel. The plans were approved by the Government in 2018.
Mr Johnson’s decision to impose tolls reversed the policy of his predecessor, Ken Livingstone, who in 2007 sent the leader of Bexley council a handwritten note that read: ““P.S. In case this is not clear enough - read my lips - no tolls at Blackwall Tunnel!”
Mr Khan insists the Silvertown tunnel is needed because the Blackwall tunnel is “not fit for purpose”, meaning drivers frequently face long tailbacks – worsening pollution levels.
TfL data shows there were 2,767 closures of the Blackwall tunnel in the most recent 12-month period, to September last year.
These delays, totalling 17,228 minutes or almost 12 days, lasted from one minute to 11 hours. The vast majority were due to “overheight” vehicles. The northbound tunnel has a 4m height restriction.
Mr Khan said Silvertown would have a dedicated bus lane – improving public transport connections in south-east London.
“At the same time, it will mean that people [like] electricians and plumbers who have got to use their vehicle won’t be stuck in traffic for hours and hours,” he said.
Tory mayoral candidate Susan Hall did not rule out retaining the Blackwall tunnel toll.
She said: “It is right that we scrutinise this to ensure London taxpayers and those who use the tunnels are getting value for money. Any new tolls need to be fair and proportionate.”
The Stop the Silvertown Tunnel Coalition said: “There is nothing to stop a future mayor removing tolls on Blackwall and Silvertown tunnels.
“Both we and Greenwich council have legal advice showing that the toll regime as part of the scheme is not legally binding, and a future mayor could remove them leading to increased traffic, congestion and pollution directly caused by the new tunnel.
“In any case tolls do not necessarily remove excess traffic, as shown by the Dartford crossing. When the toll there was increased the traffic levels continued to increase.
“That is why we insist that alternative uses for the Silvertown tunnel - that is, alternatives to cars and lorries such as for walking, cycling, trams and other public transport - should be seriously looked into, as both Greenwich and Newham councils have called for.”
In June, Greenwich council called on the mayor to redesign Silvertown tunnel as a public transport crossing, amid fears about juggernauts driving through the borough in preference to using the Dartford crossing.
The Blackwall tunnel will be closed southbound throughout this weekend and next weekend (from 00.01 on Saturday September 30 to 5am on Monday October 2 and the same times the following weekend, October 7-9) to allow road works for the Silvertown tunnel to be completed. The northbound tunnel will remain open.
