Monday, April 07, 2025
The Silvertown Tunnel opened this morning.
Have you been through it yet? comments
(I'm only interested if the answer is 'Yes')
I have, in both directions, because I don't hang around.
I have also had the entire top deck to myself, spotted lots of police, timed the journey through (2 minutes) and been charged to ride a 'free' bus. The inside of the tunnel is big and grey, as you might expect.
• The tunnel opened at quarter past midnight. The first bus ran five hours later.
• I did not ride the first bus, I was still asleep. But I beat Sadiq through because he waited until 11am.
• The Silvertown Tunnel is noticeably wider than the Blackwall Tunnel, especially compared to the northbound Victorian bore. The left hand lane is for buses and HGVs only. Mostly HGVs because there are only 15 buses an hour.
• Things to spot as you rumble through: great big fans overhead, strip lights, SOS telephones, digital 30 mph speed limit signs, emergency exits.
• The tunnel has eight emergency exits along its length, numbered 1 to 8 in big green numerals.
• The tunnel is divided into 57 sections according to large black numbers painted on the wall. Heading north the first section is 01 FZ-NB and the last is 57 FZ-NB, while heading south it's 01 FZ-SB to 57 FZ-SB.
• You can calculate the length of the tunnel by adding the distances on the green emergency signs. The Silvertown Tunnel is 1565m long [←1085m] [480m→], a bit longer than the Blackwall Tunnel which is 1500m long [← 1290m] [210m→].
• Road signs locally and beyond have been updated to show 'Silvertown Tunnel' as well as 'Blackwall Tunnel'.
• I did not ride the Cycle Shuttle because I can't because I don't have a bike. But I did see some users hanging around the southern stop in PR-friendly tabards.
• A lot of your general questions about the tunnel can be answered here and here.
• The three buses through the Blackwall and Silvertown Tunnels are supposed to be free to ride. Four times out of five they were, but I was peeved when a 108 charged me £1.75. It also reduced the bloke in front of me to an Emergency Fare so it was charging everyone. Come on TfL, play fair.
• n.b. 60+ cards aren't valid on the free bus before 9am, you have to use a normal card and get charged nothing. Hence my annoyance on the rogue 108.
• It's hard to tell if the new tunnel has eased the traffic. They timed its opening for the first day of the Easter holidays to make sure Day One was easier.
• Being the school holidays a lot of the young bus-spotter crowd was out spotting buses. Some hunted in packs, others sat silently until an acquaintance sidled up and started drilling them about what they thought of Arriva and the new ELs. It won't be so busy tomorrow.
• If you fancy watching a video of a bus ride through the tunnel, check YouTube and TikTok because there must be hundreds on there by now. The bloke sat beside me filmed a three-minuter all the way through.
• My apologies to the peeved bus fan who found the front seats full so had to sit behind. But fewer apologies after he added "It's not exactly a front row seat but it'll do," twice, then started filming over my shoulder.
108: Heading south there's a new shortcut between the Blackwall Tunnel and the bus station, saving a couple of minutes. Heading north it's still a 5 minute detour.
129: If you just want to ride through the tunnel to say you have, head to North Greenwich and ride this, don't touch the SL4.
129/SL4: After you emerge from the tunnel on the southern side, a sensor aboard the bus chirps an audible warning - Low Bridge. It's only a gantry above the road and it's not that low, but it still chirps every time.
SL4: I don't think there was a single person aboard who wasn't there out of curiosity value. The sheer pointlessness of a frequent bus heading away from Canary Wharf in the morning peak is even more engrained on me now I've ridden it.
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