Silvertown Tunnel - Cross River Cycling Service

Update 10 July 2024

We are now able to publish our report on the outcomes of our public consultation on proposals for a new cross-river service for cyclists to use when the Silvertown Tunnel opens in 2025.

Our consultation sought views including: preferred means of travel for cyclists across the river, days and times when cyclists might wish to use the service, type of vehicle, fares, route and stop location options.

We received 684 responses to the consultation, including 21 from stakeholders. Thank you to everyone who took part.

Having considered all the feedback received during the consultation, we will be proceeding with our preferred option of a bus shuttle service for cyclists. The shuttle service will:

• Operate between Greenwich Peninsula and Silvertown, via the new Silvertown Tunnel
• Use bus stops located at the northern side of the river close to Tidal Basin Roundabout/Western Gateway and on the Greenwich Peninsula on Millennium Way, with onward connections to Cycleway 14 (subject to agreement with RB Greenwich and LB Newham)
• Use vehicles which provide space inside to store bicycles, rather than a trailer and minibus
• Run at a high frequency with a bus at least every 12 minutes
• Run seven days a week from 0630 to 2130
• Be free to use for at least the first year of operation

The shuttle bus service will begin operating when the Silvertown Tunnel opens in 2025 in accordance with our obligations under the Development Consent Order (DCO) for the Tunnel. We are now in the process of appointing a suitable operator to run the service on our behalf.

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Update 15 March 2024

We continue to review all the feedback we received during the consultation. We will publish our consultation report, including our responses to the issues raised during the consultation and details of the next steps and specifications for the new cross river service, later this year.

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We want as many cyclists as possible to use and enjoy a well-connected cycling network across the river in east and southeast London. To ensure that the Silvertown Tunnel can play an integral role in this, we are proposing the introduction of a new cross-river cycling service, to help transport cyclists across the Thames when the tunnel opens in 2025.

On this page you can find out more about the proposals and how you can tell us your views. 

Overview

Our proposals

Information to help you respond

Next steps

Overview

Our aim is to provide safe and convenient connections for cyclists between the Greenwich Peninsula in south London and Canary Wharf and Silvertown on the north. It is hoped that this will help promote sustainable travel, improve public health, increase access to jobs, education and leisure opportunities across both sides of the river, as well as supporting regeneration across the wider area.

To help us provide the best service we would like to hear your views on the type of service which would be most useful for cyclists who want to cross the river. We would like to know cyclists’ views on a proposed shuttle bus service which can transport cyclists and their bicycles through the Blackwall and Silvertown tunnels. In the future, we are also considering a cross-river ferry service which could be used by pedestrians and cyclists and would also like to hear whether this might be a useful service option for us to develop further. The IFS Cloud Cable Car will remain available for cyclists to use during its hours of operation.

We want to understand how cyclists might use this river-crossing service. We want to know what type of bicycles you use and how this new service could best meet your needs in travelling across the river by bike. We are also seeking views on specific operational elements of the new service, such as when it would operate, the accessibility and connectivity of the service, as well as what sort of journeys cyclists might use the service for in the future. Your feedback will be vital to shaping our plans for how the service will operate.

The images below show computer generated images of how the shuttle bus service and minibus with trailer service might look.

Information to help you respond

The ‘Documents’ library contains the following information to help you respond:

• Summary of our proposals
• Detailed information about our proposals
• Frequently Asked Questions
• Equalities Impact Assessment: We have produced an Equalities Impact Assessment for the proposals to assess the impacts of the scheme on protected groups - this is now available on request
• Map of proposed provision: This map shows the proposed pick-up and drop-off points of the bus shuttle provision and the route the bus shuttle will take as well as existing and proposed cycling provision in the area
• Map of piers: This map shows the current and proposed piers we considered the ferry crossing service to use
• Easy Read consultation document
• Easy Read consultation survey
• Printable copy of the consultation survey if you prefer to print off a copy and post it to us
• Computer generated images of how the shuttle bus service and minibus with trailer service might look

If you have any questions or queries about the consultation or proposals, or require materials in an alternative format, please email haveyoursay@tfl.gov.uk or telephone 020 3054 6037 and a member of our team will be in touch with you.

Connecting with London's deaf community on our consultations

To enhance how we engage and consult with London's deaf community we are trialling a British Sign Language (BSL) consultation conversation service for this consultation. This service will allow the TfL consultation lead to have a two-way BSL translated discussion on any aspect of this consultation with a BSL speaker.

To request a BSL consultation conversation please contact us at haveyoursay@tfl.gov.uk and we will be in contact to arrange this at a convenient time. Following this trial, we will evaluate the service to determine if this is something we are able to offer on other consultations in the future.

Next steps

After the consultation closes, we will analyse all the responses received and use this to help inform our decision making. We hope to report on the consultation and confirm the next steps for our proposals later in the year.