Car drivers will be charged up to £4 per journey to use the Blackwall tunnel or the new Silvertown tunnel from next Spring, Transport for London has announced.A peak hours levy of £4 will be imposed on northbound trips from 6am to 10am and southbound trips from 4pm to 7pm on weekdays – meaning £8 a day for a typical “round trip” in and out of central London.
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00:00Behind me is the Silvertown Tunnel and as you can see it's still quite a long way from being finished but Transport for London has announced today that it will cost car drivers up to £4 a time to use this crossing under the Thames.
00:15So the standard off-peak charges which will be in place for the majority of the time will be £1.50.
00:20There will be a higher charge in place for the very busiest times of day which is only four hours northbound in the morning and three hours in the southbound evening during which it will cost £4.
00:29But we do have a 50% discount for residents on low incomes in 13 east and south-east boroughs.
00:36We've also got free cross-river bus trips and free DLR buses as well so we're giving people as many opportunities to go and make that shift and support them during the transition as we can.
00:46Drivers won't have to pay just to use the Silvertown Tunnel, they'll also have to pay for the first time in more than 100 years to use the Blackwall Tunnel which is just slightly further to the west.
00:58The Blackwall Tunnel is used by 100,000 motorists a day and it connects the A2 with the A12 in East London.
01:06So what we understand with road user charges is that as inflation increases, if we don't increase charges from time to time, that gradual deterrent effect is decreased.
01:15So we do need to keep them under review and actually a secondary objective of the charges for Silvertown and Blackwall Tunnels is actually paying back the cost of the scheme which we think they should do in the long term.
01:25We just need to keep those charges under review to make sure that those objectives are met.
01:30There's quite a complicated series of discounts and exemptions but how much you pay will depend on what time of day you drive through the tunnels.
01:39Both tunnels are the same in terms of the charge.
01:42So we have a £4 peak and that applies if you're driving northbound through either the Silvertown or the Blackwall Tunnel between 6am and 10am on weekdays.
01:53The £4 charge also applies if you're driving south through either tunnel between 4pm and 7pm.
02:01At other times between this sort of window between 6am and 10pm the fee will be £1.50 for car drivers.
02:09And between 10pm and 6am the next morning the tunnels are free to use and that applies throughout the week, seven days a week.
02:18Whereas the peak charge, the £4 charge, just applies during weekdays.