Motorists started to use the Silvertown Tunnel for the first time on Monday – with car drivers paying up to £4 to use the first new road crossing under the Thames for 58 years.The opening of the mile-long twin-bore tunnel, which links North Greenwich with Canning Town and the Royal Docks, also meant that tolls were imposed for the first time at the nearby Blackwall tunnel.
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00:00Well, it's finally open. It's around 8am on the 7th of April and Sadiq Khan's £2.2 billion
00:10Silvertown tunnel is being used by traffic. It opened early this morning and as things
00:16stand just now it's been moderately well used. There is a flow of traffic but it's nowhere
00:20near as busy as the Blackwall tunnel. Is this going to work? Well, the issue is if this
00:25takes traffic from Blackwall and smooths the flow there, then Sadiq Khan will say this
00:30has been worthwhile. What we've seen so far, there are a number of cars, there are some
00:34buses, they're mostly empty and the cycle bus has been running through as well, as well
00:39as the new SL4 Superloop. The cycle bus that went south on this way down to North Greenwich
00:45was empty. One's just come the other way with one cyclist on board. Time will tell whether
00:50this tunnel is essentially going to be used by Londoners, whether it's going to pay its
00:55way and whether there are environmental concerns caused by the amount of traffic coming through
01:00here. One thing for sure though is, it's pretty noisy.