OPINION - The London Question: Will the Silvertown tunnel be bad for London?
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He may be very busy pounding the beat with new Metropolitan police recruits. He may even be very busy on a vital foreign trade mission in the Far East. Or – imagine the luck! - he may be off to Buckingham Palace in top hat and tails to be tapped on the shoulder with a sword by the King.
Such a packed schedule can only mean one thing: the mayor of London will, I’m guessing, probably be far too busy to attend the opening of the Silvertown road tunnel under the Thames. Not that it would have been much of an inconvenience. The Silvertown tunnel’s northern “portal” (or entrance/exit to you and me) is but a few hundred yards from City Hall’s front door.
Nor is the tunnel undeserving of mayoral patronage. The project – a commendable engineering endeavour, make no mistake - is costing the best part of £2bn. It’s a major London achievement, especially at a time the number of City Hall ribbon-cutting events is on the decline.
Some of the tunnel’s funding has come from TfL’s coffers. But the bulk of the cost will be covered by tolls paid by the tunnel “users”, namely motorists – including those using the Blackwall tunnel. It will take until 2026/27 for TfL to start to earn a “profit” from the tunnel tolls. Even by then, the surplus will only be about £3m a year.
