Skip to main content

London's new Silvertown Tunnel set to open

TfL says average peak journey times expected to be 20 minutes quicker
By Adam Hill January 13, 2025 Read time: 2 mins
Tunnel vision (© Hupeng | Dreamstime.com)

The new Silvertown Tunnel beneath the River Thames in the east of London, UK, is set to open on 7 April 2025.

The 1.4km-long twin-bore tunnel has two lanes per tunnel with dedicated lanes for heavy goods vehicles and buses. 

Indra has equipped the new structure with its In-Mova Traffic platform and intelligent transport systems including communication systems, radio communications network and traffic signals. 

Citilog has integrated its automatic incident detection system, which includes 59 CCTV cameras, to help reduce congestion in and around the tunnel. It provides real-time incident detection and response to enhance safety and incident management, and is designed to minimise false alarms while maintaining high detection accuracy.

Using thousands of video clips will help train an advanced network to reduce false positives, allowing operators to focus on genuine emergencies.

The new tunnel runs between the London borough of Greenwich, the peninsula area, and West Silvertown on the northern bank of the Thames.

Transport for London (TfL) says modelling shows it will help reduce congestion at the existing Blackwall Tunnel, with average journey times expected to be up to 20 minutes quicker at peak times.

It will also help manage overall air quality and allow for better cross-river public transport, TfL says, with new bus routes - free for the first year - meaning that bus crossings increase from six to 21 per hour.

While you will not be able to walk or cycle through the tunnel, a new zero-emission cycle-shuttle service is due to operate every 12 minutes, seven days a week.

Related Content

  • May 2, 2017
    City of Seattle implements SCOOT adaptive traffic management
    Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) has implemented a new adaptive traffic control system at 32 intersections along Mercer Street between 3rd Ave W and I-5, which has been one of the city’s most congested corridors for over 40 years. Developed by the UK’s Transport Research Laboratory, the SCOOT (Split Cycle Offset Optimisation Technique) system coordinates the operation of the traffic signals in and around the corridor to help vehicles move more efficiently. SCOOT works in real-time to reduce delay
  • July 31, 2012
    Dubai metro - the world's longest automated rail system
    David Crawford reviews the recent opening of Dubai's Red Line. The US$7.6bn Dubai Metro, the Phase I Red Line of which started partial operation in September 2009, will be the world's longest driverless rail system on its planned completion in 2011. With a total length of some 75km, it will then overtake the 68.7km Vancouver SkyTrain and be able to carry over 1.2 million passengers on a typical day.
  • July 20, 2015
    Indra implements smart tunnel technology
    Texeira Duarte has awarded Indra a contract for the design, installation and commissioning of intelligent traffic systems (ITS), control and communications for the Marao tunnel, currently under construction and which, spanning close to 6 km, is said to be the longest in Portugal and the Iberian Peninsula. In addition, Indra will also implement its tunnel control technology for the tunnel of the Mashhad Metro Line 2 in Iran. The global value of these contracts for Indra is more than US$8 million Indra
  • October 14, 2015
    FTA calls for greater reliability on road network following improvements at Dartford
    Drivers using the Dartford Crossing at peak times are saving around an hour and a half every week thanks to Dart Charge, according to Highways England. New figures released by Highways England show that journeys over the Dartford Crossing, which cost £62million (US$95 million) to convert to free-flow tolling, are up to 56 per cent faster than before payment barriers were removed. Drivers at peak times save up to 14 minutes southbound and seven minutes northbound.