London Mayor Sadiq Khan has confirmed that drivers will have to pay to drive through the Blackwall Tunnel from 2025, and that it should come as “no surprise”.

He told the London Evening Standard newspaper it had been in the pipeline for years, and was needed to help pay for the new Silvertown tunnel, which is due to open in two years’ time.

“There’s nothing sudden about it,” Mr Khan told the Standard. “The intention is for both the Silvertown tunnel and the Blackwall tunnel… to be tolled. What we don’t want to see is displacement as a consequence of one being tolled and not the other.

“Also, the [Silvertown] tunnel hasn’t been paid for using taxpayers’ money or the TfL budget. It’s being paid for by borrowing against future receipts coming in through the tunnels.”

Some reports suggest car drivers will have to pay £4 to use the tunnels, because draft signage submitted for approval had that price on it. However Transport for London say the levy is yet to be set, and that the prices on the draft signs were placeholders.

(Picture – TfL)