The Mayor has tried to hide the true cost of the Silvertown Road Tunnel from Londoners. A small note in TfL’s annual accounts says that they will be paying £65m a year for this tunnel from 2025-2049. In total the cost is actually £2bn. https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/sep/16/thames-tunnel-will-cost-nearly-2bn-over-30-years-tfl-figures-show

The Mayor has committed Londoners to paying £65m a year, all the way to 2050, for a climate wrecking, pollution belching road tunnel. That’s income from tolls and road charging that could have been spent on reducing motor traffic and enabling more walking and cycling.

The cost of the Silvertown Road Tunnel has been on quite a journey. Originally in 2012 it was £600m. From 2014 to 2019 it was sold as £750m. In November 2019 the contract was signed and costs had escalated to £1bn.

Half way there... By March 2020, TfL was defending a £1.2bn cost saying that included financing and contract costs up to 2025. What the contract the Mayor signed actually costs is £65m (+ inflation) per year from 2025 to 2049. At a conservative estimate that’s £2bn!

Green AMs have asked 102 questions about the Silvertown Road Tunnel, and it took cross party concern, sustained work by @SilvertownTn and widespread public outcry for the contract to finally be published.

But the Silvertown Road Tunnel Contract was heavily redacted and hid all costs. There was a three page document on payment for the tunnel and all details were removed bar the contents page!

http://content.tfl.gov.uk/silvertown-tunnel-schedule-20-payment-mechanism-rs-feb-2020.pdf

To actually find the £2bn total cost, we had to dig into the TfL accounts. A single paragraph notes TfL will pay £65m a year indexed until 2050. There is also a full page note from TfL’s auditors saying they are concerned at the liability. See page 153: http://content.tfl.gov.uk/aac-20200911-agenda-pack-public.pdf

The Silvertown Road Tunnel is a colossal mistake. The £2bn it costs at £65m a year for 25 years would be better spent maintaining existing crossings (Hammersmith Bridge) or building new walking and cycling links (Cremorne Bridge or cancelled Rotherhithe to Canary Wharf bridge).

Now that we know that the Mayor has committed Londoners to paying £65m a year for A QUARTER OF A CENTURY to pay £2bn for Silvertown Road Tunnel there's just one more figure we need. That's how much it will cost to cancel this unnecessary, climate busting, polluting road tunnel.

It's just shocking a Mayor who says he believes in transparency only reveals the cost of a major infrastructure project in a footnote in TfL's accounts. Full details on true, £2bn cost of Silvertown Road Tunnel including references in my press release: https://www.london.gov.uk/press-releases/assembly/caroline-russell/tunnel-set-to-cost-londoners-2bn

Goodness, did TfL really not understand the full cost? Apparently they were a billion pounds out on a two billion pound contract when they spoke with @SilvertownTn and others in August last year. https://twitter.com/SilvertownTn/status/1306188711089123328?s=20