FIGURES disclosed by Transport for London show that a vehicle breakdown in the Blackwall Tunnel is likely everyday during the London 2012 Olympics.
There were 96 breakdowns in the tunnels between July and September 2010, averaging over one breakdown per day, according to data released to this website following a Freedom of Information request to TFL.
67 vehicles broke down in the tunnel during the same period in 2011 – averaging over 0.7 breakdowns per day.
The Olympic Route Network, designed to ensure that athletes and VIPs can get to venues, leads up to the tunnel, which carries around 50,000 vehicles a day in both directions, but not through it and the council is worried about the impact a breakdown would have during Games Time.
Speaking before the Council’s Overview and Scrutiny Committee last month, Council Chief Executive Mary Ney said:
“We’ve got outstanding issues with TFL around… the whole issue of the Blackwall tunnel and contingency planning. We feel it needs to be particularly robust about how they will operate when inevitably something breaks down, and what extra plans they have put in place to deal with that so they remove that blockage before it backs up across the area.”
TFL didn’t provide Greenwich.co.uk with details of any special contingency plans for London 2012 but say the MPS Safer Transport Command Roads Policing Unit, which is funded by TFL and has been permanently based at the tunnel since September 2011, has reduced tunnel closure time by 32 percent.
The policing unit aims to stop “potentially sub-standard” vehicles entering the tunnel, and a new overheight vehicle detection lane went live in November 2011.
LOCOG’s transport plans for London 2012 still need council sign off as a condition of the original planning application, but question marks over bus routes and parking arrangements in Greenwich, in addition to the Blackwall Tunnel, prevented it coming before the Planning Board in March.
A Royal Borough of Greenwich spokesperson said:
“The Royal Borough of Greenwich is still in discussion with LOCOG about our objections as part of an ongoing constructive dialogue. We hope to be able to resolve our concerns constructively.”
This is not just a problem during the olympics but every day for locals in Greenwich and for tens of thousands of commuters. I would imagine that there are relatiely easy ways to stop people driving vehicles that may not make it through the tunnel into it, eg. there could be cameras with licence plate recognition to catch uninsured/un-MOT’d cars and high towing charges for anyone whose car breaks down or runs out of fuel in the tunnel. This would keep many of the drivers who cause mirery for thousands of other away from the tunnel. I’m sure TfL could improve the situation with a little bit of imagination and effort.