You can cycle from Greenwich in south east London to City Hall in east London on quiet streets and protected cycle lanes, with the help of a new bike shuttle bus.
The route is 3.2km long (2 miles) and makes use Cycleway 4 and the Silvertown tunnel bike bus.
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You can see a digital map of the route and download a GPS/GPX file to use on whatever device or app you want here:
https://www.komoot.com/tour/2165577327?share_token=aLhMLQ5PNKCBLEinChxkWRUGTO6edML5C77dhM8oVQdPG3O6Bk&ref=wtd
And you can find a viewer-created and maintained map of all the London Cycle Routes videos here:
https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?mid=1h9Hxm57fPvZmcuSXajM_Wu0G0s6f_bs&ll=51.505213496092054%2C-0.1285238120117249&z=12
I also highly recommend the Safe Cycle London map for route planning, which is compiled by @SafeCycleLDN on twitter:
https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?mid=1XlpvN9R-Wg7qZHyezO8y-eVlftr4e0WX&hl=en&ll=51.516975804561284%2C-0.21828576419061996&z=11
28 Comments
How does a tunnel cost 2.2 billion pounds and still need a toll to recoup the costs? TFL are corrupt.
To be fair, it looks shit
I think city hall just wanted a road tunnel next to them… this tunnel is a joke and Blackwall tunnel will probably be full of traffic again in a few months I hope they change something one day with 1 of the 3 east London road tunnels
It's so depressing that the most progress this city (and later, country) has made for active travel was under one of its worst politicians. Boris, for his numerous other faults, was genuinely passionate about cycling and directed TfL to fund active travel. It's hard to imagine Sidiq, by comparison, delivering the likes of C3 along the embankment. We're now completely dependent on the boroughs to see progress, which is fine if you live somewhere like Islington or Hackney but not if you live in Wandsworth where it's taken them 3 years to scrape together the cash to start work on Queenstown Road despite being one of the wealthiest boroughs.
I admire Sadiq for having a spine when it came to ULEZ but we deserve a better mayor for active travel if this shuttlebus is the best he can do for active travel in East London.
The implementation of the SCS (Silvertown cycle shuttle) is horrendous. For starters the bus stops are in awful locations. Then there is the low capacity of the buses. If I needed to cross the river on my bike I'd use the Greenwich foot tunnel. There is no chance I'd pay for this bus service if it isn't free after the first year.
I tried it yesterday morning, approaching from the Thames path in the east. It was really hard to find a quiet route to the stop and I was lucky it was really quiet on the road. There were actually two of us on the bus and the driver said there'd been 10 on it the other day. I think it'll become clearer how inadequate it is when the schools are back and normal commuting traffic is back on the roads. Plus, there is still no sign of the lifts for the Woolwich foot tunnel getting fixed. Crossing the river in the east of london is just stupidly difficult.
Looking at the routes from the northern stop, having National Cycle route 13 open past the Excel Phase 3 site will make the bus much more useful. Also the cycle paths along North Woolwich Road have at long last been completed (cycled westbound on Friday) but with some zebras still to be completed. Connected with Factory Rd which has a 20mph speed limit, there is a good link east to the Woolwich Ferry, but then you're not likely to use the bus and the ferry on your commute. (The ferry is free and great fun when the ships circle round each other in the middle of the river.)
For people who cycle the next big event in east London will be the new electric boats on the Rotherhithe ferry with a new pier on the Rotherhithe side and much easier and faster boarding. As that goes to Canary Wharf I suspect that will be of more use than the tunnel bus.
Massive waste of money giving in to the car lobby again ,shown again and again its all pointless ,more noise more gas more scarp metal more lost real estate ,
Great video, glad you covered this. One thought: Does the bus just sit and wait for cyclists to show up before leaving? Or does it shuttle back and forth through the tunnel completely empty all day if no one wants to use it?
I'd argue (and From the Murky Depths has covered this amply on their blog) that the north side is actually better. The south side is great if you're a fan of the 70s and 80s road design only. I think it's just that tiny link between the bus stop on Seagull Lane and Silvertown Way that needs fixing as that now has protected cycle routes (to Canning Town I believe alongside down south down North Woolwich Road). Southward there's nothing much but residential as City Airport pretty much makes that a dead end but in theory at Canning Town you could hop on CS3?
Worth noting that the Danglebahn has reasonable-ish prices if you get a 10-trip carnet ticket which offers a better view and arguably a better approach on the south side as you can cycle closer to the river up the park(s) by that new residential area (and is in theory faster to get onto unless there's a massive queue).
A tick-box afterthought, we need actual bike infrastructure, no cyclist wanted this and isn't really practical, not to mention the capacity issues you will run into If cyclists start using it 😢
🤙🏽⚡️🤟🏽⚡️👌🏽
We need an actual walkin/cyclin tunnel or route.
Silvertown tunnel has done the impossible and united drivers and cyclists. They both hate it.
More seriously the location of the southern bus stop is weird. Why not have it closer to the Odeon cinema? That would avoid crossing the road twice and cycling on the shared footpath.
It’ll be such a useless service that I am sure it will be scrapped in due course.
Apparently, you can take a bicycle on the cable car. At least there you get a nice view during the ride, and you won't have to wait twelve minutes for it to turn up.
Are you doing more routes using Hammersmith Bridge as it opened this week?
Being a non-Londoner I just don't understand the whole tunnel thing. The arguments in the press will settle down but whether cyclist will be accommodated – let's wait and see. Great video in some lovely weather.
Lol what a mess. You can understand how we get the infrastructure we do 😅 wouldn't mind a bike bus from Battersea park to Clapham common x
if, theoretically, the old (northbound) blackwall tunnel was made into an active travel tunnel (and maybe also use the southbound for 2-way bus traffic) how much work would be needed to connect the tunnel portals to the existing bike network and thames path etc?
Sorry but just to add: tunnelling for Silvertown began in September 2022 and the tunnel was opened 7th April 2025. The north lift at the Woolwich foot tunnel hasn't worked since August 2022. Neither north or southn lifts are working at the moment and the lifts at the Greenwich foot tunnel are frequently out of service.
Every journey matters!
The Dartford Crossing had a similar bus, it ended being so underused that it was replaced by an on-demand Land Rover.
This will be interesting to watch and look back on when the service is scrapped – 2026
i tried it last weekend – everybody on it was just there for a jolly rather than to actually use it!
it's so impractical – well done for calling it out for the Greenwashing attempt that it is.
A couple of other things to note: the shuttle bus isn't currently shown on transport apps like citymapper. This is due to happen soon so the bus may become busier once it starts showing up there. Additionally, the bus accepts non-folding e-bikes which I think TFL has recently banned on all its other services.
You can cross with a bike on the cable car for free during weekdays until 9:30am and purchase a 10 journey punch car thing for £17 so £1.70 for each one way journey for let’s say commuting back later in the day. It’s very much under utilised I use it daily for over a year and a half and have only seen 2 other cyclist commuters this whole time
The only good thing about the new tunnel is allowing more cross river bus services to use it. There is only one bus route that crossing the River Thames in East London which is the 108 Stratford Inter-Lewisham using Blackwall tunnel. That bus is awful, its a single decker 24 hour that gets packed too easily and anything wrong with Blackwall, the whole bus route is effected and you are forced to use an overcrowded Jubilee Line at North Greenwich. The split service at night is terrible as well, im tired of getting off at North Greenwich, fighting through the crowd and telling the staff "I am a 108 passenger". Blackwall is too old and too small for double deckers and has no bus lane there, it was never built for cars to begin with, it was ment for horses and carts.
At least this new tunnel gave us a newly extended 129 bus to Gallions Reach via City Airport and the new SL4 Superloop. The improved 129 is a huge game changer, you are not forced to use the DLR from Beckton/Gallions Reach to Canning Town and swap for the Jubilee line for one sticking stop. The journey is shockingly quick as well, very useful if you live in Silvertown or Beckton. I am even using it over the 108 despite the 108 being my local. The SL4 is also good, it goes to Canary Wharf need I say more. If you live in Blackheath or Lee Green areas you dont have to go to Lewisham for the DLR.
I wish more bus routes use the tunnel though, thats the only gripe I have and I feel like the SL4 should be going down to Bromley so it links with SL3 and SL5. Maybe TFL should look into buses like 330 and 335 in the future.
Overall, I would like to apologies about this long comment/rant. Sadiq Khan and TFL shouldve built an all new crossing furthereast with segregated cycling lanes an pavement for both cyclist and pedestrians. A bridge at the Gallions Reach area shouldve had more appeal since it could replace the Woolwich Ferry, fix the London Orbital roads in North Circular and South Circular Roads. Cross river buses using bus lanes to improve journey times as well as new links. Now East London will never have a bridge, we have to settle for this and the DLR extension to Thamesmead.
Im glad Thamesmead is getting a DLR station but we need to do better. Look at what Germany are doing, they are at least building a new railway link right next to their new fixed road crossing. This country cannot do infrastructure and its embarrassing. Again sorry for my long comment/rant.
It's as useless as the cable car.
It won't last. It will be cancelled by the end of the year.
Are ebikes allowed on the bus (re Li ion batteries)?