Delay to Lower Thames Crossing an opportunity?

TramForward is not normally impressed by government indecision but the Department for Transport’s postponing of a decision on the Lower Thames Crossing may be an exception.

It will perhaps give the powers that be a chance to consider other more sustainable, cheaper and less disruptive ways of improving cross-Thames connectivity. Too little consideration has been given to local movement between North Kent and South Essex. Car commuting between the two is lengthy and unpredictable due to congestion at the Dartford Crossing and the many people in both areas without access to a car have only a single bus route across since the Gravesend-Tilbury ferry ceased operation.

Kent County Council’s Local Transport Plan 5, which has just been out for consultation, contains no plans for public transport links across the Thames, other than a suggestion that there might be a bus service through the Lower Thames Crossing (when and if it is ever built).

There is, however, a solution, apart from the much needed restoration of the ferry, which is   the KenEx tram proposal of Thames Gateway Tramlink Ltd https://www.kenextransit.co.uk/. This would provide a tramway link under the Thames, at a fraction of the cost of the Lower Thames Crossing and its associated access roads and could undoubtedly be constructed more quickly. This would directly connect the communities on either side of the river and would have the potential for future extension to serve substantial areas of North Kent and South Essex.

The Light Rail Transit Association calls upon government, national and local, to back this scheme and progress is as quickly as possible