Save the Woolwich Free Ferry!

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According to the Guardian this morning, Mayor Ken wants to replace the beloved WFF with - perhaps - this:

http://www.thisislocallondon.co.uk/images/news/thames_gateway_bridge_small.jpg.20030513110022-9503.0.jpg

Mr Livingstone said: "The bridge will make it far easier for people in east London to access jobs and homes on both sides of the river and give a much needed boost to the local economy."

IE it will create a great big motorway over the Thames for the benefit of the commuting residents of Kent. Can we start some kind of campaign?

― Jerry the Nipper (Jerrynipper), Wednesday, 14 May 2003 09:02 (twenty-two years ago)

Sarah to thread!

― alix (alix), Wednesday, 14 May 2003 10:27 (twenty-two years ago)

NIPPER - I will join a campaign. That free ferry is the only decent part of my day (that and drooling at Gamecubes in Woolwich GAME store)! The free ferry retains a bit of JOY to Woolwich!

Then again I do admit that both sides of the river at the moment *feel* completely cut off from each other without a bridge - I'd support a walkway bridge but retain the ferry for cars... and get RID of that damned horrible foot tunnel...

Where did you find this report eh Nipster?

― Sarah (starry), Wednesday, 14 May 2003 10:35 (twenty-two years ago)

get RID of that damned horrible foot tunnel...

Oh dear, I fear we'll be hitting each other with placards outside the GLA offices very soon, Starry.

I'm not sure how to feel about this; ferry terminals loom large from my childhood and I think all northbound traffic from Kent should go via Holland. But that's quite a fancy bridge.

― Michael Jones (MichaelJ), Wednesday, 14 May 2003 10:47 (twenty-two years ago)

Here's the report. 6 lanes of traffic!

http://www.thisislocallondon.co.uk/news/display.var.727978.Top+Stories.sixlane_greenwich_bridge_plans_unveiled.html

― Jerry the Nipper (Jerrynipper), Wednesday, 14 May 2003 10:47 (twenty-two years ago)

Alternative Bridge designs

http://www.thisislocallondon.co.uk/images/news/thames_gateway_bridge2.jpg.20030513110022-9503.1.jpg

http://www.thisislocallondon.co.uk/images/news/thames_gateway_bridge3.jpg.20030513110022-9503.2.jpg

http://www.thisislocallondon.co.uk/images/news/thames_gateway_bridge4.jpg.20030513110022-9503.3.jpg

― Jerry the Nipper (Jerrynipper), Wednesday, 14 May 2003 10:54 (twenty-two years ago)

All of the designs are so deathly dull and its a scandal that one architect was asked to to come up with 4 designs rather than running a competition for the best design. 6 lanes is far too many as well especially as no railway/tube/dlr line is part of the design.

― Ed (dali), Wednesday, 14 May 2003 10:56 (twenty-two years ago)

A bridge over that stretch of river is desperately needed but Ed is OTM above. Six lanes is far too much especially when you bear in mind its not JUST the bridge but the massive fuckoff road leading up to it on both sides. Also, I find it difficult to see how building a big road through North Greenwich is really going to regenerate it to the extent they think it is, and not just make it even more of an industrial wasteland than it is already.

― Matt DC (Matt DC), Wednesday, 14 May 2003 11:01 (twenty-two years ago)

What I wrote yesterday on this subject...

Plans for a £425m six-lane road bridge linking Beckton and Thamesmead in East London will be put out to public consultation today.

The bridge will have four lanes for cars and link to the North circular and M11 in the north, finishing close to the M25 in the south.

It joins other proposed links to East London, including an extension of the Docklands Light Railway from City Airport to Woolwich, and the long-delayed Crossrail project. Consultation ends in August, but the bridge will not go ahead without parliamentary approval or a public inquiry.

The crossing will be funded by tolls, with additional income from tolls on Dartford Bridge.

A spokesperson for the regeneration body, London First, said: “This really injects confidence into the area and will be a good sign to businesses and local people that things will happen.”

But environmental groups have criticised the bridge. Jennifer Bates of Friends of the Earth said that running the consultation process without assessing the environmental impact made it a “sham consultation.”

“It is really helping commuters from further afield to go to jobs in Canary Wharf and the City”, she said.

However, Transport for London denied this claim. “We are very keen for it not to be a strategic motorway bridge but a local bridge”, a TfL spokesperson said.

― Matt DC (Matt DC), Wednesday, 14 May 2003 11:03 (twenty-two years ago)

Yes they have six lane 'local roads' in Leeds too.

― Tim (Tim), Wednesday, 14 May 2003 11:04 (twenty-two years ago)

If they are serious about thames gateway then they need the following:

CTRL commuter line
Crossrail
Another tube line
DLR extensiond, including city airport, woolwich and thamesmead
cross river north south Tramway
cross river north south busses
improvements to the north kent and London tilbury southend services into london

A road bridge is the easiest and least needed thing they could do.

― Ed (dali), Wednesday, 14 May 2003 11:05 (twenty-two years ago)

Also, I find it difficult to see how building a big road through North Greenwich is really going to regenerate it to the extent they think it is, and not just make it even more of an industrial wasteland than it is already.

How would this project involve road building on the Greenwich peninsula?

― Michael Jones (MichaelJ), Wednesday, 14 May 2003 11:12 (twenty-two years ago)

Well, the first four of those are all on the cards... the East London Line extension looks fairly certain to go ahead now that English Heritage have stopped kicking up a fuss about it (I think Gareth linked to that a while back), but it'll still need to go further east in the long run as London expands that way.

― Matt DC (Matt DC), Wednesday, 14 May 2003 11:13 (twenty-two years ago)

How would this project involve road building on the Greenwich peninsula?

Alright, call it East Greenwich, then.

― Matt DC (Matt DC), Wednesday, 14 May 2003 11:16 (twenty-two years ago)

The ELL has nothing to do with the thames gateway, it misses the key development area, what's needed is something along the lines of a new JLE from north grenwich along the river or an extension of the bakerloo.

― Ed (dali), Wednesday, 14 May 2003 11:19 (twenty-two years ago)

It's a scandal.

― the pinefox, Wednesday, 14 May 2003 11:21 (twenty-two years ago)

Seems okay to me. It'll make it far easier for me to get to Woolwich and environs than before. Should I ever want to.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Wednesday, 14 May 2003 16:28 (twenty-two years ago)

Noooo!! Save the Woolwich Free Ferry! I have fond memories of that ferry! And it's FREE!

― Mandee, Wednesday, 14 May 2003 17:14 (twenty-two years ago)

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