What a fantastic idea to close the contraflow after 29 years - arrrghhh!!! Today was a nightmare for 1,000's of drivers (me being one of them). Considering all the time and money wasted it probably cost the whole load of people who were inconvenienced by the spillage, surely anyone with an ounce of common sense in their head would have opened the contraflow, just for this 'exceptional' instance? The gridlock would have been far, far less if the traffic unable to use the northbound side of the Tunnel had been able to use the southbound's contraflow. Can't exceptions be made in this type of circumstance? Honestly. Sometimes it amazes me how people who probably infrequently/rarely use the Blackwall Tunnel can make decisions affecting the people who DO use it regularly. I wonder if Ken Livingstone had been one of the people stuck in the jams today - would he have thought again about reopening the contraflow???

Fascinating. YAWN, YAWN.

get a life wrote:
Fascinating. YAWN, YAWN.

"Get a life" yourself, Mr Get a Life! If you'd been faced with this misery caused - for the second time in a year! - by the idiotic closing of the contraflow you'd be as frustrated as the rest of us in South East London. If you'd had to walk for an hour at 6:30am this morning, as I had to, simply to get to North Greenwich tube, as the buses were at a complete standstill (if you could get on them); or if you'd had (as I've just had) a three-hour journey by bus to travel home from Croydon, then maybe you'd be less fatuous in your stupid response to a perfectly valid and well-argued point. It is because people in South East London WANT a life that we are so angry about the nonchalant attitude to the ongoing, eternal gridlock in our area. It is destroying our communities.

I came here especially with the intention of mentioning the contraflow.

I understand that the damage to the road surface which caused the tunnel's closure extends over several miles, but does it block all three lanes of the approach roads as well as within the tunnel?

I was hoping that the news article would mention this, but alas, this is not the situation.

Nevertheless, and even though I am not in possession of the full facts, I still very much echo Diane's views about the contraflow, which of course *should* have been opened.

Only a person hating aggravation loving cold blooded member of officialdom would be able to justify otherwise - I don't care if it meant putting police on point duty, or whatever, an attempt should have been made to mitigate the misery that has been inflicted on many hundreds of thousands of innocent people.

The situation is not helped by the over-long closure of the East London Line. (unnecessarily? long closure)

Simon

Master Jacques wrote:

get a life wrote: Fascinating. YAWN, YAWN.

"Get a life" yourself, Mr Get a Life! If you'd been faced with this misery caused - for the second time in a year! - by the idiotic closing of the contraflow you'd be as frustrated as the rest of us in South East London. If you'd had to walk for an hour at 6:30am this morning, as I had to, simply to get to North Greenwich tube, as the buses were at a complete standstill (if you could get on them); or if you'd had (as I've just had) a three-hour journey by bus to travel home from Croydon, then maybe you'd be less fatuous in your stupid response to a perfectly valid and well-argued point. It is because people in South East London WANT a life that we are so angry about the nonchalant attitude to the ongoing, eternal gridlock in our area. It is destroying our communities.

This doesn't really affect me. I get out of bed at 2 p.m to go to the bookies. I then go to the pub at 5 p.m till about 12 a.m and then I stagger home. As long as you suckers keep working to keep me in the life of luxury I'm accustomed to, then I don't really care about some stupid tunnel.

Couldn't you buy some roller skates?

As well as ALL mentioned above - WHY were the TFL cameras along the worst jammed routes/junctions (A2 Danson/Greenwich and the tunnel itself) ALL NOT WORKING for operational reasons?? That's a bit fishy!!!

Took me 2and half hrs to go from Catford - Woolwich!! Had to, my mum's just out of hospital!

AND - before anyone calls for charging through this area - Let's wait until ALL of those damned roadworks/contraflow
s and temporary traffic lights have gone - eh? Ken!! Can't get the real picture until then!

Please consider signing my petition on http://petitions.pm.
gov.uk/yes2bwallcont
ra/


We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to use his influence to help reinstate the Blackwall Tunnel contraflow during the morning rush hour.
The tailback of vehicles trying to access the Tunnel cause gridlock on the Greenwich Peninsular, leading to problems for local businesses and residents as well as for tunnel users. The excuse given for the contraflow's suspension was that poor driving has made it too dangerous. Current technology is capable of recording average speeds in the Tunnels; automatic numberplate recognition means that a dedicated police presence could respond to a previous offender re-entering the tunnel approach. We ask for this technology to be implemented immediately, and morning contraflow reinstated.

Today was no problem for me i drove 4 miles from Welling Kent to the Woolwich Ferry which took 4 hours, i was unable to park at the ferry as there was only 500,000 cars in front of me so i swam across the Thames in my suit & bowler hat.I have now entered for the Olympic swimming team as Ken always quotes "this is the best city in the World to live in"

Do the authorities at the helm of affairs in London ever look beyond the borders of the ? What callous indifference the purvey to persons leaving their home at 7 am in the morning and arriving work, 7miles away after four four hours? Surely no one needs common sense to know that 1) the counter flow should be opened when one side of the tunnel is closed by traffic stress 2)other bridges are needed across the Thames without pandering to petty politicking 3)strategies are put in place to immediately clear the inevitable crashes such as a broken headlamp rather than create a 13 mile long queue to "investigate" these every minute occurrences. Surely someone needs to get them up from slumber