Thames Gateway TramLink

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We need a link just like this - between grays and ebbsfleet

First images unveiled of future Thamesmead DLR station Images released as part of TfL's final consultation show how the proposed Beckton Riverside and Thamesmead stations could look when the long-awaited DLR extension opens in the early 2030s.

With public transport options this doesn’t need to be a huge deal. However, while no alternatives exist this is a tax on local motorists.

"Essex & Kent is becoming Britain’s pay-per-use region" | Opinion | News | Thurrock Nub News | by Matt Jackson Infrastructure should connect regions and expand opportunity. Increasingly, east of London, it feels designed to invoice people for both.

Helsinki’s new Kruunuvuori (Kruunuvuorensilta) bridge — 1,191 m long, car-free and built for pedestrians, cyclists and a future tram — opened April 18, 2026 with a 200‑year design life; it cuts a key route from ~11 km to ~5.5 km, saw 50,000+ visitors on opening weekend, and is part of the €326m Crown Bridges light-rail project (tram service due 2027). The project reduced embodied emissions via low‑emission materials and renewables but still has an estimated 129,000 tCO2e footprint over 50 years, highlighting why durability and modal shift matter for net climate benefit.
If the UK wants a clear target: build resilient, car‑free multimodal links that prioritise walking, cycling and high-capacity light rail; design for multi‑century lifespan to amortise embodied carbon; and pair projects with Vision Zero street redesign, lower local speed limits and strong public‑transport integration to deliver safer, greener urban growth.

Read more about the project here

Goodbye to cars on the world’s longest multimodal bridge: a 1,190-meter giant opens with a 200-year lifespan and a radical rule Helsinki’s new 1,191-meter bridge bans cars to favor trams and bikes. Discover the 200-year giant changing the face of urban travel.

Just 10km across the Thames — yet for many in Thurrock and Grays, reaching Ebbsfleet International by public transport can take over 90 minutes. That is not a distance problem. It is a connectivity failure.

Bringing Ebbsfleet closer to Essex would unlock major opportunities for local people:
• Faster access to high-speed rail and national connections
• Better access to jobs across North Kent and beyond
• Improved links to healthcare, education and business
• Reduced pressure on the Dartford Crossing and wider road network
• Stronger economic ties between Thurrock and Kent

With over 400,000 residents affected across Thurrock, Dartford and Gravesham — and thousands of new homes planned around Ebbsfleet — the demand already exists. The infrastructure thinking has not caught up.

Grays and Thurrock should not be functionally isolated from one of the South East’s most important transport hubs.

The question is no longer “why would we connect these areas better?”
It is “why hasn’t it happened already?”

Transport investment in the Thames Gateway needs a reset.

There is clear momentum around buses and active travel, and that progress matters. But incremental improvements alone will not match the scale of change coming to this region.

Housing growth across the Thames Gateway is accelerating. Job creation ambitions are significant. Yet the transport response still leans heavily on roads as the default solution. That approach is unlikely to unlock the full economic potential of the area, and risks reinforcing existing constraints rather than solving them.

Rail and high-capacity public transport move people more efficiently, more sustainably, and at the scale required for long-term growth. If we are serious about productivity, access to opportunity, and net zero commitments, these modes cannot remain secondary considerations.

The real challenge is not whether smaller interventions have value. It is whether they are being matched with the kind of strategic, cross-river and cross-region thinking needed to genuinely shift travel patterns and support growth.

There is an opportunity here to be bolder:
- Prioritise high-capacity, rail-led connectivity across the Thames Gateway
- Design schemes around unlocking suppressed demand, not just accommodating existing flows
- Align transport investment directly with housing and employment growth corridors

This region does not lack ambition. The question is whether transport planning will rise to meet it.

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Hidden demand for a Kent–Essex crossing isn’t theoretical — it’s already there, just forced into cars.

• Thousands already commute between Kent and Essex with no robust public transport option
• Ebbsfleet Garden City is scaling fast — but transport provision isn’t keeping pace
• Dartford Crossing is already overloaded — more roads won’t solve induced demand
• No public transport crossing = two disconnected economies either side of the Thames
• Delay 10 years and you lock in car dependency, congestion, and poorer air quality for a generation

KenEx isn’t “nice to have” — it’s basic infrastructure for growth!