River Bus services, operated by Uber Boat by Thames Clippers, will commence from Barking Riverside by May 2022, Barking Riverside Limited, the master developer behind the major housing development, has announced.
The opening of the Barking Riverside stop is part of the Eastern expansion of the Uber Boat by Thames Clippers’ service, extending the existing RB1 route. Services will run at peak times on weekdays and throughout the day at weekends, with a 20-30 minute frequency – ideal for commuters and sightseers across the borough who want to explore the capital, and visitors from Central London travelling to Barking Riverside and the rest of Barking and Dagenham. Journey times from Barking Riverside to Greenwich and Canary Wharf will take 28 and 40 minutes respectively, with central London (Tower Pier) accessible in approximately 50 minutes.
The service will also create a much-needed link between the North and South of the River, with journeys to Woolwich taking less than 10 minutes. Elizabeth Line services at Woolwich will soon offer onward connections to the West End in under 25 minutes, providing transformative new travel times into Central London for Barking Riverside residents.
The new pier has been designed by Beckett Rankine and Anthony Carlile Architects and features a 63 metre canting brow, one of the longest on the Uber Boat by Thames Clippers network. McLaughlin & Harvey Ltd was awarded the £7.3million contract to lead the construction of the new pier. The canting brow and pontoon have been fabricated off-site at the Ravestein shipyard in the Netherlands.
Barking Riverside is one of the UK’s most important new developments. A major partnership between L&Q and the Mayor of London, funding from the Joint Venture partners is transforming a site the size of London’s Hyde Park into a development of over 10,000 homes, commercial and leisure facilities. Other major transport milestones for the area in 2022 will include the opening of the Barking Riverside London Overground station in Autumn this year. The Overground station will be a short walk to the River Bus stop, creating an important new interchange.
Matthew Carpen, Managing Director of Barking Riverside Limited, said: “This is an extremely significant new service for the site, which will help further activate this stretch of the River Thames. The opening of this new River Bus stop would not have been possible without close partnership working with the Council, Uber Boat by Thames Clippers and our contractors. We are very proud to be bringing this fantastic new facility forward for Riversiders and other residents in the borough. We also hope it will encourage many more to come and visit us, to find out what’s happening here on the banks of the Thames in East London.”
To mark the opening of the service, Barking Riverside Limited will soon announce a programme of events and activities that will take place on the riverfront. Further details of the opening date will be confirmed shortly.
Sean Collins, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Uber Boat by Thames Clippers, said: “It is almost exactly twenty years since Thames Clippers extended its service from the Docklands to Woolwich Royal Arsenal. It is extremely exciting that we will shortly be serving Barking Riverside, a visionary riverside development that has seized the opportunity to embrace London’s most underutilised highway, the river Thames. We are thrilled to be providing local communities with this new direct connection to Central London, for whom, for so long, the river has been seen as a barrier rather than a key, exciting place of focus.”
