The Woolwich Ferry (sometimes also called the Woolwich Free Ferry) is a boat service across the River Thames, London, UK, which is licensed and financed by London River Services, the maritime arm of Transport for London. The service is operated by Briggs Marine under licence from TfL and carries both foot passengers and vehicles.
The service links Woolwich in the Royal Borough of Greenwich with North Woolwich in the London Borough of Newham. It also links two ends of the inner London orbital road routes: the North Circular and the South Circular.
On weekdays, the ferry operates from 6.10am until 8pm with a two-boat service (10 minutes nominal interval between sailings); on Saturdays, from 6.10am to 8pm with a one-boat service (15 minutes nominal interval, and the last south-to-north sailing is 15 minutes earlier at 7.45pm); on Sundays, from 11.30am to 7.30pm with a one-boat service (last south-to-north sailing at 7.15pm). The ferries can carry lorries and other road traffic across the river, up to a maximum height of 4.7 metres (15 ft) and width of 3.5 metres (11 ft).
A ferry service had operated across the river at Woolwich since at least the fourteenth century, and cross-river traffic increased following the establishment of the Royal Arsenal. To enable movement of troops and supplies, the army established its own ferry in 1810. The following year, an Act of Parliament established a commercial ferry company, but this was eventually dissolved in 1844. In 1846, the Eastern Counties and Thames Junction Railway extended its lines to include a Thames wharf branch; eventually three steam ferries operated, but these still proved inadequate to meet growing demand. In October 1880 a public meeting was held in Woolwich to discuss establishing a locally-run steam ferry, but the cost was seen as too great.
However, following the establishment of the Metropolitan Board of Works, which had taken over toll bridges in west London and opened them to free public use, it was suggested that the Board should fund a free crossing of the Thames in east London. In 1884, the Board agreed to provide the free ferry service, which was instigated by Sir Joseph Bazalgette using powers granted in the Metropolitan Board of Works (Various Powers) Act 1885. In September 1887, Messrs Mowlem and company were awarded contracts to build approaches, bridges and pontoons.
The service was officially opened on 23 March 1889. Two days earlier the Metropolitan Board of Works was replaced by the London County Council (LCC); the LCC continued to operate the ferry until it was replaced by the Greater London Council (GLC) on 31 March 1965.
The three ferries in use today were built in 1963 and the current terminals were opened in 1965.
After the abolition of the GLC in 1986 the responsibility for operating the service was transferred to the Secretary of State for Transport, who contracted the then London Borough of Greenwich to run the service. Asset ownership and operating rights were subsequently transferred to Transport for London (TfL) on the establishment of the Greater London Authority, but the London Borough of Greenwich continued to operate the ferry on behalf of TfL.
In March 2008, the London Borough of Greenwich gave TfL notice that it would cease operating the service from 30 September 2008. On 12 September 2008 TfL announced that Serco Group would take over the operation of the service from 1 October 2008. The contract ran initially until 31 March 2010. It was later extended until 2013 when Briggs Marine won a 7-year contract.
The first ferries were side-loading paddle steamers named Gordon, Duncan and Hutton (being named after General Gordon of Khartoum, Colonel Francis Duncan MP and Professor Charles Hutton). Each was powered by 100nhp condensing engines by John Peen & Son of Greenwich.
The initial fleet was eventually replaced, starting in 1923 with The Squire (named after William Squires, a former mayor of Woolwich), and in 1930 with the Will Crooks (Labour MP for Woolwich, 1903-1921) and the John Benn (Sir John was a member of London County Council, Liberal MP for Wapping, and grandfather of Tony Benn).
The current three vessels (built in Dundee in 1963 by the Caledon Shipbuilding & Engineering Company to replace the previous four paddle steamers used since 1923) were each named after prominent local politicians: John Burns, Ernest Bevin and James Newman (Newman was mayor of Woolwich, 1923–25). These ferries feature Voith-Schneider propulsion systems for manoeuvrability.
For the initial 18 months of their contract, Serco were paid £10.7 million to provide the free ferry service. This equates to £7.1 million per year. In December 2012 Briggs Marine won a £50m 7-year contract, again equating to approximately £7.1m per year.
In 2003, when the annual running cost of the ferry was around £5 million a year, the effective public subsidy per vehicle crossing was £4.
As of December 2007 the ferry carried more than one million vehicles and 2.5 million passengers each year. Occupants of vehicles (including drivers) are counted as passengers.
Ferry patronage is still high for vehicles, but has fallen away to minimal numbers for foot passengers. At all times of day, but particularly at peak hours, it is common for vehicles to have to queue beyond the next ferry departure; regular users know the lengths of the vehicle queues, and when it becomes worthwhile to turn away to the Blackwall tunnel. Several rearrangements and improvements have been made to the vehicle queueing arrangements over the years, especially to avoid impact on other local traffic.
The passenger deck is beneath the vehicle deck, and on crossings nowadays the very substantial accommodation provided, both seated and standing, is normally virtually empty.
For foot passengers, bus services converge on both terminals, on the north side there is a small bus station, but many cross-river foot passengers take the foot tunnel beneath the river, alongside the ferry route. Further competition arrived in 2009 with the extension to Woolwich of the Docklands Light Railway, which crosses under the river to the east of the ferry route.