Each week, Ben Hopkinson looks back at a serious, crazy, and happy news story from the past week.
Serious News
Transport for London has announced that the Silvertown Tunnel will open in East London on Monday 7th April.
A toll is to be implemented daily from 6am until 10pm with cars and small vans set to pay £4 at peak times and £1.50 during off-peak times. Prices for motorbikes and mopeds will be the same off-peak charge, but a £2.50 charge during peak times, large vans will face a £2.50 off-peak fee and £6.50 peak charge, while HGVs will be charged £5 and £10 at off-peak and peak times respectively.
TfL say that the tolls will help limit the amount of traffic and pollution as well as subsidising free bus routes and a cycle-shuttle service for the first 12 months.
The tunnel will link the Greenwich Peninsula to Newham at a cost of £2.2billion
Crazy News
A fan of the London Underground has ranked every stop on the network.
29-year-old Tom Rees originally from rural Shropshire but now living in Islington was in awe when he was younger on how it allowed people to "zip around the city".
Armed with a GoPro and microphone he has visited all 272 stations between 2019 and September 2024, posting his videos to Instagram.
His favourites include Uxbridge, Chesham and Canary Wharf, while Stonebridge Park and Barking are at the other end of the tiering system.
Speaking of how he comes to the ranking result, he says: “It's all gut feeling but if a station hasn't been looked after very well, or it's been allowed to get rusty that's not going to help. On the flip side, if there's some sort of novel artwork or architecture going on, that's all very good stuff”.
Happy News
A woman who was born on Christmas Day welcomed her baby son, also born on Christmas Day – just a mere two hours and two minutes after she was born (apart from the 37-year gap).
Speaking of the birth, Chloe says Alfie is the “best birthday and Christmas present” that she could have ever wished for.
She added: “Having Alfie share my birthday is an incredibly special thing, I mean what are the odds of us having the same birthday, let alone both of us being born on Christmas Day?”
With Alfie born at 8:07am, she was back in time at 5pm to eat Christmas dinner with her close and extended family.
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