Facts about the Thames today: river, port and environment
The river
1. The River Thames is 215 miles long; its source is generally recognised to be
at Trewsbury Mead, Gloucestershire in the Cotswolds, west of London.
2. At Teddington Lock, west London, the Thames changes into a tidal river, with
two tides day and water levels rising and falling by as much as 7 metres.
3. You can cross the tidal river by any one of 30 bridges (nine are rail and four
foot), three ferries (one is car and two pedestrian), 20 tunnels (three are road,
11 tube, two DLR, one channel tunnel rail link and three foot).
4. The power of the river is so great that it carries around 20,000 tonnes of
sediment per tide but much of it is carried back on the following tide so the net
effect is small.
5. Despite the sediment laden waters, frequent surveys show the main shipping
channels maintain well with minimal dredging required.
The port
6. The Port of London Authority is responsible for navigational safety of vessels
using the Thames along the 95-mile tidal stretch between Teddington Lock
and the North Sea.
7. The Port of London is the UK’s second largest port, handling almost 50 million
tonnes of cargo a year from food and fuel to cars and engines, sand and
gravel to containers and timber.
8. The tidal Thames is the UK’s busiest inland waterway for freight. Over 2
million tonnes of materials are moved on the river every year, keeping more
than 100,000 lorries off London’s busy road network.
9. Two major projects in London - Crossrail and the Tideway Tunnel – are set to
use the river for moving tunnelling spoil, potentially more than doubling the
use of the river for moving freight.
10. The port has trade connections with over 80 countries round the world and
generates employment for over 45,000 people.
11. Increasing numbers of passengers are travelling on the river. In 2011, more
than 750,000 people used it to get to work and over 3 million tourists took
sightseeing trips.
12. The tidal Thames hosts the annual Oxford and Cambridge university boat
race and is the crucible of British rowing talent, with many rowing clubs lining
the river.
13. The tidal Thames is attracting investment of almost £2.5 billion including the
expansion at the Port of Tilbury, investment in new passenger vessels and
piers, plus the development of the London Gateway container port.
14. One of the newest structures over the river – the new Blackfriars station – is
the first railway station to straddle the Thames. The developers, Network
Rail, used barges on the river to take out thousands of tonnes of demolished
material and bring in thousands of tonnes of steel and other construction
materials.
The environment
15. The tidal Thames is home to over 120 fish species, including the salmon
which is gradually making a come-back.
16. In the outer estuary the harbour porpoise, the occasional bottlenose dolphin
and two species of seal are seen. Every year the muddy foreshore of the
lower river and the estuary attract large populations of overwintering birds.
17. The river carries around 300,000 tonnes of sediment every year depositing
most of it on the ever-shifting mudbanks of the estuary.
18. The power of the river’s flow is so great that the bed of the main channel of
the Thames rarely needs to be dredged.
19. In recent times the Thames Path has been linked up to make it the longest
riverside walk in Europe which is 184 miles (296 km) from source to the
mouth of the estuary.