It's Our Third: Docklands Light Railway
Happy 3rd birthday to us! A bundle of laughs has passed in the last three years, and I am sure there's more to come!
Staying on the usual 'Backgrounds' birthday year theme, this year we turn our focus to something that London generally lacks of, if you will: Light Rail Transits.
They're not full-scale railways where you've got advanced technology such as tripcock and busloads of traditional signalling every few yards and run all the time on gravel and kilometres of railways.
I guess South London and East London are privileged to own their own systems. One is the well known Docklands Light Railway (DLR) which was the world's first driverless train. It runs through the re-generated Docklands and passes the beautiful Canary Wharf skyline, home to London's finances. The routes take you through from Tower Gateway and Bank in Central London through to destinations such as Beckton and Stratford in the east, and Woolwich and Lewisham in the south.
Then the other is the beloved London Tramlink which rule the urban realms of places such as Croydon, Beckenham and Addington linking the destinations with more higher-class areas such as Wimbledon. However, we'll celebrate with the DLR this year! (Sorry, maybe next year Tramlink).
As always, we'll run through the line from one end to the other, giving our opinions in particular.
Probably my favourite mode of rail transport in the capital, definitely has to be the Docklands Light Railway. It's a driverless train that drives itself from the East End to Lewisham, Woolwich and Beckton from Stratford/International via the DLR hubs of Poplar and Canary Wharf.
The original proposal for the Docklands Light Railway came from a time when the Docklands was on it's last knees in the 1970s, that everybody was packing up and moving on from a derelict and unloved area. Several miles of land was becoming abandoned, and obviously it's not making the economy money. So the Government had to find a quick solution around this to regenerate the Docklands.
And so came plans to build many new houses in the Cubitt Town, Crossharbour and Millharbour regions of the Docklands and many years later, London's financial centre Canary Wharf would also be on the streets.
But an important question arose: How is one to navigate the brand new Docklands?
Not everybody is going to travel by all means water. Some bus links will have to be created (of which the current bus network is successful in this area, with several dedicated Docklands route and also the 135). But in addition, people may travel long distance. And considering 135 wasn't created until 2008, with these proposals a good 25-30 years earlier).
The Jubilee Line wasn't there. And it didn't come until the late 1990s. So how else is one to connect themselves to the city quickly? That's where the Docklands Light Railway comes in. It was thought that a rail link should be in place. However there was a lack of funding to support a new railway link. So it was considered that a cheaper option could be carried out: invest in light rail, with local and short routes. To make funding cheaper, some routes which had at the time been recently closed (London and Blackwall Railway) due to lack of traffic. The DLR could bring life back into those routes, using former stations and building new stations at the same time.
Obviously, the DLR has come a long way since birth, but the original routes that were to open (and did open on the Monday 31st August 1987) was a route between a station near Fenchurch Street or Aldgate to connect with the Tilbury Railway (as we know, the current c2c route).
It was then found that a cost-effective option could be considered for a Central London terminus, and that would be the former Minories station, where the current Tower Gateway terminus stands. The route would then go to destinations such as Stepney, Burdett Road, Poplar, Millwall and terminate at Island Gardens located at the south end of Cubitt Town. Trains used a viaduct to continue from the former railway near Mudchute to terminate at the original Island Gardens station at the end of the viaduct. With a second route also safeguarded which would diverge near South Docks and continue through the back streets of Bow and end at Stratford.
So as time went on......
......the tracks were laid, the stations were designed, depots erected and state-of-the-art trains were delivered to the DLR depot at Poplar.
The depot received 11 P86 stock, trains that were short lived in London (but still live in Essen, Germany) numbered [P]1-11. The 'P' stood for Poplar, and the 86 stood for '86, as one might've guessed. Trains were in operation, with members of the Royal family embarking the first ever DLR journey, which ran between Island Gardens and Tower Gateway.
The first few years of the line was infested with problems relating to reliability. Trains broke down, got stuck between stations and even a bombing occured on the network in 1996. The DLR proved itself popular, but at the same time unpopular. For starters, it attracted a much higher ridership than expected by anybody. Tourists, enthusiasts, commuters to and fro Canary Wharf all used the DLR as it was the most reliable route into the City (and one of the quickest/few if you will) as well as providing a unique journey in contrast from the existing rail network.
This success called for the DLR network to reach out to areas where direct and reliable trains didn't reach. The first extension on the network was to Bank in the early 1990s to better connect with London Underground services as Tower Hill included a few minutes walk to other rail connections. More trains were also introduced, as the P89 stock. However at the same time, the P86 stock was phased out and shipped to Germany for a number of reasons - some being the aforementioned reliability problem and also the one-car capacity could not cope.
Quickly saw the P89s phased out as well to Germany in 1995, with today's B92 stock phased in. The trains were delivered with two cars to improve capacity and station platforms were extended to house extra passengers.
In addition to that, Canary Wharf's DLR station was promoted as the demand in the area increased rapidly. Transforming from a regular DLR station such as South Quay into a six-platform hub, making it one of the most important stations on the network.
In 1994 saw the DLR extended to Beckton via Poplar, Canning Town, Royal Victoria and Cyprus. This boosted ridership even more on the DLR, as the network began to thrive in passengers. The reliability issues were ironed out with the new trains and improved systems, making the DLR one of the fastest methods of travel in and out of East London and Canary Wharf.
In 1996, Lewisham Council grew very fond of the DLR and saw potential in the DLR being extended beyond Island Gardens towards Lewisham itself via Deptford. The extension was granted by the Government and Transport for London and soon enough a brand new Island Gardens station was built underground (leaving the original open-air one abandoned). Trains ran under the River Thames to Deptford and continued through Elverson Road to Lewisham.
In 2005, the extensions didn't stop there. Using more abandoned railways, this time the Eastern Counties railway, the DLR was extended from a branch at Canning Town to King George V, or to you and me, the far end of Silvertown near the northern port for the free Woolwich ferry. This one improved links to the relatively small, but used London City Airport to allow easier travel and relieve bus routes 473 and 474 which carried airport bound passengers to Beckton, East Ham and Stratford. The extension was opened in stages - as this branch was extended once again one stop to Woolwich Arsenal in 2009 following the completion of providing a safe route through the River Thames underground. A fun fact for you is that the section between Woolwich and King George V is actually the fastest section on the DLR network as it stands, with trains reaching around 50mph. Now I know it might not sound like much, but it has to be in mind that the DLR isn't the same as a Virgin Class 390 train that departs from London Euston, so for it to reach 'whopping' speeds such as 50mph is actually more than it sounds.
2007 brought us some new kit to support the ever expanding DLR network. Brand new models, the B07 stock, are maintained at the Beckton and Poplar depots, and are running alongside the older B92 and B2K (delivered in 2002, nearly identical to the B92). The newer trains can be found on all routes, in particular services to and from Woolwich.
So 2011 brings us to our current network of the DLR. Stratford gets a second line running on former grounds of, yep, you guessed it, abandoned and disused railway tracks. However this new branch terminates at Stratford International and continues via Stratford, West Ham and Abbey Road (Oh no, not the Beatles one - you want the 139/189 bus for that) down to Canning Town. This line does parallel the Jubilee Line between Stratford and Canning Town, however it is a little slower (but tons more fun) than the Jubilee Line on this stretch.
So, what does the future hold in store for us? The DLR network has expanded since the 1987 and now attracts over 120 million passengers a year (that's a lot from it's heyday when only only 17 million people used it in the first year - for those that like statistics, the ridership has gone up by over 650% in the last 30 years.
Of course extensions are going to be safeguarded in the future. An extension to Dagenham Dock is currently on the cards via a branch diverging off at Gallions Reach. It will run via Barking Reach, Thames View and then parallel the c2c to Dagenham Dock. At the moment there are no proposals to carry this forward as it stands, but opportunities will arise for the DLR that we love and use to expand it's wings.
But for now, happy 3rd birthday to us! Three years on and STILL we're still going strong!
Staying on the usual 'Backgrounds' birthday year theme, this year we turn our focus to something that London generally lacks of, if you will: Light Rail Transits.
They're not full-scale railways where you've got advanced technology such as tripcock and busloads of traditional signalling every few yards and run all the time on gravel and kilometres of railways.
 |
| A B07 Stock arrives at Tower Gateway following a working from Beckton, one early December morning in 2015. |
I guess South London and East London are privileged to own their own systems. One is the well known Docklands Light Railway (DLR) which was the world's first driverless train. It runs through the re-generated Docklands and passes the beautiful Canary Wharf skyline, home to London's finances. The routes take you through from Tower Gateway and Bank in Central London through to destinations such as Beckton and Stratford in the east, and Woolwich and Lewisham in the south.
Then the other is the beloved London Tramlink which rule the urban realms of places such as Croydon, Beckenham and Addington linking the destinations with more higher-class areas such as Wimbledon. However, we'll celebrate with the DLR this year! (Sorry, maybe next year Tramlink).
As always, we'll run through the line from one end to the other, giving our opinions in particular.
Probably my favourite mode of rail transport in the capital, definitely has to be the Docklands Light Railway. It's a driverless train that drives itself from the East End to Lewisham, Woolwich and Beckton from Stratford/International via the DLR hubs of Poplar and Canary Wharf.
The original proposal for the Docklands Light Railway came from a time when the Docklands was on it's last knees in the 1970s, that everybody was packing up and moving on from a derelict and unloved area. Several miles of land was becoming abandoned, and obviously it's not making the economy money. So the Government had to find a quick solution around this to regenerate the Docklands.
And so came plans to build many new houses in the Cubitt Town, Crossharbour and Millharbour regions of the Docklands and many years later, London's financial centre Canary Wharf would also be on the streets.
 |
| Part of the skyline at Canary Wharf, in 2014. |
But an important question arose: How is one to navigate the brand new Docklands?
Not everybody is going to travel by all means water. Some bus links will have to be created (of which the current bus network is successful in this area, with several dedicated Docklands route and also the 135). But in addition, people may travel long distance. And considering 135 wasn't created until 2008, with these proposals a good 25-30 years earlier).
The Jubilee Line wasn't there. And it didn't come until the late 1990s. So how else is one to connect themselves to the city quickly? That's where the Docklands Light Railway comes in. It was thought that a rail link should be in place. However there was a lack of funding to support a new railway link. So it was considered that a cheaper option could be carried out: invest in light rail, with local and short routes. To make funding cheaper, some routes which had at the time been recently closed (London and Blackwall Railway) due to lack of traffic. The DLR could bring life back into those routes, using former stations and building new stations at the same time.
Obviously, the DLR has come a long way since birth, but the original routes that were to open (and did open on the Monday 31st August 1987) was a route between a station near Fenchurch Street or Aldgate to connect with the Tilbury Railway (as we know, the current c2c route).
It was then found that a cost-effective option could be considered for a Central London terminus, and that would be the former Minories station, where the current Tower Gateway terminus stands. The route would then go to destinations such as Stepney, Burdett Road, Poplar, Millwall and terminate at Island Gardens located at the south end of Cubitt Town. Trains used a viaduct to continue from the former railway near Mudchute to terminate at the original Island Gardens station at the end of the viaduct. With a second route also safeguarded which would diverge near South Docks and continue through the back streets of Bow and end at Stratford.
 |
| A DLR train arrives at Stratford in the background. |
So as time went on......
......the tracks were laid, the stations were designed, depots erected and state-of-the-art trains were delivered to the DLR depot at Poplar.
The depot received 11 P86 stock, trains that were short lived in London (but still live in Essen, Germany) numbered [P]1-11. The 'P' stood for Poplar, and the 86 stood for '86, as one might've guessed. Trains were in operation, with members of the Royal family embarking the first ever DLR journey, which ran between Island Gardens and Tower Gateway.
The first few years of the line was infested with problems relating to reliability. Trains broke down, got stuck between stations and even a bombing occured on the network in 1996. The DLR proved itself popular, but at the same time unpopular. For starters, it attracted a much higher ridership than expected by anybody. Tourists, enthusiasts, commuters to and fro Canary Wharf all used the DLR as it was the most reliable route into the City (and one of the quickest/few if you will) as well as providing a unique journey in contrast from the existing rail network.
This success called for the DLR network to reach out to areas where direct and reliable trains didn't reach. The first extension on the network was to Bank in the early 1990s to better connect with London Underground services as Tower Hill included a few minutes walk to other rail connections. More trains were also introduced, as the P89 stock. However at the same time, the P86 stock was phased out and shipped to Germany for a number of reasons - some being the aforementioned reliability problem and also the one-car capacity could not cope.
Quickly saw the P89s phased out as well to Germany in 1995, with today's B92 stock phased in. The trains were delivered with two cars to improve capacity and station platforms were extended to house extra passengers.
In addition to that, Canary Wharf's DLR station was promoted as the demand in the area increased rapidly. Transforming from a regular DLR station such as South Quay into a six-platform hub, making it one of the most important stations on the network.
 |
| Canary Wharf skyline with the camera facing west. |
In 1994 saw the DLR extended to Beckton via Poplar, Canning Town, Royal Victoria and Cyprus. This boosted ridership even more on the DLR, as the network began to thrive in passengers. The reliability issues were ironed out with the new trains and improved systems, making the DLR one of the fastest methods of travel in and out of East London and Canary Wharf.
In 1996, Lewisham Council grew very fond of the DLR and saw potential in the DLR being extended beyond Island Gardens towards Lewisham itself via Deptford. The extension was granted by the Government and Transport for London and soon enough a brand new Island Gardens station was built underground (leaving the original open-air one abandoned). Trains ran under the River Thames to Deptford and continued through Elverson Road to Lewisham.
In 2005, the extensions didn't stop there. Using more abandoned railways, this time the Eastern Counties railway, the DLR was extended from a branch at Canning Town to King George V, or to you and me, the far end of Silvertown near the northern port for the free Woolwich ferry. This one improved links to the relatively small, but used London City Airport to allow easier travel and relieve bus routes 473 and 474 which carried airport bound passengers to Beckton, East Ham and Stratford. The extension was opened in stages - as this branch was extended once again one stop to Woolwich Arsenal in 2009 following the completion of providing a safe route through the River Thames underground. A fun fact for you is that the section between Woolwich and King George V is actually the fastest section on the DLR network as it stands, with trains reaching around 50mph. Now I know it might not sound like much, but it has to be in mind that the DLR isn't the same as a Virgin Class 390 train that departs from London Euston, so for it to reach 'whopping' speeds such as 50mph is actually more than it sounds.
2007 brought us some new kit to support the ever expanding DLR network. Brand new models, the B07 stock, are maintained at the Beckton and Poplar depots, and are running alongside the older B92 and B2K (delivered in 2002, nearly identical to the B92). The newer trains can be found on all routes, in particular services to and from Woolwich.
So 2011 brings us to our current network of the DLR. Stratford gets a second line running on former grounds of, yep, you guessed it, abandoned and disused railway tracks. However this new branch terminates at Stratford International and continues via Stratford, West Ham and Abbey Road (Oh no, not the Beatles one - you want the 139/189 bus for that) down to Canning Town. This line does parallel the Jubilee Line between Stratford and Canning Town, however it is a little slower (but tons more fun) than the Jubilee Line on this stretch.
So, what does the future hold in store for us? The DLR network has expanded since the 1987 and now attracts over 120 million passengers a year (that's a lot from it's heyday when only only 17 million people used it in the first year - for those that like statistics, the ridership has gone up by over 650% in the last 30 years.
Of course extensions are going to be safeguarded in the future. An extension to Dagenham Dock is currently on the cards via a branch diverging off at Gallions Reach. It will run via Barking Reach, Thames View and then parallel the c2c to Dagenham Dock. At the moment there are no proposals to carry this forward as it stands, but opportunities will arise for the DLR that we love and use to expand it's wings.
But for now, happy 3rd birthday to us! Three years on and STILL we're still going strong!
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