Feature CHRISTIAN WOLMAR
SLOW AND STEADY WINS THE RACE
The Docklands Light Railway, 25 this year, has grown incrementally and by stealth from a system of just two short lines to one that now covers 21 miles and 45 stations. It is a remarkable achievement.
Words Christian Wolmar Sub editor: Deborah Maby
T
Christian Wolmar
Is a writer and broadcaster specialising in transport. He has covered the railways since privatisation in the mid- 1990s, writing regularly for newspapers and magazines including a fortnightly column in Rail magazine. He is also the author of several books on railway history, including Fire and Steam, a History of the Railways in Britain, and The Subterranean Railway: How the Underground Changed London. His latest book is Engines of War, an examination of the role played by the railways in military conflict.
he Docklands Light Railway (DLR) is celebrating its 25th
anniversary this
year and in that time has outgrown even the wildest expectations of its creator, Reg Ward, the first head of the London Docklands Development Corporation (LDDC).
Indeed, its development has been a remarkable success story but one which has occurred in a way that is very different from most transport infrastructure in the UK. The DLR has grown by stealth, incrementally adding extra lines and expanding services to meet growing demand or as the opportunities arose, rather than as one big project planned from the outset, such as Crossrail or HS2. Moreover, the DLR has always used cutting-edge technology successfully, with the introduction right from the outset of ‘driverless’ trains controlled from a central computer. Above all, though, unlike so many other infrastructure projects, the development has been carried out cheaply and on budget, with a successful mix of private and public involvement.
In time for the Olympics, the DLR boasts a new control centre in Beckton, almost where east London merges into Essex, opened earlier this year, from which all services are run. Trains have a ‘passenger service agent’ (the prosaic name for the staff who used to be called ‘train captains’) who ensures the train’s smooth running by, at times, controlling the doors, checks tickets and can take over
4 RailCONNECT
the driving of the train in the event of a need to override the computer. However, for the most part, it is the control centre’s computer programmes which automatically ‘drive’ the trains and ensure their safety.
The control centre has half a dozen staff working quietly and it seems surreal that they are in charge of a whole system comprising 45 stations spread across 21 miles. In fact, they are really monitoring it, taking over only in the event of an emergency or a disruption. Otherwise, the system effectively runs itself. The new centre took over from the old one at Poplar, built in 1996, to cope with the growth of the DLR which has been on a permanent path of expansion almost as soon as it first opened in 1987. The new centre, located in an anonymous building next to a DLR siding, is impressive, combining control with safety and security, with every station having CCTV that can be easily accessed in seconds. Although envisaged for some time, the Olympics was the catalyst for its completion at a cost of £21 million but, in truth, the move would have happened eventually anyway as the old centre could not cope, though it will be retained as back-up.
Initially, the DLR encompassed two lines from a station near the Tower of London to Island Gardens on the Isle of Dogs and another running from Island Gardens to Stratford in Newham. It was built for less than £100 million, a small amount by the standards of modern infrastructure, by using old abandoned railway viaducts and with remarkably tight bends that necessarily limited speed. The trains were all single coach and ran far less frequently than today.
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