Feature CHRISTIAN WOLMAR
It was built for less than £100 million by using old abandoned railway viaducts and with remarkably tight bends that necessarily limited speed
Even the promoters of the LDDC did not realise what they had started. The development of Canary Wharf, with its soaring towers that attracted major City firms, meant that good transport was essential to ensure the workers could reach their offices. While the Jubilee Line Extension was vital – as will be Crossrail when it is completed – the DLR played a vital role in providing the easiest route between the City of London and the Isle of Dogs, thanks to the first mile-long extension of the line, to Bank station, completed in 1991.
Soon extensions were sprouting almost as fast as bindweed in an untended garden. Lines stretched out to Beckton, in south London, and Lewisham, while the new City Airport was also connected. Crucially, with the growth of Canary Wharf, the trains were soon extended from one car to two – and indeed now operate as three. The airport branch was eventually extended across the river to Woolwich Arsenal. Again in time for the Olympics, a new connection was established between Stratford International, the station used by Kent trains on HS1 (but not, despite its name, the international Eurostar services) and Stratford Tube and railway station, and running on to Canning Town.
Although technically a light rail system, the DLR does not have on-street running like the tram networks that have been developed in several cities around the UK and therefore it is something of a halfway house between a conventional suburban railway and a tram. While initially it was used principally by office workers going to and from Docklands, the latest extensions across the river and further into east London have given it a second role, as a vital part of the capital’s infrastructure, which carries more than 75 million people annually. Undoubtedly, when the DLR celebrates its 50th
anniversary, there will be
more additions to the network and many more passengers.
RailCONNECT 5
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