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£180m DLR Olympic link opens ahead of schedule
Pippa Crerar, City Hall Editor12 Jan 2009
THE £180 million extension of the Docklands Light Railway under the Thames was officially opened today.
Mayor Boris Johnson cut the ribbon at the new Woolwich Arsenal station south of the river which links to King George V station on the north.
The extension will provide a vital crossing for local communities and businesses and eventually for visitors to the 2012 Olympics.
Mr Johnson said: "I'm absolutely delighted that this extension with its cracking new station is up and running and puts Woolwich Arsenal firmly on the Tube map.
"Woolwich has long lacked the transport links that encourage the creation of new jobs, homes and shops and this is the sort of project that will help kick the credit crunch where it hurts. The extension will also play an important role in the Olympic transport network. People in this part of London will now be just a 24-minute hop, skip and a jump away from the Olympic site."
The link, commissioned by former mayor Ken Livingstone and opened seven weeks ahead of schedule, will connect Woolwich to City Airport in just six minutes, Canary Wharf in 20 minutes and Stratford in 23 minutes. It will join the main Olympic site with the Royal Artillery Barracks in Woolwich, which will hold the shooting events.
Transport for London, which funded the extension, has pledged to deliver a 50 per cent increase in capacity across the DLR network by 2010 by adding 55 new carriages and extending platforms.
Reader views (18)
On 2nd February 2009 while most of London's transport ground to a halt because of a few snowflakes the DLR ran a near normal service! Just think how great it would be if London had a Mayor who developed Light Rail instead of living in the past with freezy cold open platform buses just think how dangerous these buses are when jumping off onto a icy road or pavement.
- Melvyn Windebank, Canvey Island, Essex, 02/02/2009 16:49
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I see the Mayor has announced £10m to make Exhibition Rd in Kensington look more visually appealing. It's nice to see where the fares of south londoners are going thanks to Boris 'saving' the last £19m on development work for the Cross River Tram!
- Phil, Peckham, 22/01/2009 11:11
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Another legacy to the London Transport network left by Ken.
What will Boris' transport legacy be?
- Andrew, London, 21/01/2009 21:53
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I would reccomend that everyone takes a trip to Woolwich on the DLR, the town is growing, and improving at a dramatic rate. The whole area is steeped in history, none more so than the Royal Arsenal, an award winning development which is on the river,or take a look at the Generals house, another great development. Maybe take your trip home by boat on a Thames Clipper, the views are fantasic, and its only 5 mins to the O2, so why not call in there.
Transport certainly helps an area, and I think you will find if you take a trip you will find a hidden gem in Woolwich, as it has every form of transport, which now thanks to the DLR even includes an airport!!!
- Tony, Woolwich, 15/01/2009 13:17
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Connecting places has to be welcome, but it's a fallacy to assume that transport links are the panacea, and all good things will follow. Stratford has been a transport hub since early cave man, and it's been the dump from hell for most of that time. Canning Town has railway, DLR, Jubilee Line and is near the City Airport, but hasn't knocked Hampstead off its perch yet, alas.Connect an unpopular place with elsewhere, and it just makes it easier to leave! There has to be a reason in itself for people to go TO a place as well
- Mdj, Leyton, london, 13/01/2009 17:39
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"Fringe projects"?! Some people actually live out there and for them central London is "fringe"! Well done DLR for expanding and connecting very important parts of London often overlooked by those who barely look beyond the edge of the Tube map.
- Mcw, London, 13/01/2009 09:53
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Pat - do you take public transport in central London often? You may have failed to notice that work is underway to renovate the vast majority of stations (and has been completed for many); new trains are soon to be delivered for the Circle, District, Metropolitan and Hammersmith & City lines, all with air conditioning, and will increase capacity by 33%. The Victoria line upgrade is nearly complete, which will see quicker journeys, new trains and 10% increase in capacity. Similar work is underway on the Northern line.
Granted, the tubes are still crowded during the rush hours, but on the whole it's actually pretty reliable.
- Pat, Vauxhall, 13/01/2009 09:42
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This extension was the final part of the extension that was already open to King George V Station and pre-dated by many years the application for the Olympic games.
As for the Dagenham Dock extension going no where, the same could be said of the original DLR started by Thatcher and Hestletine to an old whalf where tomatoes from the Canary Islands used to be unloaded. Now look at Canary Whalf the best way to develop an area is to put transport in BEFORE development happens. This was how Metroland and even the old Southern Railway worked.
However, with Dagenham Dock on hold Boris should look at longer term plan to extend the DLR from the cramped Bank Station to Charing Cross/Victoria which would use the abandoned Jubilee Line platforms at Charing Cross together with other sections of abandoned tunnels. This would fit in with the re-built Cannon Street Station with interchange with Thameslink on Ludgate Hill.
As for River crossings then either build the Thames Gateway Bridge or a new bridge linking the DLR at Canning Town with North Greenwich which could then bring the DLR to the Greenwich peninsula and on to Bexley and Thamesmead.
The DLR has been a sucess since it first opened and its time it spread out to benefit more Londoners.
- Melvyn Windebank, Canvey Island, Essex, 13/01/2009 01:05
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Good but still a lot to be done to take care of the many South Londoners who need good Transport links to places north of the river. When is Streatham, Crystal Palace Peckham, Croydon, Beckenham etc, etc going to have the tube.
- Mr. S.Port, London, 12/01/2009 23:33
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Dave from London do you really think this was anything to do with Boris? This was all down to Ken. All Boris has done is close down several transport projects and then shows up to the opening ceremony to take the credit for this (as he did with "revealing" the air-conditioned trains on the sub-surface lines). The guy has no idea how to run a city never mind a country.
- Dylan, London, 12/01/2009 21:00
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Should we not get transport in London to work first before we have these fringe projects?? The more they add-on the worse the service gets in central London, where most people need it! At the end of the day choices have to be made and I think it would be better to fix where most people pay for and that is central London, not this Olympics pit!!
- Pat, London, 12/01/2009 16:56
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FAO 'Win'.... Used?!? The DLR train i boarded was completely full today as it left woolwich.
- Lose, Woolwich, London, 12/01/2009 16:00
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However, the new trains don't have air-con!
Not needed now of course, but come the summer the carriages will be like green houses like they usually are.
About 98% of the stations are above ground, so there's no real excuse. Hold on, of course silly me - it would reduce someone's profits!!
Forget about the comfort of passengers though, we're just the guys who pay to use transport! Just so long as someone is getting a nice tidy bonus come April that's all that really metters, doesn't it?
- Scott, London, 12/01/2009 14:29
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As £5 million has already been spent on the plans for the DLR extension to Dagenham Dock is it not time for the Mayor to reinstate the project?.
Bringing forward plans for investment in transport infrastructure is an essiential part of the Mayor's remit.
Given the Mayors comments on the economic and social benefits of the Woolwich DLR coupled with the downturn in the economy now would be a good time to invest in building extra capacity into London's creaking transport system.
- Damien Vaugh, London,UK, 12/01/2009 14:13
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Mark Lee, mate, the fact Boris has opened this station in Woolwich goes to show he does care about connecting the DLR to deprived towns. The Dagenham Dock extension didn't go anywhere apart from a gasworks, waste of money if you ask me, typical of the grandiose ideas of our previous wasting money Mayor. Boris for PM.
- Dave, London, 12/01/2009 13:25
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Is it used? I think it is a trivial issue and we should be looking at the major problems with the existing infrastructure that has to serve the majority of the Londoners!! Not those side lines.
- Win, London, 12/01/2009 12:56
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Right. Now can we possible get central London lines to work again please? Circle line was down again this morning and late for work half an hour. It is all good having these fancy extensions but at the end of the day the centre of London also needs to work!
- Georgie, London NW1, 12/01/2009 11:19
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Well done to the DLR boys - they always seem to get their work done on time and on budget - they should be getting a spot on the Crossrail team.
Most intrigued by Boris's comment "Woolwich has long lacked the transport links that encourage the creation of new jobs, homes and shops and this is the sort of project that will help kick the credit crunch where it hurts."
He's absolutely spot on here - so why has he been busy cancelling transport projects that would have linked up other transport black holes in deprived areas, such as the Cross River Tram to Peckham, Camberwell and Walworth, or the DLR Dagenham Dock extension?
- Mark Lee, Vauxhall, 12/01/2009 11:10
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