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Bruce[_2_] · December 9th 09, 07:52 AM posted to uk.transport.london

On Mon, 7 Dec 2009 10:00:11 +0000 (UTC), d
wrote:

On Fri, 4 Dec 2009 15:54:27 -0000
"Recliner" wrote:
There's no way that it would have been built at all had the original
plan been to build what's now there. It was only because it was so cheap
that the plan went ahead.

Well yes, as I said, they probably didn't want to take the risk to spend
a huge amount of money on a transport system to an undeveloped area. If they
really wanted to put proper transport links in first they'd have extended a
tube line to start with and the DLR would never have existed.

The whole point of DLR was that it was a very cheap method of
extending high quality public transport into Docklands.

At that time, the planned development consisted of low rise industrial
units that would have employed a total of 10-15,000 mainly local
people. There was no thought of building a massive financial centre
employing upwards of 100,000. So when Olympia and York came along,
with an idea for a US-style financial city office centre at Canary
Wharf with a landmark skyscraper, the vision just blew everyone away.

There is no doubt that the DLR made Canary Wharf possible. Had there
not been a high quality public transport link, the area would have
been only served by buses running on inadequate roads, and there is
absolutely no way that the Reichmann brothers (Olympia and York) would
even have looked at the area. Of course the Jubilee Line Extension
and the Limehouse Link road tunnel were part of the deal struck with
Olympia and York, but it was the DLR that attracted the Reichmann
brothers.

The original ambition of the Docklands development Corporation did not
extend anywhere beyond building new roads and bridges to improve
access to the redundant docksides. I worked on tenders for several of
those. The idea of the railway came about when it became apparent
that the surrounding road network, already heavily congested, did not
have a hope of delivering people and goods in and out of the Isle of
Dogs and something far better was needed.

So the DLR did its job of encouraging inward investment, for which its
promoters deserve the greatest praise. It just did it far better than
expected.

You're forgetting about:

- The endless track remodelling at Poplar (how many times have they done that
now?)
- The retro fitting of Pudding Mill Lane station
- The remodelling of the stratford terminus to take more than 1 train
- The knocking down of the original Mudchute and Island Gardens sations
only 15 years after they were built
- The moving of South Quay

Thats the sort of thing you'd expect to happen over the course of a century
on most railways, not in the space of 20 years so if thats not a case of
patch and mend due to lack of money/foresight back in the 80s then I don't
know what is.

The original concept was good and the simple design of the viaducts
and stations has made the various upgrades and extensions easy and
relatively cheap to achieve. The upgrades and extensions have only
been needed because of the success of the DLR in attracting massive
inward investment to the Isle of Dogs.

The DLR is a conspicuous success that, 20+ years on, only the
profoundly ignorant would deny. Unfortunately, that's you.