CJB wrote:

When I travelled on this some days ago it seemed to duplicate the
route of the Jubillee Line - so I'm not sure why everyone is lauding
the extra benefits. Both lines run parallel from Stratford to Canning
Town and serve the same communities.

There are three extra stations on the DLR, serving intermediate stops.
Stratford High Street in particular can help ease a bit of the pressure on
Stratford by providing an earlier exit point closer to the High
Street/Broadway.

At Canning Town the interchange between all is confusing and its seems
that the new DLR line has been added on as an after-thought - as
indeed it has.

I guess the alternatives would have been either to rebuild Canning Town *yet
again* (how many times has it been now?!) or else complicate the system no
end by trying to run the new branch into the high level platforms. But I do
think a bridge from the high level to the low level DLR would be handy - I'm
not sure if there's enough room though (the curse of legacy platforms).

The real strength of the new DLR line is that it goes to Stratford
International - maybe. But then the line does not serve the City being
a mere shuttle between Woolwich or Beckton. Both places hardly of
interest to tourists compared to the centre of London which the
Jubille Line eventually gets to (if it hasn't been disrupted - an
everyday occurrence it seems).

Access to central London is available at all interchange stations along the
new route by the High Speed, by NXEA, by the Central line, by the District
line, by the Hammersmith & City line, by the Bank DLR branch and by the
Jubilee line and, if you fancy a short walk, by the North London Line. It is
also going to get Crossrail. On top of all that exactly how many more direct
routes to central London does Newham need?

Realistically tourists for central London should be using St Pancras not
Stratford International. Tourists for east London can use SI and there are
spots covered by the DLR, from the Olympic village to the ExCel.

Then there is the new DLR station at Stratford International. There
are no 'touch out' machines there (that I could find).

You missed them. On my one visit so far I came up at the rail station end
and they were easy to spot.

There are no gates. No staff appear to be on duty.

All par the course for DLR stations.

Its in the middle of a building
site, with heaps of rubble everywhere blowing dust, there's nothing
there, no shops - except for the concrete monstrosity of Stratford
International train station. But that's a misnomer with Eurostar
refusing to stop there.

Well that's not TfL's fault. That part of Stratford is developing and is not
complete yet but the opening of the DLR is a key step forward - in
particular it makes Stratford International *much* more accessible. I've had
a few times when the connecting bus has been difficult to find (and
sometimes changes its departing point at Stratford) and it just doesn't give
passengers full confidence they will make their connections. A DLR
connection is much smoother.

All in all my impression of the new DLR line is that it may serve a
few extra localities ignored by the Jubillee Line but it is a service
in dire search of a market.

Give it time to fill up. An obvious starting point is the University of East
London, which has campuses in Stratford and by Cyprus DLR.