On Thu, 10 Feb 2005, Dave Arquati wrote:

Stephen Osborn wrote:

What struck me as even more odd was that, this lack of forethought
having already (5years) caused a problem, the new South Quay was only
going to be long enough to cater for three car trains.

Four-car trains were considered as part of the planning process but were
rejected at this stage as the infrastructure works would be
prohibitively disruptive. A light railway just isn't designed for the
sort of passenger numbers the DLR is now expected to deal with, and I
think these 3-car works are designed to plug the gap;

This is the thing that really gets my goat about the DLR - complete and
utter lack of any foresight. Yes, at the time it was built, the area
didn't have a lot of traffic, and a light railway with two-car trains was
quite adequate. However, it was obvious that this wasn't going to be the
case forever, or even for very long. That this error is now being repeated
is utterly incomprehensible. Implementing three-car trains is a struggle,
four-car is going to be a nightmare, and the inevitable eventual
conversion (in places, reversion!) to heavy rail is going to be
apocalyptic.

Mumble typical Thatcherite short-termism mumble. Or perhaps it was
actually a sensible decision in the context of that government's plans to
depopulate the metropolis.

tom

--
Don't trust the laws of men. Trust the laws of mathematics.