The sign I saw the other day implied that it was due to accessibility
issues. I did wonder why the footbridge was built with only steps in this
day and age.

I wonder why did they close it completely then? I mean, you can build
a ramp without closing the existing thing...

And why the hell did they not think about that from the beginning?
Then again, it's DLR - they got reasonably reliable (stinky dirty)
trains, but everything else is rubbish.