Stephen worheed wrote:
On Sat, 05 Feb 2005 11:57:21 +0000, Dave Arquati wrote:

Stevie wrote:

Anyone know how 'too schedule' the City Airport extension project is
on the DLR at the moment?
I notice that the Beckton branch is closed all weekend from 7pm
last night to start of service Monday morning for testing on the
City Airport branch - presumbly this is just testing around the
Canning Town junction as I can't believe they've already got the
whole line down ready for complete testing?
If I remember rightly, the Lewisham extension was opened 4 months
early - due to open March 2000 and actually opened in November
1999. Is the City Airport extension also running ahead of schedule?
I think the City Airport extension is due to open in November this
year - could we actually see it working this summer though instead?


I went down there in late December and took some photos, some of
which are on my website at http://www.alwaystouchout.com/project/9.

The viaduct was complete between Canning Town and just short of
London City Airport station, although the descending ramp from the
station down to the ground had been constructed. (The station itself
hadn't been started.) I didn't see the section between LCY and King
George V.

I'm not sure how much (if any) track-laying has been done. West
Silvertown station was only about half-complete, and Pontoon Dock
station hadn't really been started.

I'd guess that the testing work was merely on the junction. The
scheduled opening date is 16 December this year; I think everything
is running to schedule but I've no idea whether they can complete it
early. The most difficult infrastructure (the viaducts) is already in
place, so it may be possible.


DLR announced on Monday
(http://developments.dlr.co.uk/extens...ails.asp?id=13) that
the viaducts are now completed and the project is on schedule to open
in December. Most of the track has been laid, or at least what you can
see round the Canning Town area, apart from a single section linking it
to the working lines. I suspect there will still need to be track laid
around the LCY area, as this was the last bit of viaduct to be built.
The closure this weekend I assume was to test the signalling of the new
junction as the signals were covered up before the engineering works,
but turned on afterwards.

Whilst were on about the DLR, the public enquiry into 'Capacity
enhancement' (upgrading to 3 car trains) started this week. DLR say
most of the objections have been withdrawn, so it looks likely to go
ahead. On this subject I've read that all the stations on the Lewisham
extension were built so they could either handle or be easily extended
to handle 3 car trains. I can't see how at Cutty Sark. It's only big
enough for 2 car trains and as is it's a deep level tunnel it is going
to be quite difficult to extend isn't it? I thought it would have been
easier to build the extended platform in the original construction,
like they did with other stations such as Bank, Canary Wharf and
Canning Town.

Incidentally, I heard on the grapevine that Tower Hamlets had placed an
objection for the public inquiry, on the grounds that 50% longer trains
would mean 50% more noise...

--
Dave Arquati
Imperial College, SW7
www.alwaystouchout.com - Transport projects in London