Weekday detour for DLR users

By John Hill on September 16, 2008 4:21 PM |

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DLR COMMUTERS may have to plot a slightly different route out of the Wharf at the end of the month.

The rail operator's run of maintenance works will spill into the week next Thursday and Friday (September 25 and 26), as trains between West India Quay and Westferry are suspended to allow construction on an extra track.

The construction of the fly-under is part of the Docklands Light Railway's capacity-boosting conversion to three-car trains, which has already seen several weekend closures on the network.

DLR planning manager Allan Kill said: "The new fly-under will give us increased flexibility and removes the bottleneck we currently have at that point in the network."

While the junction will not be completely shut down, trains will only run from east to west and north to south, meaning that commuters travelling towards Bank from the Lewisham line will have to walk to Poplar from West India Quay.

That weekend the closures will spread to the Bank to Canary Wharf line, the Bank to Poplar stretch and the Stratford to West India Quay section.

The new fly-under will be operational in May 2009, allowing trains to take an alternative route from the busy junction.

The three-year expansion of the network began last year to deal with extra demand, which will further increase once Olympic athletes hit the city in 2012. Passenger numbers are expected to swell from the current 250,000 a day to around 500,000 during the games. 55 new trains will be rolled in by 2010, and the first two are already in service.

Tower Gateway station closed for re-building in June, and is due to return in February next year. Bank will close on Christmas Day 2009 for a month.

An eight-week reduction of service between Lewisham and Crossharbour ended on Bank Holiday Monday.
Mr Kill said: "There will be continuing disruption on most weekends all the way until Christmas this year, but it will be on shorter stretches of track and not to the extent of last month's works."

The new Woolwich Arsenal station is set to be unveiled in February next year. Construction has begun on the extension to Stratford International station, with opening pencilled in for 2010. The public inquiry into the planned extension to Dagenham Dock will be held in November, and will be earmarked for launch in 2017 if approved.

For more information on DLR works, go to www.dlr.co.uk/improvements.