New South Quay station to open within weeks

The opening of the £30million station will also end the 21-month closure of part of the westbound lane of Marsh Wall, although Transport for London has confirmed that it will need to close a stretch further west on certain weekends to enable the removal of the old station. These dates have not yet been decided.

Moving the South Quay stop is part of a £200million three-year project designed to adjust the Bank to Lewisham line to the extended trains by early next year.

DLR announced a series of closures to lines and stations across the network to The Wharf back in October 2007, including the eight-month re-construction of Tower Gateway station in June 2008. The last major item on this list is the month-long closure of Bank station from Christmas Eve.

DLR director Jonathan Fox said: "We hope passengers will be as proud as we are of the new station. It certainly boasts a lot more state-of-the-art facilities, including new energy-efficient escalators to and from each platform.

"Crucially, it's a vital step in the transformation of the Bank-Lewisham branch into a line capable of taking three-car trains at every station. These longer trains will start in early 2010, providing 50 per cent more on board capacity."

Among the adjustments made to the new South Quay station are the introduction of straight stairs and larger lifts with see-through glass doors.

While DLR hopes to open the station a week on Monday, this is dependent on the successful fine-tuning of the signalling system to allow trains to stop at the new station as opposed to the old one. New station co-ordinates must be programmed into the computer system, and perfected so that the train does not over or undershoot the platform.