please empty your brain below
So it's not just me then. The DLR web pages used to be really good with full proper timetables for each station, a frequency guide in the form of an easy-to-understand table and maps diagrams showing exactly what services normally ran where.

In simple summary, in the next few years, we can only expect to see off-peak improvements - but most of what is possible and needed will have been done from tomorrow. There will be no desperately needed improvements in the peak due to lack of trains and issues around Bank station capacity.

Pedantic of Purley | 01.02.15 - 9:07 a.m. | #

I'm sure not many people are going to be put out by the Beckton/Stratford change but my 82 year old mum is. She lives in Beckton while I live in Stratford and the convenience of one train, with no changes, has made her life much easier. She even times it so that if visiting me (or shopping at Westfield) she makes sure to be at Stratford Station in time to get an off peak train back to Beckton. A minor gripe, I know, but when you're old and slow and arthritic every little helps.

Joan | 01.02.15 - 9:16 a.m. | #

Huh, crossing to the Jubilee at West Ham takes ages!

Tina | 01.02.15 - 10:48 a.m. | #

This is a big positive for access to City Airport from central London, as it means that people changing from the Jubilee at Canning Town will no longer have to deal with DLR trains to Woolwich leaving from different and widely separated platforms at different times of the day.

Philip | 01.02.15 - 11:42 a.m. | #

I read the email and tried to work out what it meant, and couldn't. It was clear that the last point meant someone was losing out, but I could only guess at who that was. Not ideal for a public service broadcast...

Harry | 01.02.15 - 12:09 p.m. | #

But I bet they still haven't sorted it out so the trains from Lewisham connected with the trains to stratford. I just missed the stratford train from Canary whalf and now have to wait 10 minutes because as my train towards bank was pulling in the other train was leaving.

Wowza | 01.02.15 - 2:24 p.m. | #

Using the branch shortly after it opened Stratford International trains were going to Woolwich, the Beckton branch should have run to Barking instead of nowhere, as things stand unless you live next to a station, there are plenty of buses that go to Stratford without any significant time penalty.

PAYG Oyster users find the Woolwich - Stratford connection quite useful, thanks to the cross river DLR links allowing you to avoid Zone 1, you can do quite long journeys as a single fare.

| 01.02.15 - 4:42 p.m. | #

I imagine that the several thousand employees of Newham Council who are based next to Royal Albert station on the Beckton line won't be pleased with services terminating at West Ham instead of Stratford.

I think that DLR from Canning Town to London City Airport ( from Stratford or Tower Gateway) will still leave from two different platforms, several sets of stairs apart.

Boneyboy | 01.02.15 - 8:16 p.m. | #

Unfortunately Boneyboy's right about the Woolwich Arsenal platforms at Canning Town. The junction that allows Beckton and Woolwich branch trains to cross to either the Bank/Tower Gateway or Stratford branches is south of the station, not north - so all trains to and from Bank/Tower Gateway use the handy high-level platforms above the Jubilee, whereas all trains to and from Stratford are banished to the low-level platforms so tantalisingly within view but so awkward to get to.

(Of course, I speak as a regular interchange user of Canning Town station, rather than someone who lives nearby and walks in off the street. It's always struck me as a station that's most obviously understood as a Jubilee/core-DLR interchange place, whereas its relationship with the street is rather more fuzzy. Is the only 'front door' to the station inside the bus station?)

Rich Thomas | 02.02.15 - 11:50 a.m. | #

I'm guessing the reason for the Beckton trains terminating at West Ham is that there's not enough capacity to turn them round at Stratford Int now there are the extra Woolwich services

Steve | Homepage | 02.02.15 - 2:02 p.m. | #

@Wowza When coming from south of Canary Wharf going up to Stratford, it is usual that the Stratford train leaves Canary Wharf just a few seconds before the one for Bank arrive. But! The Stratford one usually waits for the one from Lewisham at West India Quay, so change there instead next time!

Thomas R | 02.02.15 - 8:51 p.m. | #

Has anyone noticed that in the new timetable there are no longer any Bank to Lewisham services that stop at West India Quay? No mention of that in any of the publicity. Makes for a more reliable service I suppose but not ideal if you live at West India Quay. Have they effectively closed a whole section of track? Shouldn't they at least run a parliamentary train?!? ;-)

Jan | 08.02.15 - 6:55 p.m. | #











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