#OnThisDay 31 years ago #DLR opened the Beckton branch including nine completely new stations, two new interchanges with BR, and Beckton Depot. One of my all-time favourite @tubemapper.bsky.social images: a train descending into Cyprus station buff.ly/1j4cnd9 - ThreadSky

joebrownlondon.bsky.social • 63 days ago

#OnThisDay 31 years ago #DLR opened the Beckton branch including nine completely new stations, two new interchanges with BR, and Beckton Depot. One of my all-time favourite @tubemapper.bsky.social images: a train descending into Cyprus station https://buff.ly/1j4cnd9

Comments

tompagenet.bsky.social•63 days ago

Heavens, how quickly I forget things - this jogged my memory about the North London line serving Custom House! I think the Beckton extension was this incredibly big dice role for the DLR and saw it move from a tiny depot and control centre to a new large site and new signalling across the network

tompagenet.bsky.social•63 days ago

It's taken many years for some stations on the route to come into their own (e.g. Gallions Reach which now has tonnes of housing), but this extension laid the groundwork for all future DLR extensions.

joebrownlondon.bsky.social•63 days ago

Build it, and they shall come! 🙂

tompagenet.bsky.social•63 days ago

@freewheeling.info makes this point too and although I'm not quite as carefree about where public investment should be made it is fair to say it's very hard to predict so providing good connections to places that don't currently have them is a fairly solid investment

freewheeling.info•63 days ago

I do say that, though I nicked the idea from Jarrett Walker.

He thinks we get much of our transport planning wrong. We should be connecting the places that AREN'T connected not simply chasing down existing demand.

https://www.freewheeling.info/the-freewheeling-podcast/jarrett-walker

tompagenet.bsky.social•63 days ago

And boy did we do that with Beckton! It definitely wasn't a source of mass demand on day one! I remember it very well.

brentfordgoonerrex.bsky.social•63 days ago

Also now following TubeMapper. Thanks for that Joe.

joebrownlondon.bsky.social•63 days ago

@tubemapper.bsky.social is my favourite photographer… and a lovely person to boot 🙂

brentfordgoonerrex.bsky.social•63 days ago

Lovely shot. I did that run from Tower Gateway back in the very early days then again last week inspired by the Jago Hazzard Youtube video. Had no idea so much of it was on old lines. THINKS: Get out Joe's Atlas and do the trip again with it on my lap (in the front seat of course !)

Comments

Posting Rules

Reply