Extending the Docklands Light Railway

The Docklands light Railway (DLR, for short) has been one of London's major transport success stories. Opening with just 15 stations in 1987, the network currently serves 45 stations in East and Central London. Unlike buses, trams, the London Overground or TfL Rail, the DLR yields more for TfL in passenger revenue than it costs to operate. The system played a pivotal role in bringing regeneration to the London Docklands and transforming Canary Wharf into the one of the world's most important financial centres.

In some ways the DLR has been a victim of its own success. With passenger numbers exceeding expectations, many of the past and planned improvements to the DLR have focused on increasing capacity: in particular, by lengthening trains and station platforms and by improving junctions so that services can run more frequently.

But it's also intriguing to look at which new destinations the Docklands Light Railway might serve. The map below depicts the current DLR network, together with a number of extension proposals, past and present:

Docklands Light Railway network, with proposed extensions

Sources and caveats

All of the extensions on the map come from official sources: most come from the DLR Horizon 2020 Study (from July 2005) and the "Planning for the Future of the DLR" map (from May 2011, shown below).

Original map can be found archived here, with its accompanying article here

However, it's worth stressing from the outset that official consideration of DLR extensions has more recently become much narrower. In the Mayor's Transport Strategy from March 2018, discussion of the DLR focuses specifically the proposed extension from Gallions Reach to Thamesmead.

Detail from Figure 31 of the Mayor's 2018 Transport Strategy, with DLR extension in turquoise

The DLR extensions map contains some annotations which explain a little bit of the background and trivia behind the proposals. Below are descriptions of a couple of the proposals in geekier detail.

Wood Wharf extension

The proposal to extend the DLR to Wood Wharf came about because of a capacity constraint in the original DLR. North of West India Quay, the Bank and Stratford branches met each other at a flat crossing. Trains running north from West India Quay to Stratford had to cross the path of trains running south from Bank to West India Quay, limiting the frequency at which trains could run.

Very simplified illustration of track north of West India Quay
Grey track was rarely used for passenger service

The Horizon 2020 report investigated the possibility of sending Stratford trains along a new track which avoided Canary Wharf (and the difficult crossing) entirely. The new track would meet the existing track south of Wood Wharf at a more efficient junction.

Stations around Canary Wharf, including the proposal for Wood Wharf
Base image: Google Earth

The Wood Wharf proposal had drawbacks. In particular, travellers from Stratford would no longer have direct trains to Poplar (providing interchange opportunities with other DLR routes) or the stations on Canary Wharf.

In 2009, a different solution was put in place. New track was built so that trains from Bank could run directly from Westferry to Canary Wharf and avoid crossing the path of trains to Stratford.

Very simplified diagram of new track layout
The new track to Canary Wharf passes underneath the tracks to and from Poplar

This improves the possible service frequency, but means that trains from Bank can't stop at West India Quay. This unusual arrangement isn't currently depicted on the standard Tube map, but is shown on the DLR map:

Detail from current official DLR map

With the new track in place, there is much less need for the Wood Wharf extension. There will still be new development at Wood Wharf (with completion currently planned for 2023), but without a new DLR station.

Western extensions

Tunnelling west of Bank would be extremely expensive, and a lot of attention has been given to cunning re-use of existing infrastructure in order to cut costs. The Horizon 2020 report considers the  re-use of the Farringdon City Sidings, built alongside the adjacent London Underground track and once used to carry Thameslink trains from Farringdon to Moorgate.

The plan now is to put the tracks to a different use, as a place to stable London Underground trains overnight. This means the tracks are very unlikely to see use as part of a DLR extension.

Detail from a 1999 map of London's rail services (saved at the London Tube Map Archive),
showing National Rail services from Farringdon to Moorgate

A DLR extension to St Pancras and Victoria (listed as "Option A" on the main map above) would be particularly ambitious. As noted at London Reconnections, the portion from Euston to St Pancras would follow the same route as that proposed for an automated people mover (APM) between Euston and St Pancras. The APM would quicken the connection between HS1 (at St Pancras) and HS2 (at Euston), and a DLR extension would play a very similar role.

Artist's impression of an APM station at St Pancras, from Arup's report to HS2

Crossrail 2 would also create a connection between Euston and St Pancras with a new station underground. Putting this new station on the Tube map as an interchange with Euston and King's Cross St Pancras is a very tough task, and my own attempt (for the 2040 Tube Map) could definitely be improved upon. Adding DLR stations to Euston and St Pancras, in addition to the Crossrail 2 link, would be an even tougher challenge.

A monstrous interchange – but it could be even worse

WHSmith Tube Map with Crossrail

This post was last updated on 24 May 2022

Crossrail was originally planned to open in December 2018, with services branded as the Elizabeth line. In summer 2018, TfL announced that the line's opening would be delayed, and passengers would not use the new tunnels and stations until May 2022.

Among those who didn't know about the delay until it was a little too late were WHSmith, whose 2019 diaries were prepared with the Elizabeth line on the Tube map at the back:

"Correct at time of going to print."

The diaries from WHSmith attracted some media attention, but none of the news stories I saw featured any pictures of the diaries or the Tube maps inside them. So I nipped into Holborn's WHSmith this morning to pick up a copy.

What's different?

Having spent a lot of time sticking Crossrail on unofficial Tube maps, I was very curious about how it would look on the "official" Tube map. We've seen before a "draft version" of the December 2018 map (covered here), which is very similar to this one but has the other Tube lines greyed out.

Broken interchanges at Paddington and Liverpool Street

On this map, as well as the draft 2018 map, the Bakerloo line at Paddington has moved beneath the Hammersmith and City line. The Elizabeth line is broken up into three sections (with connections at Paddington and Liverpool Street) rather than being shown as one continuous line.

The broken interchanges reflect what was intended to be the service pattern in December 2018: trains from Heathrow and Shenfield would stop at the main line stations at Paddington and Liverpool Street, and you would have to change trains in order to travel on the "core" section between Paddington and Abbey Wood.

The Elizabeth line did not officially appear on the Tube map until the May 2022 version, which had evolved from these earlier drafts. Most significantly, the Bakerloo line is positioned below the Hammersmith and City line at Paddington, while Liverpool Street gets only one station label.

Paddington and Liverpool Street on the May 2022 Tube map

Will the Tube map look like this when the Elizabeth line does open?

The style of the Tube map has evolved since the delay to the opening of the Elizabeth line was announced. In particular, there are now dotted lines which mark convenient street-level interchanges between stations. When the Elizabeth line does open, we're likely to see a new dotted line joining Woolwich with Woolwich Arsenal.

In addition, the pocket Tube map, online map and station platform maps will almost certainly continue to mark fare zones and step-free access.

Step-free access icons, zone boundaries and dotted interchange lines

Services between Reading and Paddington, which aren't shown on the WHSmith map, had been planned due to join the Elizabeth line in December 2019. In part because these services are very profitable to run, they were incorporated into TfL Rail before the core section of the Elizabeth line opened.

This means that the WHSmith Tube map (which shows the core section but not Reading services) is particularly peculiar. Rather than simply a Tube map of the future, has ended up being a map which never exactly matched reality.