Closure of Bank DLR Dec/Jan

1. Tower Gateway track is the northernmost track. Most track work is on southernmost track.
2. There may be a bit of concreting involved as well track and points installation. Plus signalling will need some alterations.
3. Increased capacity to both Tower Gateway and Bank due to less junction & single track conflicts.
4. ?
5. ?

This closure is no secret. It has been on the DLR website for at least a year and probably longer that Bank will be closed for 5 weeks from December 2009.

1. The changes to the junction on the Tower Gateway side were completed when Tower Gateway was closed for rebuilding. If you look carefully at the Tower Gateway junction you can see a bit of unconnected track which will be connected as a result of these works. They will put up hoardings to protect the worksite from the live railway as they did when Tower Gateway was closed.

3. The term "3-car scheme" has become the common name for the improvement works programme. The original name was Capacity Enhancement Works, and these works will increase the number of trains that can use Tower Gateway station as well as removing the conflict that currently exists for trains arriving and departing Tower Gateway at the same time, which can sometimes result in trains waiting their turn at the junction for 3 minutes. The works might also be needed to allow 3 car trains to use Tower Gateway as I'm not sure if 3 car trains can fit into the passing loop.

4. Unlikely. Their is now no way to get westbound trains to the eastbound platform since the Canning Town junction revamp. Which is why the peak Woolwich shuttle and inter-peak Beckton shuttles terminate at Blackwall instead of Canning Town. The more likely situation, but not much better, is that all Beckton services will terminate at Blackwall or Poplar, as they did during the peaks in the period immediately before the Tower Gateway closure. It's possible now that the WIQ flyunder is open that they could take them through to Canary Wharf which could double up as a test for their aspiration to run new services from the Royal Docks to Canary Wharf.

I haven't used Tower Gateway since it re-opened, but ISTR that the speed restrictions were there prior to the upgrading (all about approaching buffer stops). Are the restrictions more severe now?

The Bank closure is now shown on in-car line maps and the platform maps at Canning Town (and I assume other stations, eventually).

Went and had a look at what was going on over the Christmas period at Tower Gateway. Well, I had to, no other way to get from anywhere in Docklands to Central London. Jubilee closed, of course. East London Line at Shadwell has been closed for years. And now link into Bank and the Central/Northern closed for a month. So quite isolated from the rest of the system.

Did anyone think to coordinate the Jubilee weekend closures with the DLR closures, ie no Jubilee closures during the month the DLR at Bank is closed? No, thought not.

First off, most noticeable that west of Poplar the overall running times have been extended. Dwell times of 60 seconds plus at each station, in both directions, which adds several minutes to the journey time. All that happens is you sit there and sit there with the doors open, few get on or off, just all the expensively-warmed air escapes from the train and all the cold air from outside comes in. East of Poplar normal stop times apply. Goodness knows why.

Advance publicity said that on weekdays Beckton trains would turn at Blackwall, and Woolwich run to Tower Gateway, but in fact the reverse seems to be true.

Daytime service at Tower Gateway appears to be every three minutes, two to Lewisham and one to Beckton within 10 minutes. This would have doubtless worked better before the "Capacity Enhancement scheme" last year actually reduced the capacity of Tower Gateway, from two tracks to one. So now the standard modus operandi seems to be leave Shadwell slowly, stop for a train to come off the single track, then past the works, stop again in the passing loop for the next train out of Tower, then forward at the crawl required nowadays for some reason into the station. Change passengers over, then wait for departure long enough to delay the next inward service.

Why on earth turn at Blackwall nowadays a favoured point despite being pretty much in the middle of nowhere. Quite a number of DLR passengers from the east are nowadays heading for Canary Wharf, to have to change, and wait in the open, TWICE within half a mile, all in sight of your final destination, is ridiculous. Is it REALLY beyond the wit of the operators to turn at Poplar instead, especially as the train then runs on most of the way to Poplar to reverse ? I also noticed that the usual DLR inability to arrange meaningful connections between their services carries on, with the Woolwich train regularly following the Beckton one, forcing all the passengers to a near-10 minute wait at Blackwall for their next onward service.

I recently asked if the man who designed the new junction layout at Canning Town is feeling better yet, but conclude he must be as has now found a new job arranging these timetables.

A bizarre temporary notice has sprung up at street level at Tower Gateway. "All Pay-As-You-Go passengers using this footbridge must touch in". Well it's not a footbridge at all. And there are no Oyster readers at street level either; they are right up at the platform. Do we take it that there have been issues with passengers unfamiliar with this interchange from the District not knowing about touching in again here? In which case why do DLR, the rest of the time, delight in having teams of Revenue Inspectors in place from time to time fining those visitors who have not understood to do so? If it's not clear what to do (and the notice seems to imply this) then why go round fining people?

A more appropriate extra notice (or two) would be how to get between Tower Gateway and Tower Hill. Very few of our house visitors have ever managed this without having to ask passers-by, and/or going wrong along the way. It is not at all intuitive or well marked. It seems bizarre that DLR can put up all sorts of large supplementary signs telling their replacement bus drivers which way to go at road junctions, but then do nothing for their diverted passengers who are having to walk.

I have to say it was good to see the team working on the junction all through the weekend, including Sunday evening, at least something is actually being done. Yes, I know Diana is a cynic but too often such closures are accompanied by little or nothing actually being done on the ground. Jubilee Line resignalling project take note.