Beckton Park to Cyprus

Probably to avoid having to dig a cutting for it.

Probably to do with cost in that building road and rail at ground level is cheaper than having one above or below the other, but at the road junctions/stations they have to be. Just as the rail dips down to the stations the road goes up to the roundabouts. I don't think it's anything more complicated than that. I doubt the effect of gradient on energy/wear & tear is very significant, at least not in comparison to some of the other gradients on the network.

there is a roundabout ontop of both beckton park and cyprus stations so i am guessing that the road was there first??

Spoke with a neighbour who was here at the time this was built, he recalled that the building of the DLR and the main road was all done as one project - he recalls that the rails were put down before the road was opened, although it took a long time after that before the DLR service started.

Regarding the up and down of the line between the stations, our civil engineering expert in the office here, who commutes that way on the road, said he would have done the same - he guesses the two stations under the roundabouts are below the ground water level and will need special drainage or pumping anyway, so you don't want a long level piece where water builds up and is difficult to keep watertight and drain, but just two points, one at each station, where it slopes down to. He said the Channel Tunnel is done the same way, being a very prolonged W shape with the two bottom points near the coast so it is easy to get the water out, rather than having to pump any leakage from the middle of the Channel.

Or at least, that's how I remember it being described. Does it make sense?