I was still eight stops from the newly-opened Woolwich Arsenal station when I realised something unfortunate had occurred. Something that's going to annoy me every time I travel eastbound on the DLR. Because the new line terminus has a name that's slightly too long for the infrastructure's existing systems. Sixteen characters - it's one too many to fit on the next train indicators on the platforms. Which has created a bit of a problem. And the chosen solution, a premature apostrophe, is very ugly indeed. W'wich Arsenal
Ooh that's nasty, and desperately unhelpful. Where the hell is W'wich? It sounds like it ought to be in Wales, probably deep in a valley somewhere. Or it could be a reference to that evil character from the Wizard of Oz. It certainly doesn't sound like the name of a well-known Thames-side settlement. And the destination's just as unreadable on the rolling display on the front of a train.
W'wich Arsenal[blip]v City Airport[blip]
The word Arsenal is clear as day, which conjures up images of football, Highbury and Islington. But no, all that's ten miles away. And so we get lumbered with W'wich instead. Sigh. The whole point of this new railway line is that it goes to Woolwich, not Arsenal, but Woolwich is the word the powers that be have chosen to abbreviate. Couldn't they have tried shortening the name another way?
Brilliant, just ignore the sixteenth character as if it doesn't exist. That's no good either, is it? But there is an obvious solution, one that would make sense to the vast majority of passengers, and it's this.
Woolwich
I know that the station isn't called Woolwich, it's called Woolwich Arsenal. And I know that there's another Woolwich station called Woolwich Dockyard, even if the DLR doesn't go there. But plain old 'Woolwich' would be so much better. Please, someone, bend the rules a bit and stick this simple eight letter word on the DLR's destination boards instead. Make it easy for everyone to tell where they're going. Because by slavishly following convention you've done something ugly, impractical and unhelpful to poor old Woolwich. Arse.
