If everything goes to plan, tomorrow's the day that the DLR reaches Woolwich. Lucky Woolwich. Trains on the three-year-old City Airport branch will no longer have to terminate at the unlikely-named King George V, they'll continue down a brand new tunnel under the Thames and emerge beneath the heart of Woolwich Town Centre. Change here for services to Erith and Dartford (or, if you're a bit nervous, just stay on the train and head straight back to Newham).
It's an impressive little infrastructure project, this. Completed in 3½ years flat, it's a great example of the effective impact of a bit of well targeted funding. There may be only one additional station, but reaching it has involved some technically awkward underwater boring using a 540-tonne drilling machine. The new tunnel links the north and south banks of the Thames via public transport, the only such crossing for three miles upstream and ten miles down. And it yanks not-so-affluent Woolwich into the wealth-creating reach of Docklands and the City, literally overnight.
Attempt to cross the river here today and you have to use theferry. That's an experience in itself, and the passenger quarters below deck drip with an atmosphere of mid-fifties austerity. Or there's the foottunnel, the poorer cousin of its Greenwich neighbour, whose subterranean character was recently wrecked by the installation of architecturally insensitive cycle barriers. Neither journey is quick or easy. But from tomorrow you can sit in a nice comfortable train and be whisked beneath the waves in style, in only a couple of minutes. It's the 21st century way.
This is the Docklands Light Railway's first venture into Zone 4, which may also be why this is the first DLR station to be kitted out with ticket barriers. No coasting into town for free from here, nor sneaking onto a Southeastern train for nothing. And it's only the first of a slew of new DLR stations that Boris will have the privilege of opening (even though he had nothing to do with their creation). The line from Canning Town to Stratford International should open next year, and that'll make a damned fine Mayoral photo opportunity too. But sorry Dagenham, you can only watch the Woolwich opening with a jealous sense of what might have been, because Boris no longer has plans for the DLR to make tracks to you.
Oh lucky people of Woolwich, your life's just about to get a little better. And then, when Crossrail arrives in 2017, a lot lot better. Yet another tunnel under the river, plus trains to the West End and Heathrow, which might almost make the much-vaunted Thames Gateway an enticing place to live. But a word of advice to SE18's current residents. Don't get too carried away in a flush of opening excitement, because your existing rail service may still be the way to go. To the heart of the City via DLR will take you 27 minutes tomorrow. But it's only 20 minutes from Woolwich Arsenal to LondonBridge today. Way to go.
If everything goes to plan, tomorrow's the day that the DLR reaches Woolwich. Lucky Woolwich. Trains on the three-year-old City Airport branch will no longer have to terminate at the unlikely-named King George V, they'll continue down a brand new tunnel under the Thames and emerge beneath the heart of Woolwich Town Centre. Change here for services to Erith and Dartford (or, if you're a bit nervous, just stay on the train and head straight back to Newham).
