Yesterday TfL launched a consultation proposing an extension of the DLR to Thamesmead. And not just "we think it would be a good idea to extend the DLR to Thamesmead" because they did that consultation last year. This is the proper full-on version including where the stations should be, the alignment of the tunnel, how often the trains should run, what needs a viaduct, how to avoid underground hazards, where to turn back additional services and how best to support loads of housing. This is where the project gets real, the point at which you can stand in a car park and say "one day there may be a station precisely here". So that's what I've done.
This DLR extension would be an additional 1½ mile spur bearing off near the end of the Beckton branch. The first new stop would be at Beckton Riverside, which is housing developer brandspeak for "the middle of the former Beckton Gasworks". The second and final stop would be in Thamesmead, a huge 1960s estate that still doesn't have a station because every subsequent administration has failed it. Between the two stations would be a 1.3km tunnel, potentially the DLR's third Thames crossing. Trains would run at least every 10 minutes direct to Custom House and Canning Town for onward connections. And it'd improve accessibility sufficiently for 25,000 homes to be built at each location, which is the sole reason anyone's thinking of building it.
If you're thinking "I would have extended the Overground from Barking Riverside, surely that would have been better?" you are very much behind the curve. Last year's consultation pointed out that this would be more expensive, less direct and more infrequent, thus worse in every way, and this is why TfL employs experts rather than opinionated armchair moaners.
This is the Gallions Reach Shopping Park, a car-focused collection of retail sheds opened in 2003. Specifically it's Armada Way, the sole access road that loops through this once godforsaken space. Specifically it's opposite the Tesco garage by the junction where buses turn off to deposit potential shoppers in the middle of a car park. And specifically it's a grassy ridge alongside the main road - part open lawn, part occupied by scrubby trees - close to where severalgasholders used to be. Here workers occasionally sit for a coffee or a smoke amid a mown selection of small yellow flowers, prevented from edging further by a spiky metal fence. Given current weather conditions I might best describe it as a dry hump. And yet if all goes to plan this yellowing stripe will become the location of a ground-level step-free station serving tens of thousands of newbuild homes, not just Next and Sports Direct.
The artist's impression is extraordinary, suggesting a forest of flats across what's long been contaminated post-industrial wasteland. It says a lot for London's desperate need for housing that former gasworks are now firmly on the development agenda, having previously been deemed far too awkward and expensive to remediate. The flats stretch all the way down to a sanitised riverside and also, notably, entirely replace the existing shopping centre. At present the land just south of the station site is securely sealed with notices on the railings warning of "multiple hazards", thus safe only for storing vehicles, but that becomes residential too. The only thing that doesn't get swept away is the 28 acre DLR depot, recently extended, because it would be self-defeating for a transport enhancement project to eat itself.
The consultation reveals that five different potential station locations were considered, two of them mid-car-park so now discounted, one too close to the DLR depot to be economically viable and one too near the river to permit a safe tunnel gradient. The selected 'Option 3' isn't without its downsides, not least that the grassy hump I mentioned earlier in fact covers a high pressure gas pipeline, hence the flurry of red and yellow warning signage along its length. But one day this scant verge could be the heart of a high-density high-vernacular neighbourhood, abuzz with opportunity, and all just eight stops from Canning Town.
This is the Cannon Retail Park, an outer corner of Thamesmead's shopping sprawl. The majority of the space is car park, and well used because the lack of a station means a lot of people round here drive. A row of five warehouse units runs along the far side, only two of which are currently occupied but both still relatively busy. And in the corner closest to the roundabout is a drive-thru KFC, a squat functional block offering 11 herbs and spices and a £1.79 Milkybar Raspberry Ripple Sundae. All of this would disappear in order to make way for the terminus, because never underestimate the ability of a transport planner to identify a patch of land as a potential worksite and then eradicate it entirely.
One end of the station would be in the far corner where Next and Pets At Home used to be. Given nobody's taken down the closure signs since 2021 I doubt anybody would mourn their demolition. By contrast B&M only opened last year and Puregym last month so they'll be less pleased to hear they're destined to become two platforms in zone 4. One of the two station options had the buffers coincide with McDonalds but that idea's been abandoned to cause less disruption and now they'll land bang on top of KFC instead. The plan also involves putting the station on a raised viaduct, partly to increase pedestrian permeability but also because (apparently) it'd make the line easier to extend in the future should a pie-in-the-sky line into Bexley ever get off the ground.
The elevated station also protects the Twin Tumps, a pair of moated bunkers once used to safely store ammunition. Thamesmead is riddled with tumps, some since transformed into compact watery parklets, but these two are out of sight out of mind. The intention is to make them the focus of a new transport nexus with the DLR gliding between the two like some kind of futuristic green utopia, then open up the untouched landfill marshland beyond. A ridiculously large wedge of Thamesmead has gone undeveloped over the last few decades, in part for lack of transport but mainly because it's been safeguarded for the Thames Gateway Bridge. Boris scrapped this in 2008 so TfL are dead keen to remove unnecessary planning protection and drive through a railway and tens of thousands of homes instead, and you can see their point.
Two distant stations could also be affected by the extension, and all because the Beckton/Thamesmead branch would eventually need more trains so both termini could be served at a reasonable frequency. The DLR thus needs a 'turnback' location so that these extra services don't need to run all the way into central London and clog up the existing network. TfL identified eight potential sites for an additional siding or platform, six of which were swiftly proven to be impractical. The two that remain in the running are at Royal Victoria and Canning Town, as pictured here.
Royal Victoria already has a surplus track from the time when Silverlink trains ran this way, and it would be cheap and easy to repurpose this for a third platform allowing reversing trains to terminate here. However from a practical point of view it's very much suboptimal, turfing off passengers one stop before Canning Town, so a Canning Town turnback is likely to be preferred instead. This would squeeze into the neck of a meander on Bow Creek, just past the station, where an unsafe footbridge currently crosses the tracks. Demolishing this would allow a fractional widening with a reversing siding in the centre, although space is tight and the local pedestrian promenade could be adversely affected. Watch this space.
It's only a consultation at this stage, contingent on the government eventually stumping up funding to support their growth agenda. If all goes to plan there could be spades in the ground by the end of the decade with services commencing "in the early 2030s". But we've all been here before so we know it might never happen, indeed London is brimming with potential stations planned in depth which never saw the light of day. The Bakerloo and Metropolitan line extensions once looked likely, ditto Surrey Canal Road and Beam Park, but remain out of reach due to lack of cash. But sometimes it all comes together, like that time in 2012 I stood in a Sainsbury's car park and noted that it could one day become Nine Elms station. Perhaps a humpy grass verge and a KFC drive-thru will one day become the outer reaches of the DLR, in which case best read the fine detail in the consultation so you won't appear ignorant when it finally arrives.
