Strange place, Dagenham Dock. One of London's few genuine industrial wastelands, tucked away on the Thames marshes where it can offend the fewest possible number of people, and home to Ford's giant Dagenham works. Tens of thousands once worked here, churning Capris, Cortinas and Fiestas off the assembly line, until 2002 when car productionwas halted. Now there's a "stamping" plant, and a rump of workers making diesel engines, but the golden days are long gone.
I concentrated my attentions on the area around Dagenham Dock station (originally named after the dockyards a mile down towards the Thames). For years there was nothing here apart from Ford and an insignificant station, but things have changed dramatically over the past decade or so.
The first invasive structure here was the A13. Upgraded in the late 90s, Dagenham marks the point where this trunk road veers off from the old turnpike and glides across the Thames-side marshland on concrete stilts. The viaduct crosses the railway line immediately above Dagenham Dock station, affording the only decent view of the area to lorry drivers speeding on their way to Tilbury and beyond.
Next to arrive were the wind turbines. You've probably seen them in the distance while crossing East London, but here you're right up close to one, a full 120 metres from top to tail. A meteorologist would argue that the UK boasts few places less windy than Dagenham, but this site generates a significant proportion of the energy used by what's left of the Ford engine plant.
Then came High Speed One. Extra-fast tracks were constructed immediately alongside the local c2c railway, and a previous level crossing had to be replaced by a vehicle-proof footbridge. Services to Brussels and Paris now speed through this none-too-photogenic industrial corridor, twelve minutes out from St Pancras (probably best not to look out of the window). International travellers never stop at Dagenham Dock, of course, and locals have to make do with a miserable two trains an hour to Grays (and one an hour on Sundays). [photo]
The latest addition to Dagenham Dock is the bus station. I say bus station, although that probably conjures up in your mind something far grander than actually exists. You're thinking interchange hub, and umpteen bus stops and maybe even a coffee bar for good measure. Not a chance. Only one bus serves this particular bus station, the EL2, and that departs no more than five times an hour [photo]. One bus route also means only one bus stop - a single lonely shelter at the far end of a specially-constructed busway - nothing more complicated is required [photo]. As for coffee, forget it. There is a special circular hideaway where drivers go to refresh and relieve themselves, but lesser mortals won't find refreshment anywhere near.
And that's it. A dead-end bus station beneath an inaccessible viaduct, allowing almost nobody to travel anywhere they'd really want to go. A four-lane transport hub lying dormant beside a poorly used station. A considerable amount of investment to construct far too much infrastructure for not enough demand. And why? Because of a project that Boris's 2008 TfL budget cull scuppered. A new spur of the Docklands Light Railway was due to be extended out this way, branching off from the Beckton line and reaching out into the Thames Gateway. Had it been built, this light rail link could have brought accessibility and potential prosperity to the Barking Riverside development. But no, those DLR plans are in deep freeze until the money can be found to fund them, which may be never.
For now, Dagenham Dock's new bus station lies almost empty, awaiting the traffic which might one day justify its existence. A few car workers - those who don't drive - will use it at the start and finish of their shifts. A few Goresbrook residents - those with friends on the Thames View Estate - will walk down from Dagenham proper over the footbridge for an EL2. But other users will surely be few and far between for several years yet. The East London Transit promised so much, but a pretty red bus can't build a community unaided.
One of the few TfL transport projects to escape Boris's 2008 budget cull was the East London Transit. Yes, the East London Transit, a project which launched last month to so little fanfare that most Londoners probably aren't even aware that it exists. This lack of publicity is probably down to three important factors. Firstly the ELT is merely a posh name for a new bus route. Secondly the ELT only serves the boroughs of Redbridge and Barking & Dagenham, where few of the capital's movers and shakers deign to live. And thirdly the ELT runs to a destination so spectacularly unwelcoming that you'll almost certainly never feel the need to use it. To Dagenham Dock. How could I resist?
Rather than ride the entire length of the East London Transit, I skipped the busier Ilford end and kicked off my journey in Barking. I wanted to start by tracking down "The Catch" - the fishing net sculpture deemed so important that it stars on B&D's very own Olympic pin badge. It even has its own website, because Barking and Dagenham take their public realm art projects extremely seriously. I eventually found The Catch in the middle of a roundabout, two curved aluminium nets glistening with metal mackerel in memory of the town's Victorian fishing industry. Almost kinetic, and pleasingly intricate, although inaccessible on foot and unlikely ever to become a major tourist draw. [photo]
My bus departed from a stop just up the road outside Barking station. There are two East London Transit routes, unimaginatively numbered EL1 and EL2. Both run along exactly the same route, except that the EL2 runs a handful of stops further at the Dagenham end. Obviously I waited for an EL2, then took my place on the top deck alongside estate residents returning home after shopping. They're absolutely nothing special these buses, just brand spanking new (at the moment) and painted with a rather swish swirly orange-y red design. But they are allowed through the town centre, via a route which the 369 (which they replace) was never permitted to travel. And they do have rather posh bus shelters, sleekly designed in red and white, and with more than your average protection from wind and rain.
It didn't take long for shops and lemonade highrises to give way to parks and houses. Soon we were queueing at the mighty A13, waiting to cross into the netherworld on the lonely road to Creekmouth. One day there'll be an "EL3" heading straight on towards the Thames, serving yet-to-close factories and yet-to-be-built estates. Instead my EL2 turned off into Bastable Avenue, spine road for the Thames View Estate - a mile-long isolated community populated with baselineaccommodation. Some have lived here for 50 years and have Union Jacks fluttering in the garden, others have been living here only since their last country kicked them out. Minimal community facilities keep things ticking over, but there's no Thames view here, only a skyline of pylons and post-industrial brownfield.
After a spurious "dedicated busway" across an elongated roundabout, we drew up at a lone bus stop beside a building site. Several highrises have been demolished here, in whose place B&D council is now promising "local houses for local people" in a desperate attempt to keep long-standing residents on-side. This remote outpost is the point where the EL1 gives up, but the EL2 braves four more stops across some of the most desolate landscape in London [photo]. We passed one last chunk of more modern housing before following a long road across hundreds of acres of marshy bleakness. One day, when Britain has more money than sense, people may actually live here. In March 2010, however, the only inhabitants were a herd of windswept horses perched on a fenced-off embankment, and sooner them than me [photo]. An increasing number of pylons drew the bus closer and closer to Barking Power Station, approaching through an auto-related industrial estate, before finally drawing up at our destination. Of which more tomorrow.
Strange place, Dagenham Dock. One of London's few genuine industrial wastelands, tucked away on the Thames marshes where it can offend the fewest possible number of people, and home to Ford's giant Dagenham works. Tens of thousands once worked here, churning Capris, Cortinas and Fiestas off the assembly line, until 2002 when car production was halted. Now there's a "stamping" plant, and a rump of workers making diesel engines, but the golden days are long gone.
The latest addition to Dagenham Dock is the bus station. I say bus station, although that probably conjures up in your mind something far grander than actually exists. You're thinking interchange hub, and umpteen bus stops and maybe even a coffee bar for good measure. Not a chance. Only one bus serves this particular bus station, the EL2, and that departs no more than five times an hour [photo]. One bus route also means only one bus stop - a single lonely shelter at the far end of a specially-constructed busway - nothing more complicated is required [photo]. As for coffee, forget it. There is a special circular hideaway where drivers go to refresh and relieve themselves, but lesser mortals won't find refreshment anywhere near.
My bus departed from a stop just up the road outside Barking station. There are two East London Transit routes, unimaginatively numbered EL1 and EL2. Both run along exactly the same route, except that the EL2 runs a handful of stops further at the Dagenham end. Obviously I waited for an EL2, then took my place on the top deck alongside estate residents returning home after shopping. They're absolutely nothing special these buses, just brand spanking new (at the moment) and painted with a rather swish swirly orange-y red design. But they are allowed through the town centre, via a route which the 369 (which they replace) was never permitted to travel. And they do have rather posh bus shelters, sleekly designed in red and white, and with more than your average protection from wind and rain.
