On 22 Jan, 00:37, Tom Anderson wrote:
On Mon, 21 Jan 2008, Jamie Thompson wrote:
I was looking at the South London options for developing the network
the other day, and it seems to me that the Hayes branch is pretty much
the only option for the DLR, so it should probably go to that, with
the Bakerloo going elsewhere,

A better option for the DLR is not to go any further at all. The DLR is an
excellent short-distance transport system, but it's too slow and
low-capacity to be a sensible thing to send great distances. It's a bus on
steroids (or a tram on a pie and mash diet), not a substitute for a real
railway.

I have to broadly agree with you on that one - taking the DLR all the
way to Hayes seems improbable. Also, bear in mind that the DLR model
involves there being many more stations, which would increase journey
time quite significantly - that's unlikely to please many Hayes line
users. Plus, even if it were more frequent, could even a three car DLR
train provide equivalent capacity to the existing service.

The only argument for a Hayes conversion to DLR that makes any sense
is that a great many of the passengers are commuting to the Docklands,
and are currently changing at Lewisham. Even then I still think that
converting the Hayes branch to DLR is a pretty unworkable idea. Maybe
I'm just not imaginative enough.