Spot on, sir!

DLR continues the time-honoured tradition of opening well-ahead of
contractual dates.

Expectation locally is that some Wharfies will choose Southeastern
-WA-Poplar, particularly those working on the North side of the Wharf,
in or near Barclays, Bank of America and HSBC, all of which are as near
to Poplar as to either Jubble or DLR stations at CW.

Also some Waitrose staff I know are really looking forward to this as a
way to avoid getting cold and wet waiting for the Ferry.

Other target customers are of course LCY users. One regular "flymuter"
[his word, NOT mine] has already translated the new DLR extension as "a
second cup of coffee before leaving home" on his regular trips to CDG.

Personally, this is a way to avoid the dreaded 422/472 crawl from
Woolwich to N Greenwich [en route to Bermondsey] - at least until [if?]
we get the Transit, which despite the ill-informed comments from Andrew
Gilligan will deliver very real benefits to people living in Woolwich,
Plumstead and West Thamesmead / Gallions.

Remind me, which Mayoral candidate said in last year's election
campaign that he wanted to improve public transport in suburban London?

I'll report back on the actuals tomorrow.

Ken

== SNIPPED & SNIPPED AGAIN

On 2009-01-08 18:05:08 +0000, Mizter T said:


The DLR extension from King George V under the Thames to Woolwich
Arsenal is set to open this Saturday, the 10th of January, well over a
month before the contracted date of 28 February [1]. Public service
would appear to commence at the normal start of play in the early
morning on Saturday.



The other option of course is to avoid the Jubilee line altogether and
go all the way from Woolwich Arsenal to Canary Wharf on the DLR, changing
once en-route at Canning Town or Poplar - I've just asked the Journey
Planner for times for a DLR-only journey and it gives 30 minutes,
*but* quite unexpectedly it sends you via Westferry and a change onto
a CW bound train there! Someone wanting to do that journey would
actually be *far far* better off getting off at Poplar and walking to
CW - the Wharf is literally round the corner from Poplar station, one
simply needs to walk over the footbridge over Aspen Way, then a *very*
short distance down the main road to the junction with Upper Bank
Street, then simply cross the bridge over the Dock and voila you're
there.

And that's the one actually - a Woolwich Arsenal to Poplar journey
takes just *20 minutes* according to JP, so CW-bound commuters coming
off the North Kent line who want a better journey should choose this
route, no doubt about it. The very short walk will do them good too!

Of course Canary Wharf isn't the Docklands, and Woolwich Arsenal was
certainly not built simply to make life easier for North Kent line to
CW commuters, it's about much much more than that. But if anyone now
comes along and says that it's pointless and offers no benefit for the
Wharf commuter contingent, you can tell them where to get off -
Woolwich Arsenal and then Poplar, to be precise!


--
Writer / editor on London's River