On 29 Jan, 14:01, "Andrew Heenan" wrote:

"Paul Scott" wrote ...

If only they had extended the Jubilee Line or even the Poplar -
Stratford
DLR to International. Too late now though, so it's yet more changing en
route.

I was actually amazed that they didn't ever even propose to extend the
poplar line through to International; but it makes sense - as well as
costing money, it would have encouraged those Docklands folk to go there!


Ha!

To be fair, extending the Poplar/ Bow Church line to Stratford Int'l would
have required some very expensive construction - for a start, it's along a
totally wrong alignment coming into Stratford Regional station. Pondering on
potential plans that would've resulted in the line serving both Stratford
Regional and International stations leads one to some fairly outlandish
plans. I suppose the get-out answer is to say that the Poplar line could
have descended into a tunnel after Pudding Mill Lane, served Stratford
Regional station from new underground platforms, then proceeded to Stratford
International. Rather easier said than done, me thinks!

The other factor is that the 'Stratford International Extension' meshed
almost perfectly with the plan to take over the alignment of the North
London Line between Canning Town and Stratford. But I don't think it's a
simple case of the DLR planners simply tagging on Stratford Int'l to their
plans so as to make it more attractive - the DLR is, after all, a local
railway, it's raison d'etre is not in providing immaculate connections
between a prospective international terminal and a business district. I'm
sure it would have done so were that the masterplan handed down and paid for
from above, but the DLR isn't in the business of lobbying for such things.

The other thing to bear in mind is that whilst Stratford Int'l is currently
in the midst of a building site, eventually those buildings will, er, become
built! The new DLR station will be well placed to serve the new Stratford
City and Olympic Park developments - it's not just about connecting in with
high-speed services (domestic and possibly international) from Stratford
Int'l station. And of course it'll improve local transport facilities no end
for people between Canning Town and Stratford.