News [as delivered by Paul C from the TfL minutes and reports} that

- Initial patronage levels on DLR Woolwich extension are encouraging.

and

- target date for Tower Gateway DLR reopening is 15 Feb 2009!

.... is good news indeed for us here in Woolwich and environs.

Fingers crossed for Tower Gateway - in the best DLR tradition of
projects completed ahead of schedule.

Lots of City workers who currently go via Southeastern - London Bridge
and then bus will be tempted to make the switch, not least because they
will have a good chance of a seat.

All it needs now is for the Costa Coffee outlet at Arsenal DLR to open.

Oh - and of course for the work at Bank to be finished. Is that still
the "Summer 09" shown in the LUL info sheet? Or does anyone here have a
more definite date?

--
Writer / editor on London's River

On 12 Feb, 04:13, Bearded wrote:

News [as delivered by Paul C from the TfL minutes and reports} that

- Initial patronage levels on DLR Woolwich extension are encouraging.

and

- target date for Tower Gateway DLR reopening is 15 Feb 2009!

... is good news indeed for us here in Woolwich and environs.

Fingers crossed for *Tower Gateway - in the best DLR tradition of
projects completed ahead of schedule.

Lots of City workers who currently go via Southeastern - London Bridge
and then bus will be tempted to make the switch, not least because they
will have a good chance of a seat.

Of course it ultimately depends on where in the City they're heading
to (really obvious point!).

The journey time by Southeastern from Woolwich Arsenal to London
Bridge is between 21-24 minutes, with a frequency of better than every
10 mins in the peak (pretty good off-peak too). By DLR from Woolwich
Arsenal to Bank it's a 31 minute journey (direct service), so maybe a
minute or two less to Tower Gateway (though not sure if it'll get a
direct service from WA though?), with a frequency of every 10 minutes
throughout the day.

Cost wise going by Southeastern is cheaper - a weekly rail-only season
from WA to London Terminals is £96.00, whilst a month's travel on DLR
using Oyster PAYG is £112.00 - that's two peak z1-4 fares of £2.80
(£5.60) x 20 days (cheaper than a monthly z1-4 Travelcard at £141.40)
- though people travelling outside the PAYG peak times of 0630-0930
and 1600-1900 will pay the lower £2.20 fare.

Those starting from stations other than Woolwich Arsenal (e.g. Abbey
Wood) will obviously be limited to going to London Bridge if they only
hold a cheaper rail-only season ticket, unless they're willing to
splash out on a Travelcard.

The prices of rail-only season tickets will rise a bit last year -
since 2007 there's been a programme to gradually equalise the cost of
all rail-only season tickets in London and price them on a zonal
basis, and 2010 is when this will be completed. How much of a
difference this makes remains to be seen.

Arriving at London Bridge doesn't mean one has to take a bus into the
City of course - it's a 15 minute walk or so from London Bridge to the
Tower and it's quite a pleasant stroll along the river front on either
bank.

Indeed if people are prepared to walk they can save a bit of money by
alighting their DLR train at Shadwell in zone 2 and walking along
Cable Street into the City - it's around a 12 minute walk to the
Tower. A months commute would cost £80.00 - that's two peak z2-4 fares
of £2.00 (£4) x 20 days - whilst paying out £82.20 gets one the added
flexibility of a z2-4 monthly Travelcard.


All it needs now is for the Costa Coffee outlet at Arsenal DLR to open.

Oh - and of course for the work at Bank to be finished. Is that still
the "Summer 09" shown in the LUL info sheet? Or does anyone here have a
more definite date?

On 2009-02-12 11:46:54 +0000, Mizter T said:


SNIPPED my original


Of course it ultimately depends on where in the City they're heading
to (really obvious point!).

The journey time by Southeastern from Woolwich Arsenal to London
Bridge is between 21-24 minutes, with a frequency of better than every
10 mins in the peak (pretty good off-peak too). By DLR from Woolwich
Arsenal to Bank it's a 31 minute journey (direct service), so maybe a
minute or two less to Tower Gateway (though not sure if it'll get a
direct service from WA though?), with a frequency of every 10 minutes
throughout the day.

Cost wise going by Southeastern is cheaper - a weekly rail-only season
from WA to London Terminals is £96.00, whilst a month's travel on DLR
using Oyster PAYG is £112.00 - that's two peak z1-4 fares of £2.80
(£5.60) x 20 days (cheaper than a monthly z1-4 Travelcard at £141.40)
- though people travelling outside the PAYG peak times of 0630-0930
and 1600-1900 will pay the lower £2.20 fare.

Those starting from stations other than Woolwich Arsenal (e.g. Abbey
Wood) will obviously be limited to going to London Bridge if they only
hold a cheaper rail-only season ticket, unless they're willing to
splash out on a Travelcard.

The prices of rail-only season tickets will rise a bit last year -
since 2007 there's been a programme to gradually equalise the cost of
all rail-only season tickets in London and price them on a zonal
basis, and 2010 is when this will be completed. How much of a
difference this makes remains to be seen.

Arriving at London Bridge doesn't mean one has to take a bus into the
City of course - it's a 15 minute walk or so from London Bridge to the
Tower and it's quite a pleasant stroll along the river front on either
bank.

Absolutely - in the spring / summer and autumn. Always lots to see in
the Pool - a constantly changing window on history. In the days when
walking was a pleasure for me rather than a pain the walk over Tower
Bridge en route to work was a great start to the day.

But I don't think "pleasant stroll" is how my wife described it
recently when buses from Bishopsgate to London Bridge were unwell. I
think "wet and windy, grizzly drizzly" were the words she used.


Indeed if people are prepared to walk they can save a bit of money by
alighting their DLR train at Shadwell in zone 2 and walking along
Cable Street into the City - it's around a 12 minute walk to the
Tower. A months commute would cost £80.00 - that's two peak z2-4 fares
of £2.00 (£4) x 20 days - whilst paying out £82.20 gets one the added
flexibility of a z2-4 monthly Travelcard.

Or of course the 100 bus from round the corner or walk up through
Watney Market for the 15.

The key for contented commuting is to have two or three alternatives,
so that when your "favourite" route is poorly - don't mention the
S-word - there's another way in or out.

--
Writer / editor on London's River

On Feb 12, 4:13*am, Bearded wrote:
News [as delivered by Paul C from the TfL minutes and reports} that

- target date for Tower Gateway DLR reopening is 15 Feb 2009!

I've been pushing TfL to confirm this, but they're claiming its a
March opening.

On 13 Feb, 11:21, wrote:

On Feb 12, 4:13*am, Bearded wrote:

News [as delivered by Paul C from the TfL minutes and reports} that
- target date for Tower Gateway DLR reopening is 15 Feb 2009!

I've been pushing TfL to confirm this, but they're claiming its a
March opening.

DLR always do their openings in a low key way. If there's some kind of
problem - which is always possible - then they can fall back to
opening it later on. Publicly stating it will be open early is I think
regarded as something of a hostage to fortune - doing it this way
gives them some space for manoeuvre.

On 13 Feb, 11:31, Mizter T wrote:
DLR always do their openings in a low key way. If there's some kind of
problem - which is always possible - then they can fall back to
opening it later on. Publicly stating it will be open early is I think
regarded as something of a hostage to fortune - doing it this way
gives them some space for manoeuvre.

There are closures west of Poplar for the next two weekends (21/22 and
28 Mar/1 Feb), which is consistent with test running etc. So I'd take
a guess at 2 March.

U

On Feb 13, 11:36*am, Mr Thant
wrote:
On 13 Feb, 11:31, Mizter T wrote:

There are closures west of Poplar for the next two weekends (21/22 and
28 Mar/1 Feb), which is consistent with test running etc. So I'd take
a guess at 2 March.

U

I think you're probably onto something there.

Damnit! Betfair never take bets on the things I'd like them to...

"Bearded" wrote in message
...
News [as delivered by Paul C from the TfL minutes and reports} that

- Initial patronage levels on DLR Woolwich extension are encouraging.

and

- target date for Tower Gateway DLR reopening is 15 Feb 2009!

... is good news indeed for us here in Woolwich and environs.

Fingers crossed for Tower Gateway - in the best DLR tradition of
projects completed ahead of schedule.

Judging by the live departure boards Tower Gateway has not reopened
today.

Peter Smyth

On Feb 15, 12:14*pm, "Peter Smyth" wrote:
"Bearded" wrote in message

...

News [as delivered by Paul C from the TfL minutes and reports} that

- Initial patronage levels on DLR Woolwich extension are encouraging.

and

- target date for Tower Gateway DLR reopening is 15 Feb 2009!

... is good news indeed for us here in Woolwich and environs.

Fingers crossed for *Tower Gateway - in the best DLR tradition of
projects completed ahead of schedule.

Judging by the live departure boards Tower Gateway has not reopened
today.

Although presumably the computer problem resulting in randomly
changing information on the platforms also affects the Web version?

On 15 Feb, 16:25, MIG wrote:

On Feb 15, 12:14 pm, "Peter Smyth" wrote:

(snip)

Judging by the live departure boards Tower Gateway has not reopened
today.

Although presumably the computer problem resulting in randomly
changing information on the platforms also affects the Web version?

Ha! Dunno, but I'd presume so.

By the by, here's some links to the DLR live departure board (aka DLR Daisy)
for Tower Gateway:

*
http://dlr-scripts.appius.com/dlr/sc...r.asp?code=tog
* http://dlr-scripts.appius.com/lib/re....asp?daisy=tog

* http://www.dlrdaisy.co.uk/daisy/tog/tog07pid.htm
* http://www.dlrdaisy.co.uk/daisy/tog/tog15pid.htm

I say some links because there's several! The first link just redirects to
the second link, so the first can perhaps be forgotten about. The second
then redirects to either the third or the fourth (it's redirecting to the
latter, the 'tog15pid' one, at the moment).

Playing around with the live departure board for Shadwell, if one changes
the the numbers that prefix the 'pid' bit in the URL string it appears to
bring up out of date information - so perhaps best to use one of the
redirect URLs if you want up to date and accurate info (FSVO up to date and
accurate, the way the displays are behaving on the DLR at the mo!). Here's
the two different types of redirect URLs for the Shadwell live departure
board:

*
http://dlr-scripts.appius.com/dlr/sc...r.asp?code=sha
* http://dlr-scripts.appius.com/lib/re....asp?daisy=sha