Thamesmead and Docklands Light Railway extension: TfL misguidedly plough on (with no money)

Transport for London recently revealed consultation results on a potential Docklands Light Railway extension to Beckton Riverside and Thamesmead.

The consultation was led – as they often are – to get the result TfL wanted, and would you believe it, people said better transport for Thamesmead was a good idea.

Yet of course TfL had written off most alternatives already without much in the way of any detailed analysis on show, so if you want better transport it’s the DLR or bust in terms of what they were offering.

London Overground extension

In terms of the London Overground this made sense though it offered benefits absent in the the DLR proposal.

London Overground linking to Abbey Wood station would potentially provide a radial link between various modes of transport either side of the Thames would be on offer, though limited to four trains per hour. Also I say potentially as TfL didn’t really ever seem to have any intention of doing it.

It also would be east of the planned development zone. So we can see why that’s out.

Responses to the consultation ranged from nonsensical statements to well-considered responses, though TfL simply stated we’re going for the DLR so sod off.

Greenwich Council too have put up a story about the consultation, which predictably was illustrated with an image of a part of Thamesmead that will gain little benefit from a DLR extension. Rather fitting.

Why? Well this is central Thamesmead and around final part of the Greater London Council’s post-war dream for the new town which started with grand plans and fizzled out into south Thamesmead being completed plus some sections around Central Thamesmead. A bit heads close to the Thames but never made it.

Thamesmead history

Thamesmead itself is a fascinating place. I’ve lived nearby, worked there, had friends during school and since live in various parts and seen most corners of the place. I won’t, but I could reel off hundreds of visits from the old golf course in the east to the old Royal Arsenal site in the west which is now becoming new homes.

It was built on what was formerly known as Erith marshes which was MOD land as part of the Royal Arsenal. Half of Abbey Wood was too, and they wisely built homes there near the existing railway station. It’s a quick 5-10 minutes walk from much of it.

South Thamesmead is mostly pretty close to Abbey Wood station and not the remote land of myth. People not too familiar with the area (which seems to be most in the media and politicians) seem to lump the whole town together.

Abbey Wood station was not only easily accessible but for decades one of the main stations on the line where every service stopped. Until the 2010s the semi-fast trains called until Thameslink and the Elizabeth line arrived, and for decades frequent trains would reach zone one central London in as little as 20 minutes.

When some say *all* of Thamesmead is or was extremely remote you know they havn’t a clue. A walkable station nearby that reached zone one in 20 minutes? That was not the back of beyond.

Sprawling and varied

Yet each area is quite different. South Thamesmead wasn’t remote and is the area where stereotypes were mostly born with concrete the predominant building material with tower blocks, lakes and all the other stereotypes from A Clockwork Orange, Misfits and music videos.

Central Thamesmead is a fair bit more remote as it’s severed via the Southern Outfall raised sewer and a spine road. It’s only a five minute bus ride however to Abbey Wood station. It followed on from stage one but designs were greatly simplified and 12-floor blocks became mid-rise barrier blocks surrounding lower density housing.

After the death of the Greater London Council came Thamesmead Town Limited. Development continued in the east (in Bexley borough) west and north (mostly in Greenwich borough). This is predominantly low rise cul-de-sacs that could be anywhere. The town centre was built in the north and tradionalism was by now in fashion.

It started well enough until retail parks killed much of it and the area became home to extensive car parks.

It’s the north where the DLR is planned to head on a short stump across the Thames  – and no further. Not to Abbey Wood station for plentiful transport links nor any other areas that could be densified. It wouldn’t head to central Thamesmead nor onto Belvedere or Erith where 10k+ homes are proposed. The first couple of thousands are already approved or submitted for planning there.

As a sop, TfL state it may do one day but I’d wager the chances of that are extremely slim. For one, the need for grade separation on the DLR makes it intrusive if above ground along viaducts. And a tunnel seems improbable. Both options aren’t cheap.

For the vast majority of existing Thamesmead residents (let alone in nearby towns) it’ll offer little. It’s certainly little quicker than what already exists – let alone what could be provided.

Why use it?

The image Greenwich Council used about the extension is Arnott Close shops where the Moorings club resides sums it up. It’s not close to the one solitary DLR station on any extension. In fact, Abbey Wood station is as easily accessible to reach with buses taking five minutes and many of them.

Very few people from the area pictured would use the DLR to reach many destinations across London and beyond if it requires a northbound bus then the slow DLR when a five minute southbound bus then the Elizabeth line or Southeastern offers so many more journey opportunities.

And that’s the whole problem with the DLR plan; given it’s one single station in the far north of Thamesmead that helps few people in the rest of the sprawling town. It won’t even particularly help many in planned new housing.

Costs

Construction costs were put at £1.7 billion last year and it could well be £2.5bn by a hopeful late 2020s start date. While that includes the extension to Beckton Riverside, a tunnel over a wide part of the Thames won’t be cheap. Given so little of Thamesmead benefits, is that worth it?

If funds were plentiful perhaps, but they aren’t. This government shows little sign of changing tack from the last on infrastructure spend – though the dreaded ghost of PFI has been raised again. That funded the Lewisham extension which at least connected to two national rail stations though many problems were blamed on PFI, with TfL recently blaming it for years of broken escalators at Cutty Sark station when it finally expired after 25 years.

In Thamesmead, the remote nature of the area even with the DLR won’t exactly see huge income from new development. This isn’t Zone 1 or 2 near a proposed Bakerloo line extension close to central London.

Even if we assume money is found, it what is being pushed the option that will benefit the most people be it existing or new residents and growth areas?

New builds

If the vast majority of Thamesmead’s existing residents won’t benefit from a short DLR stump to the north of the town, at least it will permit thousands of new homes?

Indeed, but even here it’s hard to see why a large amount of people would use it.

TfL are trying to remove safeguards against a long proposed new road bridge. If that happens to permit new housing in the west of the town, new homes like parts of east and central Thamesmead would be as close to the Elizabeth line in Woolwich as the future DLR. So who chooses the DLR? It offers so much less than Woolwich for transport options. Like Abbey Wood for those in the east, centre and south of Thamesmead, west Thamesmead’s new homes have the Elizabeth line, Thameslink and Southeastern.

So much about this plan seems to about bumbling into an option few seem to really want as “something must be done”. And that ramped up after Silvertown tunnel was approved. The process seemed to be we’ve agreed a whopping new road and the optics look bad. Quick, cobble together a public transport link down river to keep people from complaining too much. Thamesmead you say? Ah yes, I’ve watched a few Kubrick films and vaguely remember it. They have no river crossing. Let’s go with this half-arsed DLR plan to shut them up.

It’s outdated in the extreme. Thamesmead did formerly have a very poor bus network. Now it has excellent bus services linking all areas quickly to the Elizabeth line and Woolwich DLR. It’s changed the game but could of course still be improved. The priority now should be to link both existing residents – and forthcoming residents – to existing recently improved rail. And trams would do that wonderfully.

Not a DLR trundle that serves almost nowhere of use north of the Thames and few south of the Thames. Why have a Thames crossing if it serves nowhere of use north of the Thames?

Previous plan

Transport for London actually had a better idea back in the 2000s when they proposed a tram network which was watered down to a trolley bus, then normal bus before being scrapped in 2009.

If there’s money available for major capital investment, a high capacity tram network linking all areas of Thamesmead to Abbey Wood and Woolwich offers a lot more bang for the buck.

Unlike the DLR, it can offer links towards designated growth areas beyond to assist with the housing crises. Whether thousands of homes in Belvedere and Erith to the east or Woolwich, Charlton and Greenwich peninsula to the west much as TfL themselves proposed, many thousands of new homes would be linked quickly via high capacity trams to heavy rail. Heavy rail that also has capacity for expansion.

Southeastern Metro can go to 12-car with new stock with investment. Network Rail did after all spend millions on electrical upgrades in the 2010s and extended all platforms where possible to 12-car finishing the job done in the 1990s. New trains would have Selective Door opening to call at stations such as Woolwich Dockyard (another station near many new homes both rising and proposed).

Thameslink are running 8-car trains. The line can take 12 and with tens of thousands of homes planned, that’s an option for the future.

The Elizabeth line is getting new trains to boost capacity in the west due to HS2, which has the welcome result of extra capacity on the Abbey Wood branch.

Capacity

The one remaining trump card some say about the DLR option is capacity. But even there does it really offer the best returns? The eastern branch to Thamesmead would also still serve Beckton – where there’s scope for new homes – alongside the planned new spur to Beckton Riverside and Thamesmead. That could limit trains per hour in decades to come as the eastern end serves two terminus.

But it’s certainly true that a DLR train is longer than a tram. New DLR trains will have greater capacity than existing trains.

But here’s the thing: some trams now in operation across Europe are getting towards the length of the max DLR stock and running at extremely headways. Paris has opened numerous lines and extensions recently and some are operating every four minutes.

A high capacity, high frequency tram network across Thamesmead and beyond could link to existing heavy rail stations and offer far more than the DLR stump. Not needing a viaduct or tunnel as the DLR would from Thamesmead to other areas such as Belvedere and Erith could also lower costs.

And the final thing in tram’s favour – which TfL themselves realised in the 2000s – is that the entirety of Thamesmead’s road network was designed around a road crossing that never came – so wider streets and dual carriageways exist across almost the entire town.

The high capacity road network across Thamesmead and beyond could possibly accommodate long trams without fouling junctions.

Let’s also not forget areas like Charlton Riverside with a projected 8k new homes also include a new dedicated public transport corridor through the site. That avoids some potentially tricky, congested areas.

Change course?

Whether the DLR is ever extended to Thamesmead remains an unknown as there’s no funding for it anyway. But if funding for major transport improvements does appear for London, is it really the best way to spend funds when benefits are so limited?

A project that’ll help very few existing residents, some but not all forthcoming residents and completely avoid links to major transport nodes south of the Thames in nearby Abbey Wood and north at Barking seems to hamper its potential.

The final nail in the coffin really is that any chance to extend to serve the many housing and opportunity areas in the London Plan and local council growth strategies is limited or non-existent.

Perhaps no funding in the present will be a blessing. Take a step back, look at how to create a mass-capacity, high frequency service that benefits many growth areas and can feed into excellent existing links – which have greatly improved in recent years – while also working to boost those services.

Imagine it, trams gliding from north Thamesmead every 3-4 minutes to Abbey Wood and Woolwich reaching those stations in five minutes for seamless transfers onto the Elizabeth line, Thameslink, Southeastern and DLR. Those same trams also heading to Belvedere and Erith’s 10k+ homes doing similar for residents there, as well as through Charlton’s 8k new homes heading to the Jubilee line in the west through Greenwich peninsula.

Now that would be transformative. TfL knew that was the future in the 2000s. This cobbled together DLR plan isn’t. Time to look again.

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