Yesterday marked the completion of the tunnel extending the Docklands Light Railway (DLR) under the River Thames to Woolwich Arsenal.
The £180 million, 2.5km extension will link Woolwich south of the river with Docklands Light Railway station, King George V, in North Woolwich, one stop away from London City Airport.
The extension, which has been described as being “important in improving the whole transport network in the run up to the 2012 Games”, will provide a direct link from Woolwich to central London (Bank station) in under half an hour, London City Airport in five minutes, Canary Wharf in 19 minutes and Stratford in 20 minutes. In peak periods, trains could run every four minutes.
Ken Livingstone, Mayor of London, said: “this is another example of Transport for London delivering major transport projects on time and within budget. The Docklands Light Railway is a fantastic success story for London with steadily rising passenger numbers and more and more areas being linked to improve access to new jobs and housing, helping to transform areas of East London.”
Mr Livingstone promised the extension “will boost the local economy and completes another piece of the transport improvements the 2012 Games are already bringing to London.”
The extension will open in 2009. The link to it is being designed and constructed for TfL by AMEC (for Woolwich Arsenal Rail Enterprises (WARE), a joint venture between AMEC and the Royal Bank of Scotland.
