Boris Johnson has officially opened a £180m extension of the Docklands Light Railway which links the King George V station to a new station at Woolwich Arsenal on the south of the river.
Major Johnson said the extension was “exactly the sort of project that will help kick the credit crunch where it hurts.”
Transport for London says the new extension will bring a number of benefits, including allowing passengers to travel from Woolwich to London City Airport in six minutes and will assist with the regeneration of Woolwich “by supporting the creation of new jobs, homes, shops and leisure facilities along the route”.
Transport Commissioner Peter Hendy described the new station and extended route as “another much needed north-south transport link for this under served area of London.”
Val Shawcross, Labour’s transport spokesperson on the London Assembly, said her group were “delighted” to see the project open and described the earlier than planned completion of the project as a “testament to the work of the previous administration and Transport for London.”
Referring to Johnson’s decision to scrap development work on a number of transport projects, Shawcross commented: “If Boris is delighted about the opening of the Woolwich extension, maybe he can try to imagine the bitter disappointment he caused by axing the DLR extension to Dagenham and consider reversing this terrible decision.”
Responding to Labour’s comments a spokesperson for Mr Johnson said: “The Mayor’s plans to improve transport in the capital are focused on projects that already have all the necessary funding for completion. The Government has not confirmed whether it will provide the funding to build the Dagenham Dock extension and until it clarifies whether it intends to do so all work on the scheme has been put on hold. If the government remains committed to delivering homes in this area it must provide the funding that would be required to deliver supporting transport schemes.”
