The Anonymous Widower

City of Lost Tourists

I’ve said before that tourists seem to get lost in London.

Today it was a Dutch couple, I encountered at Shadwell in the mezzanine level above the Overground, who were trying to get to the British Museum. I was pretty sure, they’d seen the tube map and thought they could get to Bank on the DLR to get a train nearer their destination. So I led them through the gates to the nearby DLR station and up in the lift to the platforms for Bank. Some of these interchanges to and from the DLR are tricky, to say the least. But that is more to the nature of the DLR, which has grown like the proverbial Topsy.

My nominations for bad interchanges to and from the DLR include.

• Canary Wharf, where the DLR and the Jubilee line are two separate stations.
• Canning Town, where there are two DLR lines and the Jubilee line on various levels.
• Poplar, which is a major DLR interchange and a good place to get lost.
• Shadwell, where the DLR and the Overground are two separate stations.
• West Ham, where the DLR and the Underground meet haphazardly, nowhere near West Ham United Football Club.

Note that three involve my least-favourite Underground line; the Jubilee line.

I suppose one of the DLR’s problems is that most of the stations are unmanned and most of the maps only show the DLR and its interfaces.  So the system assumes a certain amount of knowledge amongst the passengers. On the other hand, every train has an excellent Train Captain, who can usually give you the information you require.

Perhaps what is needed is a Route Finder at each station, similar to those on the bus spider maps. It would give a list of major attractions and the route to take.

May 3, 2012 - Posted by AnonW | Transport/Travel | Docklands Light Railway, Jubilee Line, London, Map