Crossrail As A Tourist Attraction
Today, I took the Docklands Light Railway to Custom House station to see progress and then came back to see the works at Canary Wharf station.
In one of the pictures of Custom House station, you can just see the portals for the Conaught Tunnel. This was a particularly challenging rebuild of an old Victorian tunnel, which was one of the subjects covered in the BBC documentary; Fifteen Billion Pound Railway.
One thing I was trying to see, was one of the trees they are planting in the gardens on top of the station, that are mentioned in this article in the Wharf.
There seemed to be others looking around and now that you can walk from Poplar DLR station over the bridge at Bank Street, there are better opportunities for looking at the sites.
The Crossrail Site At Limmo Is Winding Down
From the Emirates Air-Line it looks like serious work s winding down at the Crossrail site at Limmo, where the tunnel boring machines; Elizabeth and Victoria, were inserted into a massive hole, to start their journeys to Farringdon via Canary Wharf.
The conveyors are still in place and a ship was there to be loaded with spoil to be taken to Wallasea Island.
Over the years it has been fascinating to see how how the work for Crossrail has started, increased and is now starting to finish, from the DLR and the cable car.
Va Va Froome
By chance I travelled yesterday on a DLR train bedecked with Va Va Froome for the Tour de France.
I’d actually seen it on the bridge as the cyclists passed underneath on Monday.
As the train went towards Canary Wharf, we passed another with Cavendish going the other way. I hope that one doesn’t have an accident.
The DLR’s Superb New Station
The new Pudding Mill Lane station has now opened.
It is not fully open yet, as the lifts need to be tested and approved. But otherwise it is a station of which everyone can be proud. I think it is another example of how architects are creating quite a few new quality train and bus stations.
Note how the old station is now almost gone to allow Crossrail to emerge from underneath London.
Pudding Mill Lane Station – 21st April 2014
This weekend is the big weekend for the new Pudding Mill Lane station on the Docklands Light Railway. I took these pictures on the trains to and from Ipswich yesterday.
It is slated to open on Monday the 28th. Nothing I’ve seen or heard makes me think that this date won’t be kept to create one of the main entry stations for the Olympic Park.
The old station was just about visible. Soon everything will be being Crossrail‘s ubiquitous blue hoardings to allow the tunnel portal and its links to the Great Eastern Main line to be built.
Not Long Now For The New Pudding Mill Lane Station
The Wharf is reporting that the Stratford top Bow Church section of the DLR will be closed over the weekend.
The DLR has is not running between Stratford and Bow Church from Friday 18 April until Friday 25 April due to Crossrail works at Pudding Mill Lane.
The completion next week will see the opening of the new Puddling Mill Lane station, 100metres from the original.
So it looks like it won’t be long before access to the Olympic Park, the Greenway and the ViewTube is a lot easier.
Reflected In The New Pudding Mill Lane Station
I took these pictures today of passing trains reflected in the new Pudding Mill Lane station.
It’s only a few months off being finished.
I had to laugh as a London guide was telling his charges it is the new Crossrail station.
Cinderella Is My Friend
Most Sundays, I go South and East from where I live to Canary Wharf, the Thames or Greenwich. Today was no exception, as I wanted to see the new roof on Canary Wharf Crossrail station and get a bit of shopping in the excellent Waitrose at Canary Wharf.
Today, I picked up the Docklands Light Railway at Shadwell, as I often do.
I’ve referred to this line as Cinderella before, as in the current vogue for grand railways and other schemes, she seems to get forgotten, as she trundles passengers reliably around the East of London, giving superb views of the canals, docks and buildings, both old and new.
But then she is like me; a London mongrel, with an ancestry from all over the place. The railway was born out of the need for to create a transport system on the cheap. The trouble is, that the engineers and staff, felt that despite the budget, they could create something special.
And they did!
They’ve now even created audio guides to each line, as this poster advertises.
Advertising The DLR Audio Guides
I don’t think they’d work so well for the Underground.
Cinderella just has so much to show you!
And where else can kids of all ages, play at driving the trains? Copenhagen and Turin.
But why oh why, is there not another use of the technology in the UK or the wider world? I just think, Cinderella isn’t sexy enough for the great and good. But then she’ll still be here, when all of the current bunch of idiots are pushing up the daisies.
Will Crossrail Overload The Docklands Light Railway?
After my visit to the new Canary Wharf Crossrail station on Saturday, I got thinking about the effect of the new line on the Docklands Light Railway.
A walkway will take passengers direct from Crossrail to Poplar station on the DLR. So would commuters from Essex and Kent going to the Bank area of the City, change at Canary Wharf for the DLR?
Only real figures, when Crossrail opens in a few years time, will give the answer.
I do think though that in a few years we’ll be talking about extending the DLR from Bank towards the west. These plans are discussed here in Wikipedia, but nothing has been firmed up yet. I suspect that if anything does get built it will be the link from Bank to Euston and St. Pancras, as this will open up a new route from Canary Wharf to the train lines to the north. But the uncertainty over HS2 doesn’t help in making this decision.
Pudding Mill Lane Station – 20th August 2013
This set of pictures shows how fast Crossrail and the new Pudding Mill Lane station are progressing, when it is compared with pictures of just over a month ago.
The two tunnelling machines; Jessica and Ellie are soon to be on their way, or might have even left yet on their journey to Stepney Green.
The new station is looking like it will be one of the grandest on the Docklands Light Railway. According to this piece in Wikipedia, it will be completed this year.
As it will be one of the major stations for the Olympic Park and probably the closest to the stadium, I think we’ll start to see pressure to change the name or at least add a tag to Pudding Mill Lane like for West Ham United Stadium. After all there is a precedent at Gillespie Road station.
The Anonymous Widower 