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The Docklands Light Railway (the DLR) is an automated
light metro system opened in 1987 to serve the redeveloped Docklands area of
London. It reaches north to Stratford, south to Lewisham, west to Tower
Gateway and Bank in the City of London financial district, and east to
Beckton, London City Airport and Woolwich Arsenal. The system uses minimal
staffing on trains and at major interchange stations; the four sub-surface
stations are staffed to comply with underground station requirements.
The DLR is operated under a concession awarded by Transport for London to
Serco Docklands, part of the Serco Group. The system is owned by Docklands
Light Railway Ltd, part of the London Rail division of Transport for London.
In 2011 the DLR carried over 86 million passengers. It has been extended
several times and further extensions are planned.
The docks immediately east of London began to decline in the early 1960s as
cargo became containerised. The opening of the Tilbury container terminal,
further east in Essex, rendered them redundant and in 1980 the government
gained control. The Jubilee line of the London Underground opened in 1979
from Stanmore to Charing Cross as the first stage of an intended cross-town
line to south-east London. Land at Ludgate Circus and Lewisham had been
reserved for the second stage, a station partly constructed in the City and
buildings at Cannon Street modified, but rising costs and the low level of
development in Docklands then envisaged not justifying the railway led to
the project's indefinite postponement in the early 1980s.
The London Docklands Development Corporation (LDDC), needing to provide
public transport cheaply for the former docks area to stimulate
regeneration, considered several proposals and chose a light rail scheme
using dock railway infrastructure to link the West India Docks to Tower Hill
and to run alongside the Great Eastern line out of London to a northern
terminus at Stratford, where a disused bay platform at the west of the
station was available for interchange with the Central Line and main line.
Stratford was preferred to the Mile End alternative, which would have
involved street running trams and was at variance with the concept of a
fully automated railway.
The contract for the initial system was awarded to GEC Mowlem in 1984 and
the initial system was constructed from 1985 to 1987 at a cost of £77
million. The line was officially opened by Queen Elizabeth II on 30 July
1987, and passenger services began on 31 August 1987.
Images of the line are broken into discrete branches, eg:
Stratford-Poplar,
Poplar-Beckton, etc
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