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Farewell, Pudding Mill Lane

The original Pudding Mill Lane – a windswept island platform with single staircase and lift – is closing on Thursday 17th April.

Pudding Mill Lane

Pudding Mill Lane

That’s because a new Pudding Mill Lane station is opening 200 metres to the east, as the original station is slap bang in the middle of where some major Crossrail works need to be, so they’ve had to move the station – by building a completely new station.

The new Pudding Mill Lane will open on the 28th April, meaning that for 10 days, there will be no DLR services on this branch between Poplar and Stratford.   But before then, get down to the old PML station to see it before it goes …

Pudding Mill Lane

Pudding Mill Lane

 

Crossrail / DLR — — 02 Apr 14

Change at Canning Town

We’re not sure how long it’s been there, but we just got round to noticing that there is now an electronic sign at the bottom of the main escalators at Canning Town to tell you if the next train to Woolwich or Beckton is leaving from the upper, or lower platforms.

It’s a shame it’s a small electronic sign though, tilted in the wrong direction, when what would be better would be a LARGE sign saying “Next train…” and then an arrow pointing in which direction to the platform you should take, but it’s better than nothing.

When the station first opened, there was no way of knowing and it was pot luck whether you shuffled to the right platforms or not, so at least this finally helps.   It’s a bit off if you’re coming BACK from either Woolwich or Beckton though and your train is destined for Stratford but you want to go to Bank or Tower Gateway.  When you change at Canning Town do you stay on the platform you came in on, or do you shuffle down to the board to check the display? It’s still a bit confusing …

Canning Town next DLR

Canning Town next DLR

DLR / Next Train Indicators — — 26 Feb 14

ExcelLink

We popped down to the Excel centre yesterday, to take a sneak preview at the new 12-car Thameslink train which should be hitting the north-south rails of London by 2015. Although possibly the most interesting discovery that we didn’t know about was not the train itself, but the fact that there’s a new tunnel that’s been constructed which means that trains from St. Pancras heading north can link up with the line out of King’s Cross to Cambridge, and other destinations.

We wandered round the mock up train, lots of signage and information telling us how all wonderful and sexy the future is going to be be, whilst actually discovering that the amount of legroom for people sitting down isn’t great for tall people and felt more cramped than trains you get running local suburban service out of London.

New Thameslink Train

New Thameslink Train

A side bonus was seeing the construction works of Crossrail close by, and a change to Royal Victoria DLR that we didn’t know about. It’s now impossible to enter/exit the north side of the station using the escalator route at the eastern end, instead a new temporary footbridge (although one that I suspect shall be there for a couple of years) had been built at the western end of the station, with a new lift, and a whole new load of stairs for us to count. Expect that data to be in the next updated version of the App.

Royal Victoria Exit

Royal Victoria Exit

DLR — — 30 Jan 14
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