3-car trains start running in January

[Deleted]

May 3, 2011 9:51:42 GMT pib said:

Beckton 3-car delayed till Mon 9th. (Hopefully)

Anyone know if 3-car services in operation on the Beckton branch today?

[pib]

Yes, 3-car service started today as promised, although Beckton>Blackwall shuttle is still operating 2-car.

[Chris M]

According to the DMIs at Cyprus the DLR have started running "3 car carriages" on the Becton <-> Tower Gateway services.

[Deleted]

Thanks. Did anyone use a the service today? I remember when the Bank-Lewisham began running 3 car trains, the ease of boarding was vastly improved!

[thirstquensher]

I can only assume Diana didn't travel this morning, because for the rest of us commuting on the Beckton line this morning it was a repeat of last Monday's pandemonium. A 30-minute gap in service, no tannoy announcements, Customer Service line still on recorded message stating its opening hours (and this was as 8:45am), TfL website showing "Good service" for DLR, no apology from the PSA when boarding the train (which was packed, of course). Not even an apology when reaching Canning Town.

All in all, a p*ss poor opening show. Surely on major service changes extra people should be drafted in at the Control Centre, at the very least to put out announcements if everyone else in the CC is too busy trying to find out what's gone wrong. It does make you wonder though, with all the delays and extra testing that's gone on, why whatever problems have happened (and happened last Monday) seemed to take them by total surprise yet again.

[Deleted]

Oh dear, WHAT a reputation I have, Mr Thirstquensher !

Yes, Mr D gave me a lift to Canary Wharf this morning (8 minutes door to door) so I escaped. Came home this evening though on one of the new long trains. Confusion when we came to get off, as our station is not long enough for them. A distant "Please move to the centre of the train" announcement was not enough for a poor mum, plus small child in pushchair, plus second child, standing by the front doors (just like they may have done every day for years) just finding the doors not opening.

However I could see the passengers ahead sending them back (is it the first two doors that don't open?), and I stood in the doorway to make sure they were not closed before they got through. The train guard was down at the back so couldn't see this happening. Is it going to be like this every day?

Quite a lot of effort, and no doubt cost, was put into extending the platforms, although narrowly, at our station, but it seems these extensions are not for normal use. Doesn't that seem strange - spend the money on this, then don't open the doors there.

[Deleted]

Diana; give them a chance to move the boards. They won't have them further apart when all trains are 2 cars... especially given that today was only the first day of 3 car operations on that branch!

[Chris M]

The narrow extensions at some stations are where it was not practical (at reasonable cost) to build full platform extensions.
The narrow extensions were not done at great cost, but relatively low cost (the big money was spent on extending Royal Victoria, Custom House, Prince Regent and Beckton) and they are not really platform extensions but emergency walkways - hence they are not for normal use (as they are too narrow).

If the Dagenham Dock extension is ever built, Gallions Reach will become a junction station and at that point it might be deemed cost effective to build full extensions (I don't know). Presumably if there was major development around a station with the walkways that would significantly increase the patronage then the full extensions will be looked into again and provided if the cost-benefit analysis was positive (quite possibly developer contributions would be part of the funding of such extensions).

[Ben]

Cat walks have appeared before at underground stations. However they were phased out in the 50s/60s with platform extensions to the south side of the circle. They were in regular use though. However gaurds were aswell!

Its been many years since I went to Beckton, the whole thing was very quiet though. Very quiet. Is this still the case?

[Deleted]

Why has the Beckton service gone 3-car before Woolwich?

[Deleted]

My guess would be that they better serve the Excel Centre during exhibition times?

Yesterday, the midday service (TOG-BEC) was all 3-vehicle while the BLA-BEC shuttles were 2-vehicle as scheduled.

When I saw the service, all seemed to be working well.

[Deep Level]

When 3 car trains become to norm on the Beckton Route, will they still need to run a CAT (it might be BLA now) - PRR shuttle service on exhibition days?

[Deleted]

Don't know, but possibly. After all, the new scissors crossover between Custom House and Prince Regent has been commissioned (26/4/11). Whether it has been used "in anger" I know not.