Bank's reopening delayed?

[Deleted]

I thought Bank was supposed to be open again to DLR trains as of yesterday. I may be mistaken in this, but I think the date has been put backwards as TFL now say 1st Feb will be the opening day. Anyone know some specifics?

[Deleted]

Jan 25, 2010 20:56:40 GMT @cityboy said:

I thought Bank was supposed to be open again to DLR trains as of yesterday. I may be mistaken in this, but I think the date has been put backwards as TFL now say 1st Feb will be the opening day. Anyone know some specifics?

Signalling software issues apparently

[davidp]

Hi

Could I ask the OP why he thought Bank station should be open yesterday? All the official publicity that I have seen has consistently stated "end of January" as far as closure has been concerned so I'd assumed that the work was on target.

Also as I passed Mint Street junction yesterday, there was still a lot of engineering work going on there, so I would have assumed that the end of January finish date (delayed or not) was down to that. What software issues have there been?

[Colin]

Publicity was put out as "the end of January", but within the railway game it was supposed to be until 24th January. I suppose you could say they've covered their backsides rather well on this occasion.

[uzairjubilee]

DLR website says Bank will reopen on the 1st of February

[Colin]

Indeed it does, however my reply was in response to the first 3 posts in this thread.

Behind the scenes it was originally intended to be completed by the 24th January. There appears to have been some slippage but because the DLR rather cleverly only put out "end of January" in their publicity, nobody is any the wiser (well not unless they read this thread anyway).

[rincew1nd]

It is indeed clever marketing for "end of January" to actually mean "Start of February"!

[Deleted]

Apparently, the whole of the "west leg" will be closed this Friday, as per a press release -

"In order to finish the work an additional network closure will take place between Bank/Tower Gateway and Westferry from Friday 29 January to Sunday 31 January to allow extra signal testing to be carried out. A full bus replacement service will operate during this time, and has been enhanced at the weekend when engineering work is also taking place on the Jubilee line".

The following bus replacement services will operate during the coming weekend closure:

Friday 29 January: 07.00-20.00 Bank/Tower Gateway to Canary Wharf every two minutes, Shadwell-Limehouse-Westferry every four minutes. Before and after this time Bank/Tower Gateway to Canary Wharf every five minutes, Shadwell-Limehouse-Westferry every 10 minutes.

Saturday 30 January: 08.30-19.00 Bank/Tower Gateway to Canary Wharf every three and a half minutes, Shadwell-Limehouse-Westferry every seven minutes. Before and after this time Bank/Tower Gateway to Canary Wharf every five minutes, Shadwell-Limehouse-Westferry every 10 minutes.

Sunday 31 January: 09.30-19.00 Bank/Tower Gateway to Canary Wharf every four minutes, Shadwell-Limehouse-Westferry every seven minutes. Before and after this time Bank/Tower Gateway to Canary Wharf every five minutes, Shadwell-Limehouse -Westferry every 10 minutes.

[Deleted]

Having moved I no longer use the DLR on a daily basis. As such I don't pay that close attention to what's happening on the DLR. Having said that I have a inkling that the page which now reads Bank reopeinging 1st Feb, read up until Monday 24th Jan.

said page can be found at:
www.tfl.gov.uk/tfl/livetravelnews/realtime/dlr/default.html

[cso]

The weekly TFL closure email says:

"Bank station is closed until late January 2010. For further details and alternative routes, please click here"

[thirstquensher]

...erm... I'm a bit incredulous reading this thread!

Given that DLR have consistently finished works ahead of schedule for years, I'm amazed that the word "delayed" is used to mean "bang on the published date" - i.e. "not early".

[Deleted]

Encountered the substitute bus service operating along The Highway in this morning's rush hour. They were unfortunate that an incident that closed the Blackwall Tunnel had caused huge traffic queues all around.

There were substantial numbers of high capacity double deck buses, carrying - virtually nobody. The ones I looked inside had loads varying from half a dozen down to - zero.

I do wonder how the rail replacement service provision is so often got wrong for the loads that will actually turn up. Out on the Beckton line at weekends the opposite applies, and I have been left behind before now by the substitute bus operating at no more than the normal DLR 10 minute frequency. But today the opposite applied, with a large fleet of buses from at least three different operators running round mostly unwanted.

[Deleted]

Jan 28, 2010 21:36:18 GMT @thirstquensher said:

...erm... I'm a bit incredulous reading this thread!

Given that DLR have consistently finished works ahead of schedule for years, I'm amazed that the word "delayed" is used to mean "bang on the published date" - i.e. "not early".

It would seem that the whole of the Western branch is now also being closed all weekend in two weeks' time, 13/14 February. What work can this be for other than things not completed during the shutdown. I may have missed it, but I don't remember this being advertised before the long shutdown began.

[Deleted]

when will the longer trains start running between bank and lewisham ? is it when all the work is completed at bank.

[astock5000]

Jan 30, 2010 23:15:19 GMT @lukew said:

when will the longer trains start running between bank and lewisham ? is it when all the work is completed at bank.

londonreconnections.blogspot.com/2010/01/dlr-bank-opening-delayed-until-1st.html

TfL's website now gives 1st February as the likely date for reopening.

According to sources, 3-car services will also begin to appear after this date, with them likely to start being phased in towards the end of that week. Currently the intention appears to be to have all services running as 3-car formations by the middle of the year.

[davidp]

Thanks for the links to the London Reconnections Blog. I'm still trying to understand what the issues are here, but as far as I can see, a posting in the blog from last September said that Bank Station would be closed from Christmas for "about 4 weeks" and therefore re-open on 25th January - though I still can't find any official source for this (can anyone help?).

Now even if the "about 4 weeks" did come from an official source I've been in project planning long enough to know that an "about 4 weeks" more than 3 months before the start date of the project can very easily turn into much longer time scale once the scope of the work has been fully clarified. So the fact that "about 4 weeks" turned into 5 weeks seems very reasonable.

And I return to my original point - As far as I can see, by the time it came to officially publish a timescale for the works, TfL have only published the "end of January" date for the end of the closure. And that's what's happening. Closed until the end of January which means open on 1st February (that's not clever marketing by the way, it's just simple logic).

There's a lot that TfL/DLR/Serco do that I think we can worked up about and I'll be with you on the barricades with most of them, but publishing an end-date and sticking to it is sadly not one of them.

[Deleted]

Thanks for the links to the London Reconnections Blog. I'm still trying to understand what the issues are here, but as far as I can see, a posting in the blog from last September said that Bank Station would be closed from Christmas for "about 4 weeks" and therefore re-open on 25th January - though I still can't find any official source for this (can anyone help?).

Well that's a question I can answer.

I asked - and got - confirmation from the TfL Press Office themselves on that date (and they said they'd factored in contingency etc).

As a general guide, if I put "sources indicate" or "sources suggest" within a post you can assume it's been reliably sourced but either:

1) I haven't been able to get an official confirm/deny.
2) The source doesn't wish to go on the record (which is fair enough)

Similarly, if its come from another media source (NCE, FT etc.) I'll always cite them (so people can find and read the original article), and try to find a second source as well.

If there's no reference to sources in a post, then you can generally assume its been confirmed by TfL/Network Rail/Whoever it's about (I generally try and get them to give a response as well for balance).

So, in this particular case, that date was "official," but they've always been quite canny when it comes to DLR dates and tried to stick with more general "end of X" type dates for the larger news sources (don't blame them).

Like you say though, a slip of a week is hardly the end of the world here.

[Bighat]

I've just checked the TfL website 'Live Travel News' for the DLR.

It reports 'Good Service' and makes NO mention of any work in connection with Bank DLR Station.

I then requested information on a journey NOW from Bank DLR to Lewisham DLR.

Guess what?

Offered a walk to Cannon Street, followed by a journey on South Eastern to Lewisham, or

Northern Line to London Bridge, change to NR for a journey to Lewisham.

Wonderful!

Yet, if you go on the TfL homepage and click on the DLR link, you are greeted with a headline and picture feature from their pressroom stating that the DLR platforms at Bank HAVE reopened. I tried to click on the link, but the page was 'not available'!

Someone is NOT coming clean with Joe Public this morning!

Update: Just had an e-mail from DLR following my complaint, confirming that the DLR to Bank IS open, that the website is faulty, and TfL have been asked to rectify it.

[Deleted]

Used DLR this morning, about 10.30-ish, Bank-Limehouse, Limehouse-Poplar and (with excellent cross-platform interchange) Poplar-Stratford. Absolute perfection - "very" good service!!

Also had a passing glimpse of the remodelled Royal Mint Street Junction.

[norbitonflyer]

There was nothing wrong with the site - it was working as it should. I tried it a few minutes after your post (I can read but not post where I was at the time) and got the same as you.

Walk to Northern Line 2 minutes
Tube to London Bridge 8 minutes
Train to Lewisham 10 minutes (total 20 minutes)

Try checking the "fewest changes" box
Walk to Cannon Street 7 minutes
Train to Lewisham 14 minutes

Then I tried it with the "National Rail" box unchecked:
Bank to Lewisham by DLR 28 minutes

So the reason you didn't see it was because there is a faster direct service by another route. (It's 10p cheaper too!)

Replacing "Lewisham" with "Deptford Bridge" will also reveal the DLR in all its glory!

[uzairjubilee]

Can't wait to see the new platforms. Or the 'improved' platforms that customers will notice.

[bill543]

Visited Bank this afternoon and tried to identify where the extension took place: this appeared difficult having not been there for several years. Asked when the longer trains would appear and was told one had been on test today. Unit 114 passed as I travelled back to Lewisham, out of service, Is this the one that has been lengthened?

[Deleted]

The platforms at Bank haven't been extended, nor did they say they would be - they've always been long enough for 3-car trains.

The main work undertaken was at Royal Mint Street junction, to improve access to Tower Gateway.

[Bighat]

Feb 3, 2010 21:37:22 GMT @a60k said:

The platforms at Bank haven't been extended, nor did they say they would be - they've always been long enough for 3-car trains.

The main work undertaken was at Royal Mint Street junction, to improve access to Tower Gateway.

But that junction was 'reworked' when the reduced Tower Gateway to single track/double platform wasn't it?

Seems a bit of a cock-up all round!

[astock5000]

Feb 3, 2010 22:42:47 GMT Bighat said:

But that junction was 'reworked' when the reduced Tower Gateway to single track/double platform wasn't it?

Only part of the junction was. It was still a single track junction with a passing loop between there and Tower Gateway. The rest of the work was not done then, because it would have meant that both Bank and Tower Gateway would have been closed at the same time.

[norbitonflyer]

Feb 3, 2010 21:04:48 GMT @bill543 said:

Unit 114 passed as I travelled back to Lewisham, out of service, Is this the one that has been lengthened?

No units are being lengthened - they are still two-piece artics. The trains are being lengthened by running three such units coupled together, instead of two.

[21146]

Are they actually running any 3-vehicle trains???

[davidp]

Feb 4, 2010 16:20:10 GMT @21146 said:

Are they actually running any 3-vehicle trains???

No sign of any yesterday (Thursday). I've seen speculation that they were due to start "later this week" but no official confirmation.

[uzairjubilee]

Went to Bank today from Canary Wharf.
Got held at Royal Mint Street Junction for around 2 minutes. Then again in the tunnel for less than a minute.
Approaching the platform at Bank, I was expecting to see* a properly refurbished platform - there was no change. So then I though 'Okay, maybe they havent done this platform because it's not like passengers wait for trains here'
So then I checked out the departing platform - no change, only the lighting.

Also, there were no 3 car trains running, but I didn't expect to see any

*I tend to expect a lot from things.

[louvrerivoli]

Feb 6, 2010 17:57:43 GMT uzairjubilee said:

Went to Bank today from Canary Wharf.
Got held at Royal Mint Street Junction for around 2 minutes. Then again in the tunnel for less than a minute.
Approaching the platform at Bank, I was expecting to see* a properly refurbished platform - there was no change. So then I though 'Okay, maybe they havent done this platform because it's not like passengers wait for trains here'
So then I checked out the departing platform - no change, only the lighting.

Also, there were no 3 car trains running, but I didn't expect to see any

*I tend to expect a lot from things.

From what I've seen earlier this week, the section of track in platform 9 has been replaced. It looks quite damp as well.