DLR Discovery Tours

[thinlizzy]

DLR to run guided tours from Tower Gateway to Cutty Sark every weekend from 4 August 2018:

londonblog.tfl.gov.uk/2018/07/23/dlr-discovery-explore-east-london/?cid=dlr-discovery

Tickets- £8 adults £4 Children

[Chris M]

ianvisits is reporting that at weekends from 4 August to 9 September you will be able to purchase a ticket for £8 for a non-stop journey between Tower Gateway and Greenwich and a 30-minute guided walking tour around Greenwich. The price seems a bit steep even for just the tour as there is a pay what you think it was worth walking tour that lasts 3 hours; and obviously the £8 is on top of all your other travel that day (and presumably doesn't give you flexibility to return elsewhere). So what you're really paying for is a direct non-stop train journey on a route that normally requires just a single change and gets you to a better starting point (Cutty Sark is better situated for the tourist bits than Greenwich, but the latter is where there is a crossover). Its unlikely to be much quicker either as it will have to run in with normal service trains.

Obviously if enough tourists are willing to pay then it's going to be a good thing for TfL's wallet, but in addition to the extra train crew who will need to be paid for there will presumably need to be at least one or two extra staff at Greenwich and Tower Gateway to stop normal travellers getting on accidentally.

<<rincew1nd: threads merged>>

[superteacher]

If it was a steam event, I'd be interested!

[Chris M]

If there ever is a Steam on the DLR event I don't think they'd be running it through the tunnels!

[brigham]

Are there any tunnels on the DLR which have a history of steam working?

[Chris M]

No. There are three tunnels on the DLR, Mint Street Junction to Bank, Mudchute to Greenwich and King George V to Wooliwch Arsenal, all of which were built for the DLR. The extended covered way between Stratford and Stratford international dates from the Westfield development and iirc was constructed in the final months of the North London Line running to the low-level platforms at Stratford. There is a longish stretch of covered way between Bow Church and Devons Road, and while I'm not entirely sure when it dates from the development above it looks to be 1990s at the earliest (probably later than that) and it doesn't appear on 1960s maps I've found online so it too almost certainly post-dates the DLR.

[xplaistow]

Jul 24, 2018 12:18:07 GMT Chris M said:

There is a longish stretch of covered way between Bow Church and Devons Road, and while I'm not entirely sure when it dates from the development above it looks to be 1990s at the earliest (probably later than that) and it doesn't appear on 1960s maps I've found online so it too almost certainly post-dates the DLR.

I think I can recall reading something that suggested that the covered way there dates back to the opening or soon after. Also, I can certainly remember what it looked like in the late 90s and it didn't look brand new.

[phil]

Jul 24, 2018 16:34:28 GMT xplaistow said:

Jul 24, 2018 12:18:07 GMT Chris M said:

There is a longish stretch of covered way between Bow Church and Devons Road, and while I'm not entirely sure when it dates from the development above it looks to be 1990s at the earliest (probably later than that) and it doesn't appear on 1960s maps I've found online so it too almost certainly post-dates the DLR.

I think I can recall reading something that suggested that the covered way there dates back to the opening or soon after. Also, I can certainly remember what it looked like in the late 90s and it didn't look brand new.

Agreed

I believe that particular covered way was built during the 1970s - at which time what would become the DLR was still a freight only branch line from Hackney Wick / Victoria Park down to Poplar used by British Rail to service the declining London Docks.