I drove DLR Service A between
Canary Wharf and Beckton over the weekend. I'd been waiting to do the route for years and have now driven rail replacement over all sections of the DLR that have dedicated replacement services
The routeService A runs every 10 minutes. A short shuttle advertised as Service B doubles the frequency between Canning Town and Prince Regent. I suspect the operator tried to avoid confining anyone to Service B for their whole shift but I think one duty on Sunday had 21 rounders
. Not my cup of tea but I'm sure some people would prefer that to driving the full route!
Stops served on Service A are Canary Wharf, Blackwall, East India, Canning Town, Royal Victoria, Custom House, Prince Regent, Royal Albert, Beckton Park, Cyprus, Gallions Reach and Beckton. The majority of stops were right by the stations. The stops for Royal Victoria were about 250m east of the station and Gallions Reach was served from the
"Gallions Reach Roundabout" stop. Passengers for Poplar were expected to circulate via Canary Wharf.
The only changeover point was mid-route at Canning Town bus station. This was the first time I've seen live changeovers on rail replacement. Kudos to Abellio, it was managed very well from my perspective. The stand at the western end was somewhat distant from Canary Wharf, situated in the
stand off Burdett Road.
The route doesn't really follow any service routes for a significant distance. The line is paralleled by roads for the most part and the DLR's sweeping elevations make it simple enough to plan a route that follows it. The route was very much out and back without any confusing one-way workings. In theory this should have made the route simple, but it was anything but!
The stops for Blackwall, Royal Albert and Gallions Reach were on spurs which required double runs in both directions. Blackwall was occasionally difficult to serve owing to 15s using the
bus stop as a stand. This meant it was necessary to serve the stop then reverse to get around the bus, which is an unnecessary hazard, as well as a problem if the ramp needs to be deployed to be honest.
Westbound passengers waiting at
Custom House Station, Stop A were wildly flagging down the buses. The official stop to serve was Stop C. Eastbound wasn't perfect either - Stop D was shut so we served Stop B instead.
Royal Albert gets a special mention. To serve it we had to drive over the stone paved Dockside Road and perform a U turn in the
square in front of the station. This was riddled with hazards -
a gantry of an unmarked height protecting a 14'3" bridge on Dockside Road, though to be fair there was a signpost warning double deck buses not to proceed ahead. There was also a bollard that didn't quite contrast enough with the colour of stone highway, though you'd have to be really not paying attention to miss it. Part of the square was also a through road so had to look out for traffic when pulling out. Some buses drove over the
pedestrian areas when performing the manoeuvre. The station isn't normally served by buses - even the 300 bypasses it.
Strait Road also deserves a special mention. We were instructed not to exceed 10mph on this road due to risk of damage from low tree branches. They weren't the only issue however - it also suffers from
severe subsidence issues. The road surface was lumpy to put it mildly, bad enough to warrant various warning signs. At the eastbound bus stop for Beckton Park, the bus was leaning into the kerb at a disturbing angle. This caused various issues from door problems to it messing up the electrics in one LT, causing it to go into LIM mode upon departure. The bus restricted itself to 10mph
A few people complained that the bus didn't serve the stop closest to Gallions Reach station, but it really wasn't
that far away. It was also necessary to keep an eye out for stray passengers who were waiting on the wrong side of the road.
What made the route tricky was the myriad of large roundabouts with lots of exits. There were signposts, but not nearly enough of them to rely on and some of them marked Docklands Light Railway were actually for other DLR routes. At two points on the route, the exits we had to take off the roundabouts were onto a road marked with a
no through route sign! At various points on the route there were
no entry and
motor vehicles prohibited signs, though at least these were qualified with a buses permitted not.
I managed to take
two wrong turns. On my first trip towards Beckton I missed the turn off for Strait Road and ended up on the parallel Royal Albert Way. I had to U-turn on the roundabout above Beckton Park station and drive the right way. Then at Gallions Reach I took the fourth exit onto Royal Albert Way instead of the fifth to return to Woolwich Manor Way. Hello again Beckton Park roundabout.
The route had more than its fair share of elements to keep one amused. I enjoyed it!
LoadingsLockdown light - didn't carry more than about 15 people at any one time.
What was interesting was very few people used the stops between Canning Town and Beckton. Canning Town is where people interchange for other transport links and people seem to go to Canning Town or Beckton to do their shopping. As I was driving through the area I was marvelling at the quality of the road network, but also wondered where all the shops were given that people actually live there. That Asda at Beckton is enormous and looking at a map it isn't hard to see why - it serves a huge catchment area where there are no other large supermarkets! This is in stark contrast to say, South London where you're never far from one.
Running timesThere was no traffic and light passenger loads, but even I with my size 17 shoes was unable to keep to time with a cumbersome LT for most of Saturday evening. I had hoped to claw back time at Canary Wharf by spinning round instead of tripping to the stand in Limehouse, but I was instructed to do otherwise for various reasons a few times.
Sunday was a struggle depending on driving style. Observing all speed limits, including the 10mph we were ordered to stick to on Strait Road and providing a smooth ride over some of the shocking road surfaces between Canning Town and Cyprus, I'd lose 12 minutes end to end.
I think the tight running times were sensible in order to prevent buses arriving at the live changeover point early.
Layovers weren't huge and in the evenings were as little as four minutes.
Vehicle ChoiceI took over on the road so had no choice. A mix of New Routemasters, Euro 4 E400s with the fans set to roar and MMCs. Due to the subsidence issues in the Strait Road area, poor road surfaces around Custom House and hidden bumps and dips, it would be preferable to have a bus with
high quality suspension. The LT wins by some considerable margin in this regard. Just have to watch that long wheelbase when entering and exiting the road that leads to Blackwall station.
SummaryIt was actually nice to be on a route which wasn't bogged down with congestion and roadworks and I enjoyed looking at the changing landscape of the Docklands. The route was challenging to start with, but I loved it - and the passengers were friendly.
The route gets a 3 for difficulty due to numerous significant hazards and the complexity of the roundabouts with countless exits. A rating of 3 comes with a recommendation that
enhanced route learning should take place, or otherwise provide enough pilots for everyone who might need one. Route learning videos were provided, but there's no guarantee everyone will remember everything once on the road. The route maps Abellio provide are superb, but those roundabouts require a high degree of concentration to navigate and clutching one whilst doing so doesn't really work.
Route difficulty rating - 3/3 (difficult)
Enjoyability - 5/5 (very enjoyable)
Next route review -
22:15 Stratford to Richmond, Sunday 5th July