DLR restoring peak-hour Stratford-Lewisham services from Monday

The Docklands Light Railway (DLR) says it is restoring the direct peak-hour services between Stratford and Lewisham, which were suspended when problems were found with the network. Some services that were previously terminated at Canning Town will also be extended to Stratford International.

The services will be restored on Monday 4th November, when a new timetable is introduced on the DLR.

The problems with the DLR arose after a review of the signalling system ahead of the introduction of their new trains identified a pre-existing technical issue. This meant there was not enough margin between the maximum recommended speed and the speed of the existing trains in a number of places.

Although none of the DLR trains ever exceeded the speed limit, they decided to reduce the average in some areas as a precaution.

TfL says that the new timetable will accommodate the speed restrictions while returning services to broadly the same levels as before, although some journeys will still take slightly longer than before the restrictions were introduced.

It’s not all good news, as weekend closures and planned service changes on parts of the DLR network will continue while upgrades are carried out to enable the new trains to be introduced.

The DLR is straining at the moment due to delays introducing a fleet of new trains, and TfL has had to reduce the amount some of the older B92 trains are used so that they don’t exceed their millage limits before they have to be taken out of service.

When the new trains are rolled out, they will replace the older trains in the DLR fleet, which will help improve service frequency and reliability. Eventually, when all the new trains have arrived, the DLR’s capacity will increase by about a third.