Tower Gateway DLR Station 1991 - 2015 Contrasts

The 1991 scenes were filmed on a Bank Holiday Monday in May, and show the station as it was when it first opened. Also seen are some British Rail Class 310 (and / or Class 312) trains in Network SouthEast livery on the LTS (London Tilbury Southend) services which use Fenchurch Street Station as their London terminus.
The 2015 scenes include DLR trains at this station, on the ramp to / from the tunnels built for the Bank extension, using the cripple siding, a cab / front of train view arriving at this station, Class 357 trains on what is now known as the C2C mainline railway service, heritage Routemaster and LT class buses on route 15 passing by on the road outside the station, and much more.

[@mrkipling2201]

I love watching old footage from the 80’s and very early 90’s. I’m a nostalgia addict. Parts of life was better back then.

[@iAmTheSquidThing]

I never thought I'd be defending garish 80s postmodernist architecture. But the new colour scheme just looks rather drab.

[@im_cool_i_guess]

I love travelling with buses trains and DLR.

[@OMGTrain]

Really enjoyed this video, thanks for sharing this with us.

[@CitytransportInfoplus]

+omgTrain Thanks :-)

[@ajs41]

+citytransportinfo It's funny really - today I'm obsessed with the DLR, but until about 2000 I didn't know anything about it or take any notice of it despite having visited London with my family from the late 1980s onwards. Would it be correct to say it wasn't very well publicised in the early years?

[@1258-Eckhart]

The Network Southeast boys used to call the LTS the "misery line", I think less because of the 1960's heritage slamdoor EMU's (which you portray) than because of the truly dismal wastelands they travelled through.

[@puinakada]

Marcomanseckisax i

[@SiVlog1989]

They and the Northern line have something in common then, for many years, the Northern line was also called "the Misery Line"

[@stateofflux7453]

Marcomanseckisax But Southend-on-Sea is a good borough😟 and also the Upminster area is very desirable.

[@GWJUK]

It’s all still dismal now

[@generalgrievous5615]

No, it's because it's a commuter line

[@tobeytransport2802]

6:05 what a stupid thing to do!

[@marcodamasio]

Why? It’s actually better

[@jamestoyn9755]

Tower Gateway DLR Station is the only one which very similar to the old island gardens station.

[@390h8er]

The new layout is very efficient, but with only one track, the station is paralysed if there's any kind of major incident.

[@CitytransportInfoplus]

Although it does not serve a station platform there is also a siding track which ends just outside the station.

[@bowlerstuff9589]

Beckton services only go there so it should be fine and bank to back up might be a different story

[@leahymi100]

It would be great if Dublin had a railway just like the Docklands railway in London.

[@johnnyboy3949]

When they built tower gateway why didn't they take the opportunity to connect it to fenchurch street and connect fenchurch st, tower gateway and Tower Hill altogether?

[@tomthornton6259]

DLR was originally done on the cheap, so I guess it was seen as too expensive. Shame they didn't link it all up later though, would've made far more sense than what it is today, not to mention also being cheaper than the bank branch!

[@lmlmd2714]

I've always wondered the same! The DLR was done on a ridiculously shoestring budget (it was originally going to be a street running system), but even so, given that the Tower Gateway platforms themselves are in spitting distance of Fenchurch, with no buildings or private land whatsoever in the way, you could have a simple footbridge linking the two, platform to platform.

[@danielboulton98]

@@lmlmd2714 Why would you change from tower gateway to fenchurch street when you can just change at Limehouse. Most if not all C2C services stop there

[@robtyman4281]

That would be far too logical! This is England you know. Where logic and abit of thought comes second to cutting corners and building things on the cheap. Yea, if this was a city in any other European country they would have automatically linked the two without thinking about it and wouldn't grumble about the extra costs of doing this - they would either have set aside enough money in the first place, or found a way to get more money.

[@clairejones7878]

When was the Bank branch built to connect the DLR to the London Underground?

[@volvotrident4835]

Wow i enjoyed this have you got any footage of the Overground and District line meeting at Gunnersbury Station?

[@volvotrident4835]

+TrainsHunter WCML Or just present footage.

[@CitytransportInfoplus]

+TrainsHunter WCML hardly anything at Gunnersbury, but oodles at Kew Gardens... plus flms from North Road Kew, Richmond stations and Manor Circus. These were all made several years ago. Enjoy! Simon kzbin.info/www/bejne/rXbWkH-sbpVqh9U kzbin.info/www/bejne/sGWwlGudeZWMlbs kzbin.info/www/bejne/rHbKmZdtfqmmmZo kzbin.info/www/bejne/bl6TkIiEr7qUjLM

[@ajs41]

Does the line to Bank via the tunnel go past Tower Gateway station to the north or south? I've always been confused about this point.

[@iman2341]

+Andy JS Diverges from the line to the east of tower hill to the south. :)

[@ajs41]

+Matt H B So it's the opposite of how it's actually shown on the tube map...

[@bermal209]

yes

[@im_cool_i_guess]

this is why I should subscribe you!!

[@CitytransportInfoplus]

+Official Smith Strapy Squared please do! :-)

[@tobeytransport2802]

2:26 is that Fenchurch street station to the right|?

[@clairejones7878]

Are there plans to extend the Beckton branch to Thamesmead?

[@CitytransportInfoplus]

yes but I think the new route will not serve Beckton station

[@alexanderhoward4454]

Do you have any footage of the line between Stratford and north woolwich

[@CitytransportInfoplus]

+Alexander Howard I assume you mean via Canning Town. Alas, I did not film much there at all. I wish I had.

[@SiVlog1989]

would you say the DLR was ahead of its time (regardless of teething problems in the early days) in being fully accessible for disabled passengers?

[@CitytransportInfoplus]

+sbaker190189 other new systems of the same era, such as in Lille in France and Singapore, were also fully accessible. So, the DLR being fully accessible was only special because it was in London.

[@rcphotos5002]

99% railways says it all even now with all the issues of a aging railway

[@toposebi95]

Question from somebody who doesn't really know London's transport that well: Was the DLR considered a white elephant back when it first opened? The huge crowds in 1991 seemed like mostly curious people trying it out than anything else. Then again, it could probably just be a ticket queue.

[@hakc97again]

On the contrary it was actually very useful as it connected parts of East London which didn't have any trains or tubes into Central London. Mainly Canary Wharf. I doubt the Jubilee Line would go where it goes now if the DLR didn't give East London a new lease of life

[@CitytransportInfoplus]

+Vasconium the 1991 footage was filmed on a public holiday so many of the people seen would have been families on days out. I suspect that people were queuing to board trains, and because there were so many people there the station staff did not allow everyone on to the platform. Was it a white elephant? no... not like the cable car! It was designed to stimulate investment in an area that was partly derelict and especially in the area served by the first routes it has been very successful. But I think the Beckton branch still travels through much wasteland.

[@tobeytransport2802]

1:32 what is everyone queuing up for?

[@uktransportgames]

@Tobey Transport Maybe there buying tickets

[@kafilatseriki8987]

Im going to tower gateway on Wednesday

[@Aysome]

This is prob the nerdiest question i have ever asked, but is the font they use the same as the the Calvert font we use up here on the Tyne and Wear Metro?

[@CitytransportInfoplus]

Actually that is a very interesting question - apologies I do not know the answer - only that at one time the DLR was a stand-alone service which did things its own way but nowadays has been subsumed into the TfL empire. So whatever they used in the past has been replaced by what I think is called the P22 Underground font.

[@Epalvosh]

The typeface used in 1987 was Rockwell. This was replaced by Frutiger circa 1994. The current TfL house style (New Johnston) was introduced circa 2003.

[@joelharris1335]

Is Cross Harbour DLR station still open?

[@channel64_thename]

Yes

[@robtyman4281]

Come back in 15 years from 2015 (nine from 2021) and the escalators at Tower Gateway will all be gone......to be replaced by two large lifts. The platforms will be more covered (larger, longer platform roofs), and the whole Dome entrance gone, and replaced by a newer, larger and rectangular entrance looking more similar to the newer tube station entrances and ones on the Elizabeth line. Oh, and the trains will be different be again. Possibly!

[@CitytransportInfoplus]

only if the money can be found to fund all this.

[@danielboulton98]

most of the line down to bank is now covered by new flats lol

[@alisonlee3314]

I see the reason for a mirror on the platform for a driver, but not on the DLR

[@CitytransportInfoplus]

Sometimes the member of staff who closes the train doors and then initiates train departure will be at the front of the train, so will need the mirror. The mirror is also needed when the train is being driven manually.

[@airplaneplustrainguy8143]

Manila has also the same Light Rail with DLR (not a tram) Except it is worst to ride and it is driver controlled

[@owenchuarbx]

I don't know why did the passengers jumbled up at the ticket hall

[@CitytransportInfoplus]

+Crystal Mover (Of Greater Anglia) Just waiting for a train... the platform was narrow and therefore people had to queue before being admitted to the platform.

[@thischannelisdisused5841]

Have you done a 1990 2015 contrast of tower hill

[@CitytransportInfoplus]

+Mega Swampert 123 not yet... I have some 1991 footage but need more 'present day'.

[@thischannelisdisused5841]

citytransportinfo ok

[@theelectricfanboy1368]

so you telling me in 2013 tower gate @$s way had 3 platd

[@CitytransportInfoplus]

it always had two platforms, but whereas originally there was a narrow island platform with a track on each side, nowadays there are two side platforms with a single track between them

[@theelectricfanboy1368]

@@CitytransportInfoplus ok

[@WASIURPA]

1:07 where is cross harbour?

[@CitytransportInfoplus]

Crossharbour is to the south of the Isle of Dogs. This is where the DLR actually uses a section of railway that is over 100 years old, although it was completely rebuilt for the DLR.

[@BroadCastPlanet]

Old c2c!

[@ashleyjiscool]

Oof

[@alexanderhoward4454]

It's now part of crossrail now really. never mind

[@RandomGuyYT776]

E

[@airplaneplustrainguy8143]

Manila has also the same Light Rail with DLR (not a tram) Except it is worst to ride and it is driver controlled