Everything About the DLR! | London Docklands Light Railway

London's Docklands Light Railway might just be my favourite transit network with its large network and impact to the area, so of course I had to take you all on a ride and show you around! Enjoy this ridealong!

As always, leave a comment down below if you have ideas for our future videos. Like, subscribe, and hit the bell icon so you won't miss my next video!

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Hi, my name's Reece. I'm a passionate Creator, Transportation Planner, and Software Developer, interested in rapid transportation all around my home base of Toronto, Canada, as well as the whole world!

[ravenmusic]

Fun fact: the DLR has the deepest station in central London at 41.2 meters below ground at bank station, below all the tube lines.

It’s really weird seeing these little trains at the bottom of like 4 escalators aha

[ijmad]

If you want to experience the DLR like a real Londoner does, make sure you sit up front and pretend you're driving!

[lmlmd]

Just a little missed fact: Limehouse is a *super* useful station that takes great advantage of the alignment to offer a really smart interchange to mainline services running out of Fenchurch Street. The original Tower Gateway terminus really integrated into either the tube or mainline rail (the early parts of the DLR were built on a super low Thatcher era budget with a *lot* of design compromises). As a result, commuters coming in from the east to Canary Wharf would have faced over-shooting their destination by miles *and* a really awkward out-of-station interchange. By taking advantage of the adjacent tracks at Limehouse for an interchange, commuters could get off before central London, have a simple in-station interchange to the DLR heading to Canary Wharf, and also take a much more direct route at the same time. As the DLR as now been extended into Bank, Limehouse has become even more useful as it allows passengers coming into Central London to change to the DLR to Bank, which is much more convenient for most of Central London than Fenchurch Street, and also lets them have direct access to the tube, which from Fenchurch street is a, you guessed it, convoluted out of station interchange.

Also, yep, the hunting. It's *really* bad. Again, it's just a legacy of the cheap initial build where some really janky design choices were to try and minimise land purchases and clearing, so insanely tight curves all round. A lot of the newer extensions further out (The Beckon extension, for example) have gentler curves. Unfortunately, because the old (super tight) ones lie at the heart of the system, it condemns all new rolling stock to maintain the crappy wheel geometry.

[RipCityBassWorks]

Woah, this system is incredible. To think this is a secondary system in London after the Tube, yet would put the primary systems of many cities to shame.

[mo-v]

The cross platform boarding at Greenwich is actually quite useful as it provides direct interchange for people who come from the southeastern suburbs and want to get to canary wharf for work

[Iskandar]

Every Londoner probably says this, but I love the DLR as you can sit in the front and pretend you are driving the train. It also feels like a fairground ride. Love it.

[OpaSpielt]

I love to see videos from "driver's cabins" of networks all over the world. They are always wonderful.
But yours today is special because of all the explanations about the stuff we can see out of the front window, that we wouldn't notice without your guidance.
Awesome.
For me as a German it's sometimes a bit difficult to follow your other videos because your high speed of talking. But here the train ride determines the speed of commentary.
Continue your awesome video footage.
Thanks for your efforts and best regards.
🖐👴

[jtsholtod.]

Very enjoyable journey(s). Haven't ridden the DLR in decades so it's great to see the changes.

[racecardriverrr]

The twists and turns of the DLR amaze me! I love the looks of the rolling stock as well
Great vid as always mate

[SupremeLeaderKimJong-un]

People: So are you heavy-rail rapid transit or a light rail?
The DLR: *Yes*

As grand as that Canary Wharf station looks, it's still not as gorgeous as the murals and chandeliers at the stations on our beloved Pyongyang Metro

[grahamumbo]

Thanks for informing this Londoner some new facts about the DLR even though I did take my young children to ride it on the first weekend it ran. Like me, they always enjoyed it and on her 16th birthday my daughter took her friends for a ride there. These North Londoners were most impressed as no other parents ever took their children around to show the joys of public transport.

[TorToroPorco]

I love riding the DLR especially since it’s a great way to see the city thanks to its elevated sections rather than being underground or even ground level.

[JaapFilius]

I was in London lots of times as a tourist and I know the DLR from the very first start in 1987. It's an amazing form of public transport and it had been grown far beyond any expectation. As far as I know new 6-car trainsets have been ordered to be delivered in the next few years to come. A new chapter in this London successtory.

[tsk]

That was quite a ride! I like a lot how DLR network combines both old and new infrastructure.

[thdawg]

I haven't used the DLR all the way from Shadwell to Lewisham since 2009 when I went to do shopping there before Stratford Westfield opened fully. Whoever invented the DLR done an amazing job. I use to use it regularly to change to & from Canary Wharf after work too few years back from Jubilee line. There's so many new apartments everywhere now days too! The views outside were never like this over 10 years ago. DLR is also the station where I saw Magneto from the X-Men movies. He was just using it causally one late night reading his newspaper & got off at Westferry. Gave me a nod & said goodnight lol.

[francismorrone]

A comment not about the DLR, but about your video: the photography, editing, sound, and superb commentary made this about as good as YouTube gets for me. Thank you.

[timp]

Reece,

Thanks for this video. Glad you enjoyed your visit to London, my hometown.

As you remark, the original core was built on the cheap, repurposing lines closed and abandoned when the docks closed. (I walked most of the line before building started, and watched it being built.) The philosophy was that the DLR was a giant advertisement for the regeneration and the Canary Wharf development. The original core cost only £77 million which, even in the mid 80s was cheap for a transit system.

The subsequent station extensions, new trains, and the new lines cost much more.

Not to mention the £billions which the Jubilee and Elizabeth lines cost to properly service the Docklands developments originally made possible by the DLR which was quickly outgrown.

[MrDigitalman]

Been to UK once 21 years ago and never ridden the London underground and it's transit system. This docklands train system is a must ride

[ianstern]

Fantastic video Reece! I love how you mentioned Selective Door operation, as it's relatively prevalent in the UK but seems less common throughout the rest of the world.

[japanesetrainandtravel]

I still remember when the DLR was just two lines. I first visited in 87 and rode from Tower Hill to Island Garden. It was the most modern mode of transport compared to the Tubes stock at that time.

What the DLR has become is what Ottawa’s O Train and the Scarborough RT in Canada could have been - automated, medium capacity, high level boarding trains operated as a network. Scarborough would have been so well served by transit by now vs the Scarborough Subway extension

@reece - love the background music - nice acid jazz flavour!