Sources indicate that the Stratford International Extension to the DLR now has a fixed opening date – the 29th August.
The opening of the extension has been delayed for some time now – an uncharacteristic event for a DLR project, which have traditionally been the more punctual of London’s Transport projects.
Here, however, issues ranging from site thefts to the financial failure of a key signalling supplier have conspired to put back the opening date.
To a certain extent, this delayed opening has not caused major issues for the line as a whole – largely because it will not be until Stratford Westfield opens and the Olympics begin that the extension will really prove its worth. It has been a frustrating wait though, nonetheless – a situation not helped by various opening dates (both rumoured and suggested within TfL documents and comments) passing with relatively little comment.
Ultimately, however, it does appear that now a final, firm launch date – the upcoming bank holiday weekend – has been fixed, with Monday 29th the intended day for public services to start.
As always if information indicates that this situation has changed we will update. You can see pictures of the new DLR station on this post here.