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Docklands Light Railway : Routes : Stratford

The route through the Isle of Dogs takes the DLR through the very heart of Docklands. This area is the reason for the railway's construction, and has at its centre the Canary Wharf development. When first opened in 1987, the route ran as far as the southern tip of the Isle of Dogs, at Island Gardens. In 1999 the line was extended under the Thames to Greenwich and Lewisham, and the original stations at Mudchute and Tower Gardens were replaced by new stations on a new alignment.

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West India Quay–Stratford

From North Quay Junction, trains run east to Poplar station. This was rebuit to four-platform layout for the Beckton extension, and lies next to Poplar depot (Operations and Maintenance Centre—OMC). The line swings away north, parting company with the Beckton extension, and there is a connection with the depot tracks just before All Saints station. From here the line uses the alignment of the former North London Railway (opened in 1866) through stations at Devons Road and Bow Church. Just north of Bow Church the line becomes single track, and climbs steeply with a sharp right-hand bend to join the alignment of the Fenchurch Street–Bow–Stratford railway line, which runs alongside to the junction with the Great Eastern line out of Liverpool Street.

The single DLR track runs alongside multiple National Rail tracks, with a passing loop at Pudding Mill Lane station, to reach a formerly disused bay platform at Stratford. This station, already served by main line railway services and London Underground's Central Line, increased siginficantly in importance in 1999 when the Jubilee Line Extension to Central London via North Greenwich and Canary Wharf opened, and will grow as a transport interchange when Stratford International station on the Channel Tunnel Rail Link opens (this may be served by an extension of the DLR).