First new DLR trains due to enter service in March 2024
The first new DLR trains are set to enter service by March 2024 according to Transport for London.
A 2023/24 budget document gives the target date when the first of 54 trains will begin operating and boost capacity across the network.
Introduction will see older stock around 30 years old head for scrap – though more will enter than leave resulting a a net addition of stock enabling greater frequencies across the network.
Thirty three B92 class stock will leave, with those arriving named B23 and set to offer greater capacity with walk-through carriages and fewer seats. They also include air conditioning and USB sockets.
Those irritating shorter two-car trains will be longer. Other benefits include extending Stratford to Canary Wharf trains south to Lewisham boosting service levels.
New sidings are being built in Beckton to accommodate new trains.
TfL also reiterate in reports before the Board that they seek an extension to Thamesmead where Peabody hold vast swaths of land. However the Housing Association are doing little favour to their cause by continue to landbank numerous plots within walking distance of Abbey Wood station.
Some have long had planning permission without any movement on site.
Those with the purse strings may well argue why should they fund an extension to enable housebuilding, when Peabody aren’t building at many sites in close proximity to a rebuilt station near a new £19 billion railway.
But now it’s likely that the new DLR trains will not be entering service until the end of this year as it’s been delayed. And CAF may even consider building new Bakerloo Line trains to replace the 1972 Stock. And with plans for the Bakerloo Line to extend from Elephant and Castle to Lewisham, Hayes and Bromley in Southeast London.
The new DLR trains should have entered service in 2024 but now it’s expected to see them entering service in late 2026.