The Docklands Light Railway extension to Thamesmead will be built after all, bringing to an end months of uncertainty and leaks about the project – but how much the government will contribute remains a mystery.
The news was confirmed in Wednesday afternoon’s Budget, although Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, did not explicitly mention it in her speech, preferring instead to talk up schemes elsewhere in the country.
Construction is likely to begin by 2028 with the first trains running in 2033. City Hall and Transport for London will fund the project – set to cost £1.6 billion – with borrowing, with the government providing support with repayments.
“The government welcomes confirmation that London will deliver the DLR extension to Thamesmead, funded through Transport for London and Greater London Authority borrowing,” the full Budget document said. “The majority of the costs will be met by TfL and GLA, with the government also contributing over the long term.
“The government will continue to work with London to finalise funding details and will continue to work with the GLA to look at options for innovative financing to support the delivery of infrastructure projects in the capital.”
Sir Sadiq Khan, the London mayor, said: “I’m pleased that we have managed to secure some important wins for London. This includes the commitment to extend the Docklands Light Railway to Thamesmead and new powers to London to raise a tourist levy.
“We will need to examine carefully the details in the Budget and discuss with the Treasury the full impact on our capital city.
“As Mayor, I’ll always stand up for London, irrespective of which party is in government, as we continue to build a fairer, safer and more affordable London for everyone.”
“Less than impressed with this ‘announcement’,” the Liberal Democrat assembly member Hina Bokhari said on social media. “So no idea whatsoever how much money the Treasury will actually invest in the DLR extension. The mayor is on his own to fund it.”
The new line will branch off from the DLR’s Beckton route at Gallions Reach, serving a stop at Beckton Riverside, before crossing the Thames via a tunnel to a station on the site of the Cannon Retail Park off Central Way, just west of the town centre.
While the first people moved into Thamesmead as long ago as 1968, the new line is designed with the next influx of residents in mind – with the station serving the new Thamesmead Waterfront development, where 15,000 homes are planned.
The line will also encourage thousands of homes to be built on long-derelict land at Beckton.
Even though Thamesmead is approaching its 60th anniversary, the government is considering giving it “new town” status to help push through the development, and potentially encourage more new housing nearby too
While the Elizabeth Line at Abbey Wood has greatly eased access to the area, early plans to put Thamesmead on the Tube map were not followed through.
During the 1970s plans were outlined to extend what became the Jubilee Line through to Thamesmead as part of a plan to redevelop the old east London docks, but the scheme was effectively scrapped in 1979 and the original DLR was eventually built instead.
When the Jubilee Line was finally extended to Stratford in 1999, space was left at North Greenwich for a possible link to Thamesmead, but no plans came forward.
A DLR extension to Thamesmead has been mooted ever since the first trains ran in 1987. The current plans were originally announced by Sir Sadiq Khan nine years ago, along with his backing of the Silvertown Tunnel.
The plans looked in jeopardy after it was not included in the government’s spending review in June. But two weeks later it allocated some money for TfL to continue developing the scheme.
While news that the government would finally approve the extension was leaked to selected news outlets last week, in reality the game was given away at the start of the month when TfL started the process of putting construction out to tender.
Even the official announcement slipped out early, when the Office for Budget Responsibility’s assessment of each measure in the Budget was accidentally published just before Reeves stood up to make her speech.
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