They could backronym it to "Driverless Light Railway"

If I had my way, the DLR would be extended all of the way to Penzance... That would mean that we would finally get some decent public transport here in West Cornwall!

0:03 “The docklands light railway as it's birth certificate calls it.” XD Great video as always Jago.

Would be interesting if it was to terminate at Barbican, as some of the track on the widened lines could be used, and bring down the cost in line with the cheapness of light rail. The sidings could be kept for the metropolitan line. Nice video as always though, I had never known of these plans until today!

Imagine the fights... imagine the house prices. I live in Lewisham borough, and the DLR is one of the factors in the crazy house price inflation, which isn't all good news if you are local and priced out of the area. A fascinating video as always, Jago.

They should add loop from Bank directly back to Bank with no intermediate stations. That way people can just sit on the line and pretend they’re driving the train all day.

I always think of DLR carriages as repainted K9's salvaged from the Dr Who prop department

RIP Queen Elizabeth She will be missed At least she lived to see the Elizabeth Line open

Informative broadcast from the enigma who is known as Jago Hazzard. The movie The Long Good Friday was so prophetical with the development of east London

I think it makes more sense to get the DLR over to Thamesmead, and finally get them a station!

When City Thameslink was opened in 1990, the station building was designed to incorporate a future interchange with the Jubilee line, on a proposed phase two routing, in a 1977 study. So, if the DLR was extended west of Bank, to Charing Cross, provision would already be made at City Thameslink. With regards to enlarging the tunnels, it's not just to do with the loading gauge of the DLR trains; as the trains have no cab end doors, the tunnels would need side walkways as well. These already exist on the current DLR underground sections, and also on the city centre underground sections of the Tyne and Wear Metro. That's another system which goes below ground but whose trains have no cab end doors.

A recurring theme in the comments is that of reusing extant tube tunnels, the problem in each case being the larger loading gauge of DLR stock. To re-bore tunnels is a massive challenge. No-one has mentioned inverting the logic: Running a new stock of DLR trains that fits the tunnels and then runs-out onto the extant DLR connections.

With a station practically on every street corner North of the river, an extension to South East London and Kent would be nice.

I love your videos. You are clearly very knowledgeable and your delivery is witty but without any trivialisation. Please keep doing what you're doing! I'm a huge fan! 👏👍😊

Having the maps, in the videos, makes such a big difference now. Very nice 🙂

To be fair, if I had to choose between clay or chalk to dig a tunnel through. I would choose chalk every day of the week. Clay has a large tendency to flow about over short periods of time, making cave-ins rather likely, and the resulting disturbance to above ground property all that much more likely. Chalk at least has some rigidity to it. Though, I live in Stockholm, a city that almost exclusively has granite to work with. Unlike clay and chalk, one can't really put a scratch into it with one's nails alone.

My solution would be to make the dlr go everywhere. Close everything. Rebrand it. The Elizabeth line only recently opened but the dlr is always superior.

Very interesting video. Thank you 👍🙂 So good it made me go back and watch the one about the Waterloo & City line extension (or lack thereof...!!)

I suspect the proposal to extend to CHX, was more about keeping the protected fleet line path alive rather than a serious idea

The DLR needs to stay away from central London! I'd much rather see it extend south from the docklands all the way down to Bromley! And then connect with the Bakerloo line planned extensions in those same areas of south east London.

I’m so old I remember when DLR trains were blue and had folding doors.

Can you hear the noise of three thousand crayons on one thousand maps? Very enjoyable video, all the same.

Well I think there are enough options in (under) Central London already. How about Beckton-Barking-Ilford? Or maybe Lewisham-Bromley? However, the problem is that, as per the name, it's very much a LIGHT railway originally intended for short distances. People aren't going to want to trundle around slowly across large chunks of London.

The DLR already runs very close to the Bank, there are cooling grates in the middle of the street in Lothbury

The uploads are always welcome. 👍🏻🇬🇧

Some fascinating possibilities. I think it would be incredibly useful for the DLR to go at least _somewhere_ west of Bank. Also, I feel they missed an opportunity during the Bank station upgrade by not moving one of the DLR platforms upstairs and swapping with the Northern line for cross platform interchange. That would be useful with the current DLR termination in Bank, but would be game changing with a DLR western extension.

Victoria tube station could do with some extra capacity but a DLR extension wouldn't do much to help. How about another Crossrail project?

Whenever I come to Europe, my travel hub is my friend's place in London, and she recently moved near Limehouse. Over this summer, I've had to travel from hers to Liverpool Street (for the airport), KX (for Scotland) and St Pancreas (for the mainland-and yes, I know, but my autocorrect doesn't). Each time, the worst part of the journey was dragging heavy bags around Bank. Yes, I'm a pack rat, but Bank seems to have been designed less for rats, and more by rabid wombats, with tunnels haphazardly built where there's… well, clay and chalk according to you, and, given the wombat's medical record, rabies! But not much room, apparently, for escalators and lifts, nor other things that would make this pack rat's travel easier. (Although I suppose, if it was really built by a wombat, the wombat would sit and block the exit for the rat, to trap it and make it regret going there… wombats actually do that; and Bank admittedly doesn't have _that_ problem, although I did find myself very frustrated late one night, looking for an open exit from Temple.) Anyhow, as I watched this video, I wished that _any_ of those DLR extensions had been built. Also, my condolences about the Queen. I must admit, your particular English accent has always made me think of you as a monarchist, which might just be a terrible stereotype, but I think we're all at least a bit sad today, even those of us in the land of republican wombats. (In the classic sense, nothing to do with the rabid US political party… I'm so glad Australia doesn't have rabies! Wombats cause enough problems for foundations as it is!)

If I had my way I would extend it from shadwell to King's Cross. All those comutters who come in there would save so much time. I work in the wharf and get the Stratford canary wharf line. Always loved it.

The ad placement after the 'be right back' joke is spot on

Forget the heist movie - Thunderbirds already did it.

I would extend the DLR to Southend Providing much needed competition to the C2C.... We could test the viability of that idea By extending The Central Line To Stansted... Er... Irony Alert! Irony Alert!... Mr Hazzard Temper with some sarcasm!

I almost wish they could connect the DLR to the Waterloo and City Line, and build a station at Blackfriars. Yes, the tunnels would need to be widened, but it would have added extra throughput between Waterloo and Bank.

The DLR 'as is' is great. By far my favorite form of transport through London... after crossrail.. and the riverboats.

Of all the Old Boy's vids, this one must have taken some serious time consuming research. Hats off to Mr Hazard.

I never understood why a DLR extension to Charing Cross was considered over a second Jubilee Line Extension. Does the Underground really cost that much more to build when you're digging tunnels anyway?

Great video, thanks! Not being from London (nor indeed from Britain) I can't claim to know much about it; but I think I would extend the DLR with a loop. Not a horizontal loop... a VERTICAL loop! That would be a massive tourist attraction! 😄

The Euston, St Pancras/Kings Cross (branching off a line to Victoria) would have had the benefit of connecting the Docklands area with a big chunk of the services serving rest of the country. So, it may have been worth the trouble.

A video on the proposed DLR under Thames tunnel extension from Gallion's Reach to Thamesmead would be good, as this is the only extension under current serious consideration.

Well my suggestion would be a new eastern link from Stratford running parallel to the Romford road with a step free stop at the junction of Woodgrange road for Everest Fish Chips & Kebabs then continuing eastwards with the next pause at Bel Pomodoro ( for Manor Park). Then moving at street level in a straight line through western Ilford and coming to rest at Greggs in High road Ilford. This would be a busy interchange of fast food outlets. Still further east a brief halt at Jakes Hamburgers an interchange with the Elizabeth Line at Chadwell Heath, after that it is an express non stop final leg with the terminus at St Chads Park adjacent to the public toilets and park bench.

When I saw the title of the video I said to myself "Aldwych!". It has to be the station which has had the biggest number of plans turned down: extension to Waterloo through Temple (tried on, at least, four different times), Jubilee line, DLR... In fact, these would make an interesting series of videos, Mr. Hazzard O:) .

I think the extension to Charing Cross would have been a great idea.

I've always wondered why they never built a raised track, a la US Elevated lines , maybe straight along Oxford Street and follow the wide roads they have on the main parts of London (not the old back streets). A few steel girders must cost less than boring a tunnel after all.

Charing Cross would have been sensible as it offered a faster (fewer intermediate stations) alternative to the District / Circle lines. DLR trains approaching from the east could have had a crossover tunnels added (as part of the tunnel enlargement) on the eastern side of the station so that they did not need to travel beyond the platforms. Reusing the Jubilee platforms would have sensible - especially if the Jubilee line tunnels on the western side of the Charing Cross platforms could have been converted to a Jubilee line siding for stabling broken down trains, reversing trains, etc. The only disadvantage would have been the loss of the use of these platforms as film sets.

As a tourist I love the DLR but the extensions mentioned seemed complicated and expensive. Maybe the western ones will excite me more!

It’s September 2025 and Jago Hazzard’s Bank of England heist movie is THE movie of the year. Well done Jago. 👏👏👍😀

I think I've read somewhere that the reversing tunnels at Bank head towards Moorgate, and the plan for the Farringdon extension was to use the Widened Line between Moorgate and Farringdon; new platforms would have to be constructed at Farringdon

When digging Crossrail Tunnels a trick was missed to build three additional service tunnels, two of which could later be filled by the DLR with more closer Stations.

Interesting. I suspect that other than reusing existing tunnels and/or overground lines then extending the DLR west is going to prove problematic/expensive. It might be cheaper to build an above-river extension on concrete pillars then you could stop off almost anywhere - London Bridge, Blackfriars, Waterloo.... or how about reusing the Waterloo and city line as a DLR route? Require some rejigging at Bank but hey...

I don't have a clue which way the platforms at Bank are pointing, or what level they are at, but I often used to think that it would be nice to join the DLR and Waterloo and City together. It would have made a few journeys I did many years ago, a bit easier, too!

An extension to Hull would be nice.

See, with a St. Pancras/Euston extension, I always presumed they would just (roughly) continue on the existing direction of tunnels through Clerckenwell and make a westerly turn towards the stations, not quite following the Met/National Rail trench. That seemed like the best way to make that connection, but eh

Others have mentioned the capacity issue. I suspect that the further the DLR is extended east, south and north, the capacity of a stub two track station at Bank will become a more serious issue. One option that doesn't seem to have been considered is to extend a different part of the DLR into London north of The City to reach Thameslink and CrossRail. This would spread the traffic and allow DLR passengers to avoid Bank altogether while on their way to locations in and outside London. I don't know London well enough to say where this would go but part of the scheme might involve integrating the east end of the District Line, with all its aboveground track, into new DLR route.

I suspect the would be an issue with the DLR stock having to shift large numbers of passengers in central London. Longer trains or increased frequency would be needed.

I think the Farringdon extension would be nice, the infrastructure is already there, there are abandoned platforms at Moorgate and Barbican, and at Farringdon you’d just need to build two new platforms

All those mentioned extensions for the DLR looked interesting, and should be given a go. It’ll definitely help with the overcrowding issue in London, and will make an interesting and kind of surprising difference. If I had been provided a chance to extend the DLR, I would extend it to Barking Riverside, Upminster, Romford, Abbey Wood, Waterloo, Walthamstow Central, and Rayners Lane.

With the possibility of construction work in disused stations, tunnel-widening and so on, one wonders if any long-hidden surprises will be uncovered. Hopefully nothing like what was uncovered at Hobbs End (hint-hint, nudge-nudge, wink-wink). :D

From my (stricly limited) memory of the DLR's history, it seems to me that planners always underestimate future needs, build something slightly cheaper than a full tube line, then act surprised later and point to the obvious need for upgrades, which are insufficient again so that even further upgrades are needed later, ultimately costing more for less capacity than building something adequate right from the start. So I am glad that all plans for extensions beyond Bank have been abandoned. For St. Pancras and Euston, it would make a lot more sense to take a commuter line into Euston underground and extend it to Shoreditch High Street, Mile End and Canary Wharf. For Charing Cross and Victoria, surely the bigger solution would be to take the Fenchurch Street Line underground from Tower Hamlets Cemetery Park and let it go to Victoria, though even that would waste the potential of an even larger scheme.

In the early 2000s I heard tell of a possible DLR extension to Waterloo by having it replace the Waterloo & City line - with a possible new station at Blackfriars, where I believe the W&C tunnel runs quite close. But I'm sure that's fiendishly complicated, even if the tunnels to already exist.

Interesting to read about proposed DLR western extensions that never were. For years now here have been mutterings about reopening the abandoned Finsbury Park to Alexandra Palace via Highgate line as a DLR type system so with an extension of the existing line from Bank to St. Pancras, it wouldn't require much thought to extend this north of St. Pancras to Finsbury Park for the old Ally Pally line to become part of the DLR itself, rather than just exist as an isolated driverless line. It would also bring rail travel back to the well-populated suburbs of Crouch End and Muswell Hill which, come July 2023, will have been rail-less for 69 years even though it should, by rights, now be part of the LU Northern Line - and the reasons why it is not are well known. Of course, I am being slightly selfish here as I live in Crouch End so the idea of being able to get on a DLR train all the way up to town and down into deepest darkest south London in one go is very appealing, rather than waiting around for buses to Finsbury Park or Archway before I even set sight on a train, never mind actually boarding one. This is particularly irksome coming home late after a night out in town with friends or at the theatre, for instance, having to toil out of the deep-level platforms at Finsbury Park station and then hang around in that cold inhospitable bus station for the W3 just to go the last mile or so home. And perhaps another name would be needed for the DLR since it would then be far and away from docklands, I would suggest London Light Rail even though this wouldn't cover the whole of the Capital. But then Croydon Tramlink got away with renaming that system as London Tramlink even though it is confined to just one small south-eastern corner yet the renaming gives the impression that trams are London-wide. But in any case, I can't see DLR trains being extended to Ally Pally via St. Pancras and Crouch End in my lifetime but its a nice thought. Kind regards, David, Crouch End, N8

In a city like London, in fact the Island of Great Britain from the south coast all the way up to and including Scotland's central belt, we want a grid of railway. The grid is more fine-grained in cities and in regions with cities close together. So, when considering where a rail line should go, you should look to the grid and people centres. What you don't want is railways that look radial as they get congested at the centre and thus are inefficient.

I just want the DLR to go from London City Airport to Liverpool St Station. What an easy way to the office that would be.

Great vid Jago!

the DLR is above the road what the Tube was beneath it, a great achievement. more DLR'S are needed maybe as well as Tramways too. again inciteful Jago

Yes, for the eastern extensions. I love to see what could have been.

I should be excited about the idea of the DLR coming within my reach to Charing Cross. The thing is even I have to admit how crazy awkward it would be, I couldn't even picture it. Yep...

Connect the DLR to the Waterloo & City Line, Problem solved, immensly useful. Yes, even allowing the wider loading gauge, it's about reboring to Waterloo, and as an engineer myself, not a great problem! The new DLR, Drain Light Railway!

I do hope that we get that extension of the DLR, from Bank to Victoria, via City Thameslink, Aldwych, Charing Cross and Green Park, one day. We would not actually need to use Aldwych station itself, except as an entry point for tunnelling equipment, during construction, and as a ventilation point after the new line opens. If the DLR platforms were built to the north of disused Aldwych platforms, the old Piccadilly Line running tunnels, from Aldwych to Holborn could be converted into moving walkways, with another angled tunnel, connecting a new circulation area to the Central Line. At Charing Cross the disused platforms would be most useful for holding construction trains, which could be filled up with soil from TBMs and sent up the existing Jubilee Line at night. I would probably recommend retaining both the platforms and building new DLR platforms on either side of them, as the disused platforms could then be levelled off, like the closed Northern Line platform at Bank, giving the station an absolutely ton of circulation space. Going west from Charing Cross, I would not widen the disused tunnels all the way to Green Park station. Instead I would send the TBMs straight down the middle of The Mall and build a Buckingham Palace station where Green Park meets St James's Park. And I would not have the train go and terminate at Victoria. I would have it extend beyond Victoria with an eastern entrance, that links into the existing Underground Station and a western entrance built into Victoria Coach Station. I would even go further west...or rather north west. And here is where the fun starts. We use the disused Brompton Road station as an access point, for construction, but build DLR platfoms that connect to Knightsbridge Station. The next station we build with a station box dropped into the middle of Hyde Park, probably somewhere west of where they do that Chrismas market. Then it's on to Paddington, creating a direct DLR link between Victoria and Paddingdon. And then - the car lobbyists will love this bit - we close the Westway to car traffic. And we give one half of it to the DLR and the other half of it to trams and buses! The Westway gives us new DLR interchange stations at Royal Oak, Westborne Park and Ladbrook Grove. We build a new station, to the west of the Weststway Roundabout that has a connection to the West London Line at the east side and a connection to the Central Line at the west side. A new interchange station, where the Westway crosses the North London Line from Richmond (and probably a couple more stations before that). Then it's off to Park Royal and Hanger Lane, with interchange stations. I would move Greenford national rail station north, to make another interchange and terminate the DLR there...for now. 😉

In principle, better connections to other lines on the Tube network would be a good thing--though, as you point out, it can be very pricey. Maybe the need will be mitigated a little bit by the E-Line, which will provide connections to both networks. Not as convenient as a direct connection, perhaps, but there it is. There might also be concerns that extending the lower-capacity DLR could obstruct and preclude some other improvement that would give you a little more bang for your buck... or "purchase for your pound" as the case may be.

An option they missed could’ve seen an extension to St Pancras via the Stratford International extension they could’ve dug tunnels alongside or under the high-speed says you’re a star tunnels or I guess even put it above ground then once at St Pancras station they could’ve potentially gone down to Moorgate on the widened line section or found a way of getting across to Victoria.

The cost-benefit analysis didn't stack up in favour of the Liverpool Street / Shoreditch extensions? They had the best cost-benefit ratio (Shoreditch might have been not as good as Farringdon/Barbican) as they were relatively cheap and met the aims of a zone 1 extension - relieving Bank station of some of its DLR passengers by giving another outlet nearby and adding additional interchanges, while not further crowding the DLR into Bank. It was odd that Charing Cross went forward (and extended to Victoria) - the tube lines it was going to relieve (Jubilee, Central) were being relieved by Crossrail, it stuck a load more passengers on the DLR approaching Bank, and I think it even was modelled as increasing the number of people using the DLR platforms at Bank, especially in its Victoria iteration.

I feel this report was a options study for how to keep Canary wharf growing if Crossrail was not authorized by parliament. 3 years later the Crossrail Act was approved. If I was to extend the DLR now I would go west from Lewisham to Clapham junction. This could include conversation of one of the existing rail lines to DLR. When the Horizon report was produced the Lewisham section of the DLR was owned by a private company (carillon) as part of a design build and maintain contract.

All the extensions... but we need one to Dagenham Dock and Rainham, though getting it to Dagenham East to join the new film studios would be a massive coup!

Considering there was Jubilee station at Charing X, it would make sense to have a loop/branch by Jubilee line to feed Charing X.

On wet and miserable mornings an extension to Aldwych or Charing Cross via Liverpool Street would be very useful for me, if only to avoid the number 11 bus. But when it's dry (which is way more often than the stereotypes would have you believe, even in winter) the walk from Liverpool Street to my place of work takes no more than 35 minutes, so it wouldn't be a service I'd use that much. Nevertheless a very interesting idea.

Great video as always!

Not sure why you would consider extending the DLR (a mainly surface light rail) underground. I thought its main advantage was its relatively cheap construction.

i think the DLR needs a Loop-de-loop to make it a little more exciting, and would wake up those morning commuters :v

謝謝，很多意思

That old WW2 report on London Trains. Linking Euston with London Bridge and Victoria for places south, and likewise Kings Cross with a scissors interchange under Hyde Park would have made good sense.

I think that the western extensions will get built sometime...its just when...around 2060 I reckon!

Looking at the last proposal, the extension up to St. Pancras, surely would also interfere with the proposed Crossrail 2 route and platforms which has been safeguarded and would like a number of Elizabeth Line stations be double ended with one end serving the mainline and international services at Kings Cross and St.Pancras the other end serving Euston. I believe recent works at Euston for HS2 has allowed a "box" to be put in place for Crossrail 2 services and passive provision was made during the upgrades at both Kings Cross and St. Pancras much like what they did at Tottenham Court Road. In saying that though I would love to see the DLR to be extended through the City and for Bank to become a through station. I think City Thameslink would be ideal with perhaps a new station between it and Bank. I still think DLR/TfL ought to redevelop Lewisham station to enable the services to head further south to Catford, Bromley North and Beckenham to connect with the Trams in Croydon, though by that stage the DLR will seriously need to consider another name...perhaps given that Beckenham sees the two systems connect - could we see London Light Rail as a joint name

I read an article about how they were considering a new underground line to connect HS2 at Euston to Cnary Wharf. The St Pancras extension would achieve this so I wonder of this may happen in the future.

I like the way TFL make "we don't make a profit" a virtue in the notice @1:47 😏

My favourite extension idea is non stop from Bank to Farringdon, then King's Cross, Euston, Tottenham Court Road, Piccadilly Circus, and Victoria. Why? Victoria line is overcrowded on its journey north from Victoria. Although no passengers coming up from further south will gain by changing at Victoria passengers joining the tube system from the mainline would gain a faster journey if travelling to any stations on the Piccadilly line east of Green Park, or the Central Line east of Oxford Circus or to either Euston or King's Cross. That's a lot of passengers currently fighting to get onto a Victoria line train at Victoria who could use the DLR instead. It's the same story from Euston and King's Cross - the current lines running to both the west end and the city are overcrowded and with the enhancements due to the main line services into those stations the overcrowding will only get worse. In particular the northern line to Bank is fairly gruelling so a limited stop faster service by DLR would be welcome and with fewer stations on this section construction costs would be lower too.

"One specific example they give, is the Bank of England & I've just had a Great idea for a hist movie - be right back!!!" very good / funny Jago 😄🚂🚂🚂

I always try to get a front seat on the DLR. ❤️

Thanks for this. I think I clicked on this by mistake but it was highly entertaining and amusing so I left a like for your sinister KZfaq paymasters

Would love to see it extend to kings cross, would love to see Aldwych reopen whether it be a tube or DLR station

Maybe an extension to Waterloo using the existing track should be used to avoid needless changes. Or if capacity/budget wasn't an issue possibly go to King's Cross via Charing Cross could be done. The would give commuters a route North, into Central London and a route South

It would still make sense to extend the bank branch to Charing cross via ludgate circus (Thameslink). There’s certainly no shortage of demand for people wanting to get between the Docklands and both the local areas and the interchanges. The big problem would be that they’d probably need longer trains and this platforms.

South London is is much greater need than anything in the City or Westminster. Joining the DLR at Lewisham to the Tram makes much more sense.

It kind of defeats the purpose of “docklands” light railway. The extension to bank was good for getting from the docks to the city vis-à-vis.

I prefer the Victoria and King's Cross extensions. It connects Lewisham, Deptford, Greenwich and the Docklands to HS2 and Eurostar. I would also like the DLR to takeover the Waterloo & City line. People in Canary Wharf would have a second option if they need to go to Waterloo, while relieving congestion on the Jubilee line.

Dreaming of a tale of undermining the Bank of England; I like your style, JH.

Quite possible. Gaps between train sections tend to be long on all national railways due to several reasons. Not only do DLR trains require a much shorter gap between trains, but in addition they've got the added automatic built in security which relieves drivers who can instead look after door closings, etc. At present DLR trains tend to be short, but that's due to the short platforms of their existing stations that were built in a hurry and on a budget. Any trains running to Charing X, etc, would be able to make use of national standard long platforms.

I would build an extenison from Startford Highspeed station to Walthamstow Central. I have heard of the extenison to Euston, but not to St Pancras.

An extension to East Dulwich is needed to bring this suburb, which I once inhabited in to the 21st century of a London transport. This could r done from the Lewisham extension.

Having known DLR from the start, known about campaign to get station at Canning Town, and attended opening of Beckton Extension as a community leader, I'd say all those westwards extensions are pretty much dead for two reasons: 1) DLR is, and always was, a step up from a tram - it's slow with stops close together. 2) While we all remember the days when it was unreliable, due to running in, and mostly empty during 1990s recession and before massive flat building, it is now crammed full and can't take many more passengers. Extending east, eg Barkingside, and south, eg Eltham, are options but will leave no room for folk to get on at Woolwich and might isolate Beckton. On speed: living close to Beckton station, it was same time to walk from home to Prince Regent as the short distance to Beckton station with train looping via Gallions Reach. Cycling beyond Bank or Tower Gateway was much faster as both faster than DLR and no change of train. If I didn't cycle, walk to East Ham and Underground to a job near Chelsea was faster than via DLR.

thanks i really enjoyed this.