Cost of Docklands Light Railway’s delayed new trains nears £1 billion

The estimated cost of replacing London’s Docklands Light Railway’s ‘B23’ train fleet has risen close to £1 billion.

There is also still no date as to when they will enter service, despite large numbers of the air-conditioned fleet having been completed at CAF’s Spanish factory and awaiting delivery to the UK.

News of a £35 million increase to £942m has been announced to a Transport for London programmes and investment committee meeting, with the explanation withheld as commercially sensitive.

TfL declined to answer RAIL’s question of when they will enter service, saying it is “exploring options to introduce them as soon as possible, alongside implementing solutions to the legacy signalling issues”.

While it is unclear whether the current challenges will be fully overcome during 2025, eight years after the procurement decision was agreed, an update has been promised for TfL’s spring senior management meeting.

High costs have been incurred extending the DLR depot at Beckton after the first contractor went bust.

Additionally, the current signalling on the 24-mile urban network is not fit for purpose.

While four of the five routes are now claimed to have been sorted, the discovery of other problems has forced the imposition of speed restrictions for existing services.

Through all of this, around two dozen new five-car ‘B23s’ are parked at the CAF factory because there is no place to store them on the DLR. TfL said it has had to “flex the delivery timetable and agree plans for additional train storage... this has come at additional cost”.

The ‘B23s’ were due to enter service last April, and then the end of last year. Thirty-two units will replace older stock, with an order of 22 more to increase service frequencies.

Currently, the strong recovery in passenger numbers post-COVID is being stifled by night closures for vehicle testing, which also has an impact on revenue.

There are also concerns about the deteriorating condition of the old B90/B92 stock, and overcrowding caused by reduced train lengths.

TfL’s has reported that four new DLR trains are now in the UK to speed up the testing programme, with perhaps another six to arrive by the early spring, when more ‘B92s’ will be withdrawn (40 have

been completed at the factory). At Beckton, the new northern sidings were ready last August. The new main building is currently being erected, and the new southern sidings will also soon be ready.

Elsewhere on the DLR, upgrades to the public address system are finished, two escalators at South Quays have returned to service, and work is under way on lift renewals at City Airport, King George, Limehouse, Star Lane, and Westferry. Blackwall station’s delayed second entrance is expected to be operational in a few weeks.

A business case for upgrading Pontoon Dock station, at a cost of £43.9m, is being prepared to better serve the Silvertown Quays development of 6,500 new homes. Six new escalators will be provided.