The Docklands Light Railway (the DLR) is an automated light metro or light rail system opened in 1987 to serve the redeveloped Docklands area of London. It reaches north to Stratford, south to Lewisham, west to Tower Gateway and Bank in the City of London financial district, and east to Beckton, London City Airport and Woolwich Arsenal.
The system is not entirely unmanned: it uses minimal staffing on board trains and at major interchange stations. Similar proposals have been made for the adjacent system, the Tube.
The DLR is operated under a concession awarded by Transport for London to Serco Limited, part of the Serco Group. The system is owned by Docklands Light Rail Limited, part of the London Rail division of Transport for London. In 2006 the DLR carried over 60 million passengers. It has been extended several times and further extensions are being planned.
Read more about Docklands Light Railway: Current Developments, Management
Famous quotes containing the words light and/or railway:
“Few colors last; with their eternal thirst, time and light suck on them, and they bleach the black doctor’s hat until it’s grey like a dunce’s cap.”
—Franz Grillparzer (1791–1872)
“Her personality had an architectonic quality; I think of her when I see some of the great London railway termini, especially St. Pancras, with its soot and turrets, and she overshadowed her own daughters, whom she did not understand—my mother, who liked things to be nice; my dotty aunt. But my mother had not the strength to put even some physical distance between them, let alone keep the old monster at emotional arm’s length.”
—Angela Carter (1940–1992)