Pontoon Dock DLR station gets six escalators as building work begins

Building work has started on a long-planned upgrade at Pontoon Dock DLR station in the Royal Docks. The station will get six escalators to take pressure off its overloaded lifts. The contractor, Morgan Sindall Infrastructure, says it has started setting up the site and carrying out enabling works on a programme lasting two and a half years.

The station opened in 2005, when far fewer people lived around the Royal Docks. Its platforms sit well above the street, so passengers have to take the stairs or one of the two lifts. Many people use the lifts rather than climb. That adds to demand on equipment that passengers who cannot manage steps rely on.

How the Pontoon Dock escalators will work

Two escalators will run from street level up to a larger mezzanine, and four more will link that mezzanine with the platforms. Nothing is being taken away. The stairs and both lifts stay in place, and passengers who can use an escalator will have another way up. All of the new space for moving through the station will sit inside a glass enclosure. Beneath the railway, the plans add shop units and operational rooms, along with landscaping and an improved public square.

The extra capacity is meant to cope with continued housebuilding near the station. TfL has previously forecast that passenger numbers at Pontoon Dock could grow by about a third by 2041. At that point, getting on and off the platforms would become a bigger constraint than space on the trains.

Who is paying and when it could open

Three quarters of the cost, 75%, is coming from outside sources. Homes England and the Greater London Authority are both putting money in. The developer Lendlease is also contributing, and TfL is drawing on its Sustainable Housing and Accessibility Fund. According to Morgan Sindall, working to a fixed sum shaped the design from the start. Where it could, the team kept existing station equipment and upgraded it, and it chose simpler finishes so the cost would stay within budget.

An earlier construction timetable suggested the enlarged station could open to passengers in October 2028. Morgan Sindall’s two and a half year programme, counted from the start of enabling works, now points to around spring 2029. Mott MacDonald drew up the designs with Weston Williamson + Partners.