Light relief

Being a cheapskate, when it came to developing the vast disused docklands to the East of London, Thatcher would only agree to a very light metro system being constructed -- she wasn't having any of this Underground nonsense, let alone "proper" heavy rail. Hence, the Docklands Light Railway appeared as the turquoise routes to the right of the standard Tube map:

Over the years, absolutely huge amounts of cash have had to be spent upgrading the DLR to cope with the volumes of traffic a city like London generates. It would have been so much easier to just do the job properly in the first place.

However, over the decades the DLR has shown its value, and the latest of a long line of extensions is due to open this summer, in time for the Olympics Fiasco of 2012:

Planning work is now starting on the next possible extensions, and TfL ("Transport for London", to you) has now produced a map showing its hot favourites:

That long, snaking westbound extension is so overdue: Tower Gateway has always been desperately problematic as an, er, gateway, and Bank is one of the worst possible transport interchanges for the DLR to terminate at (involving seemingly interminable underground passages before, eventually, you find another Tube line). And the old Jubilee line platforms at Charing Cross have been disused since the Jubilee line extension by-passed CX (building underground stations is far and away the most expensive bit of subway systems, so going to a station there would also be very economical).

Extending further, to both Victoria and Euston/St Pancras, is actually rather visionary (Green Park in particular is a great interchange to link into). So a big Well Done to the planners.

Looking to the other compass points, the proposed southern extension, to Forest Hill, provides another handy interchange with the new Overground network (and gives us a station with the brilliant name of Medusa), while the eastern extension does little for me other than the new station name of Creekmouth -- which I feel is well worth adding to the Tube map. That is all.

Oh, incidentally, for those who like/need this sort of thing, TfL has produced a handy Tube map showing toilet facilities on the network.

Who knew there were so many lavvies on the Underground.

What a relief, eh?