Royal Victoria Station is on the

Docklands Light Railway The Docklands Light Railway (DLR) is an automated light metro system serving the redeveloped Docklands area of London, England and provides a direct connection between London's two major financial districts, Canary Wharf and the City of Lo ...

(DLR) in Canning Town, east

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

. The station opened in 1994 and is named after the nearby Royal Victoria Dock. It is on the DLR's Beckton branch, in

Travelcard Zone 3 Fare zone 3 is an inner zone of Transport for London's zonal fare system used for calculating the price of tickets for travel on the London Underground, London Overground, Docklands Light Railway and, since 2007, on National Rail Nationa ...

, and is the nearest station for the northern terminus of the London Cable Car and for London's new City Hall.

History

The station is located on a stretch of line first opened in 1855, when the

Eastern Counties Railway The Eastern Counties Railway (ECR) was an English railway company incorporated in 1836 intended to link London with Ipswich via Colchester, and then extend to Norwich and Yarmouth. Construction began in 1837 on the first nine miles at the Lond ...

(ECR) was forced to divert its line to North Woolwich (the former

Eastern Counties and Thames Junction Railway The Eastern Counties and Thames Junction Railway in east London connected the Royal Docks with the Eastern Counties Railway (ECR). Authorised in 1844, it opened in 1846, and was absorbed by the ECR in 1847. The ECR amalgamated with other railwa ...

) around the newly opened Royal Victoria Dock. This line went on to become part of

National Rail National Rail (NR) is the trading name licensed for use by the Rail Delivery Group, an unincorporated association whose membership consists of the passenger train operating companies (TOCs) of England, Scotland, and Wales. The TOCs run the ...

's North London line, although there was never a station at the site until the coming of the Docklands Light Railway. When the Docklands Light Railway extension to

Beckton Beckton is a suburb in east London, England, located east of Charing Cross and part of the London Borough of Newham. Adjacent to the River Thames, the area consisted of unpopulated marshland known as the East Ham Levels in the parishes of Barki ...

was constructed in the 1990s, its tracks, between Canning Town and Custom House stations, were constructed on the same right of way but to the west and south side of the existing tracks. Royal Victoria station opened on the Docklands Light Railway tracks on 28 March 1994, whilst North London Line trains continued to pass without stopping on their tracks until that section of the line closed on 9 December 2006. During 2009, as part of the Canning Town DLR flyover and the new DLR line from Canning Town to Stratford, an engineers' siding was added to the Victoria Dock Road side of the station. On 1 June 2009 the Beckton branch was diverted onto the new flyover, which crossed the

Woolwich Woolwich () is a district in southeast London, England, within the Royal Borough of Greenwich. The district's location on the River Thames led to its status as an important naval, military and industrial area; a role that was maintained thr ...

branch and the branch to Stratford International. The flyover was constructed as part of the 3-Car Capacity Enhancement Project to serve Canning Town high-level DLR station. (See main article Docklands Light Railway extension to Stratford International.) It is 330 metres long, and is formed from a number of different structures connected by a continuous reinforced concrete deck cast ''in situ''. In addition, it allows DLR services from Canning Town towards Woolwich and Beckton to depart from any eastbound DLR platform.

Connections

London Buses routes 147,

474 __NOTOC__ Year 474 ( CDLXXIV) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Leo without colleague (or, less frequently, year 1227 ...

and night route N551 serve the station.

References

External links

Docklands Light Railway website – Royal Victoria station page
{{Docklands Light Railway Docklands Light Railway stations in the London Borough of Newham Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1994 Station