The London Borough of Bexley has today (8 August) submitted its response to the Transport for London (TfL) consultation on proposals to extend the Docklands Light Railway (DLR) to Beckton Riverside and Thamesmead.
The Council is calling on TfL to seriously consider extending the line to Belvedere as part of their plans and is urging residents and businesses to do the same before the closing date of 17 August.
Leader of the London Borough of Bexley, Cllr Baroness O’Neill of Bexley OBE said:
We are calling on TfL to once again consider the extension of the DLR to Belvedere and would urge local people to do the same. The extensive plans they are considering end at Thamesmead. To end at Belvedere would make much more sense and have a massive boost to the area in terms of jobs and housing and connect a large industrial area to central London as well as potentially making the whole scheme more affordable through greater fare income. Time is running out. Please make sure you let TfL know your thoughts before 17 August. This is our chance to get Bexley voices heard.”
The feedback to the consultation will help TfL move to the next stages of design and development for the DLR extension project.
TfL have asked for comments on various aspects of their proposals, including:
- the proposed route of the extension and locations of the new stations
- impacts on the wider transport network and nearby communities
- TfL’s early work looking at the environmental impact of their proposals
- how the extension could be built
View the full details of the consultation
The Council's response to the consultation can be read in full below.
London Borough of Bexley Consultation Response to DLR Extension from Beckton to Thamesmead August 2025
The Council welcomes the opportunity to respond to TfL’s current consultation on a preferred option for the proposed extension of the DLR to Beckton Riverside and Thamesmead.
As raised in the Councils previous consultation response, the failure of TfL to pursue a more ambitious extension to Belvedere is considered a major missed opportunity to unlock significantly more housing and employment growth in the area. It appears hugely wasteful to go to all the expense of constructing a tunnel under the Thames solely to enable a single station serving one development site.
Belvedere offers a much more logical terminus, comprising an existing transport interchange, at the centre of a large cluster of development sites and on the doorstep of a one of the largest but least connected industrial areas in London. Such an intervention would strongly support the governments priority to unlock housing growth on brownfield land and significantly contribute to the challenging housing targets emerging from the London Plan review.
Moreover, an extension to Belvedere would significantly extend the fare box for the scheme, particularly since interchange with national rail will create additional linked trips. This augmented revenue will greatly benefit the scheme as a whole which, we understand, will be financed predominantly from fare income.
The Council stands ready to pursue a business case for the extension, building on work already undertaken in the area as part of Bexley’s Growth Strategy and the Strategic Outline Business Case for Crossrail to Ebbsfleet (C2E). However, it requires funding and technical support from TfL which would form a natural addition to the resources it has already committed to the Thamesmead work.
In the interim the Council considers that there is an opportunity to extend the proposed new SL11 Superloop service or the existing SL3 Superloop service to Belvedere to ‘close the gap’ between Thamesmead and Belvedere station in the same way that the new BL1 ‘Bakerloop’ service mirrors the proposed Bakerloo Tube Line extension.
In terms of the detail provided in the current consultation, the Council supports, in principle, the construction of an elevated station at Thamesmead which offers the greatest potential for a future connection into the London Borough of Bexley.
It also looks forward to the consultation on the related Rapid Transit scheme and continuing to work with TfL on the development and delivery of that project. Moreover, with the completion of the Silvertown Tunnel and the removal of the safeguarding direction for the Thames Gateway Bridge, the Council awaits further proposals from the Mayor for additional road crossings in this part of the Capital to address the significant and damaging disparity in cross river connectivity between east and west London.
The Council would appreciate receiving a copy of the consultation report when it is available.