Over the last five years, Sinclair Knight Merz have been the custodians of the Docklands Public Transport Model on behalf of the Docklands Light Railway (DLR).
This strategic public transport forecasting tool was originally developed by the London Docklands Development Corporation and passed to the Docklands Light Railway in 1998. It is an EMME/2-based assignment model covering the Greater London area, with a particular focus on the Docklands regeneration area in East London. The model has been developed and expanded over the years and currently contains over 400 zones.
The Docklands Public Transport Model has been used for project forecasting and scheme evaluation, covering schemes such as the Jubilee Line Extension and extensions to the Docklands Light Railway. It was designed to be a flexible forecasting tool in an environment where land uses and transport infrastructure are changing rapidly. Today it provides the key forecasts for planning the long term future of the Docklands Light Railway.
Among the most recent uses of the model are the project appraisals for the DLR Lewisham Extension and the London City Airport Extension, and a comparative study of river crossing options at Woolwich, where an extension to the Docklands Light Railway was compared to a heavy rail alternative. A Transport and Works Act application for a DLR extension to Woolwich is currently in progress.
The model has been revalidated in 2000 and linked to a new MS Access-based land use and trip ends database, which provides a flexible tool for assessing land use and transport interaction in the development area. During 2003, the model was further upgraded to incorporate the modelling of public transport crowding.