Sinclair Knight Merz was commissioned by Docklands Light Railway (DLR) to carry out a comprehensive appraisal of a scheme to extend the Railway to Barking Reach and Dagenham to assist in regeneration of its catchment area.
The Barking Riverside Masterplan proposes the building of at least 6,000 new homes, although up to 10,000 homes could be accommodated at Barking Riverside, but only with significant improved public transport access. The Greater London Authority (GLA) and Transport for London (TfL) requested that DLR undertake initial feasibility studies into a possible route and costs for an extension to Barking Reach to serve the Barking Riverside development and neighbouring sites.
From the initial engineering feasibility work SKM evaluated three alternative routes. Demand, traffic and revenue forecasts for the link options were produced, using the EMME/2-based Docklands Public Transport Model (DPTM) and a specially developed spreadsheet sub-model. The resulting patronage, revenue and benefit streams were fed into a comprehensive appraisal framework. Outputs comprised financial, economic and commercial evaluations. The evaluation also took into account the impact of other transport proposals on DLR extensions, such as East London Transit, alternative alignments of Crossrail and the Thames Gateway Bridge.
The recommendation is for a 5km scheme connecting the existing railway at Gallions Reach to Dagenham Dock station and an interchange with National Rail services and East London Transit. SKM was further commissioned to prepare forecasts and undertake a comprehensive scheme appraisal for detailed alternative alignments, as part of the project definition stage.