Saturday, September 10, 2011

Good News for Newham

Yesterday I went for the first time on the new Docklands Light Railway line from Canning Town to Stratford International Station.  It opened last week and is a great step forward for the whole area.  The 6km £211 million route has 4 brand new fully accessible stations which also connect five London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic venues.  In is particularly good news for West Ham ward since two of the stations are right next to the ward boundaries.  From Stratford International you can be in St Pancras in under 10 minutes. Eventually (fingers crossed) you will be able to pick up the Eurostar from Stratford.

Also, last week I went on another tour of  Westfield Stratford City.  Only a few weeks ago it was a building site and we had to wear safety helmets and boots.  Now the shops are being fitted out and you could walk around in normal clothing.  The new shopping centre (the biggest in Europe with 300 stores) opens this Tuesday.  Today, by coincidence, I had to go to Ilford to visit the nearest Marks and Sparks.  The Shopping centre in Ilford is a fairly pleasant enough location and I wish it well, but I really pleased that Newham will now have a world class shopping and leisure facility which will also provide thousands of jobs and careers for local people. Double click photos to bring up detail.

(Oh yes, isn't there is some sort of sporting event going on in Stratford next year as well? :)

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Regarding Stratford International, without Eurostar it's a bit of a white elephant. We can only hope that the Deutsche Bahn plan for direct trains to Germany comes off, though Cologne is a lot less enticing than Paris.

John Gray said...

Hi anon

Not sure about the white elephant bit but yes I hope the Deutsche Bahn comes off.

Probably better business links with Cologne than Paris?

Anonymous said...

An international station that has no international services stopping at it would appear to be the very definition of a white elephant!

John Gray said...

it is working now and next year with fast trains from central London.

Stop being moanie minnies anon this is good news for Newham.