It’s a station, Jim – but not as we know it

IF YOU LIVE near the Docklands Light Railway (DLR), you have probably travelled on it. You may have walked past it, wishing the fares were lower. But have you ever day-dreamed about adopting a DLR station?

That is what Transport for London (TfL) are offering you with their new “Adopt-a-Station” initiative – which is now being tried out at Poplar DLR station.

You may have thought that getting to a station and departing on a train (or arriving at a station and leaving it) was all you wanted from a DLR, but now you can have so much more. TfL hope the new scheme will help communities, schools and businesses “make the most of their local station”.

The fact that a number of transport executives have had time to come up with this scheme may make you wonder if some of them should try getting a proper job – but there is one positive lurking in the proposal.

TfL is offering community groups local to the station and nearby residents space to advertise “events, classes and workshops”. It will also provide a “platform for art and activities of local schools, gardeners and others” – no pun intende d, presumably.

Free advertising? A platform? What’s not to love? Two things.

•First, this plan is intended to contribute to “achieving the objectives of the Mayor’s draft Transport Strategy, which aims to encourage greater use of public transport and reduce reliance on car journeys – in turn creating a greener and healthier city.” In other words, it’s part of the soundbite strategy which so much of modern politics is about.

Mayor Sadiq Khan wants to say he has improved public transport, so he decides making stations nicer will entice more drivers on to public transport, so a group of officers have to come up with an idea to make stations more attractive. Boxes ticked, Khan can prepare for his next election by saying he has made stations more attractive to lure drivers off the roads.

Yes, that is the same Sadiq Khan who is building a road bridge through Fish Island. What if the local Poplar residents want to advertise a local, community-led campaign against demolition of heritage architecture in Fish Island to let the cars through? Will that campaign be advertised on the DLR?

•Second, in the small print is says: “Station adoptees must be a member of a group and members of ACoRP – the Association of Community Rail Partnerships. By joining ACoRP adoptees will receive access to a national network of station friends and community rail groups, copies of specialist toolkits, invitations to conferences and seminars as well as access to a range of funding sources.”

Our lives are hard enough. Any time that members of the local community take off work or raising a family – or both – in these very difficult times to help run a community initiative are hard fought for. It’s hard to get funding, find premises, keep thing going. Why should we have to join an “association”, just in order to get a poster put up in a station’s advertising space?

The whole scheme just makes you feel that the DLR authorities have virtually no insight into the lives and concerns of the people who live near Poplar DLR station.

Mark Davis, Interim General Manager of the DLR, said of the new Adoption Scheme: “We are delighted to bring our ‘Adopt-a-Station’ programme to Poplar DLR station. Nestled in the shadow of Canary Wharf, the scheme will enable the local area to create a social and engaging hub at the heart of the community.”

Our community is not “nestled in the shadow of Canary Wharf” – our community came first, and Canary Wharf was built on our land and casts a shadow over us. It’s enough to make you respond, “You stick to running the trains, and we’ll stick to running our community.”

•Read more about it
Sadiq Khan “for the few, not the many”
Last try to halt Sadiq Khan vandalism at Fish Island

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