Pudding Mill Lane DLR station

Pudding Mill Lane DLR station is a station on the Docklands Light Railway (DLR) in east London. It is situated in the road of the same name in a light industrial area. It is next to the Olympic Park; however it was closed for the duration of the 2012 Olympic Games. It reopened on Wednesday 12 September.

The station is located on the DLR's Stratford branch, between the Bow Church and Stratford stations and is on the boundary between Travelcard Zone 2 and Zone 3.

History
This station was one of two stations safeguarded for future development since the birth of the DLR. The other is Langdon Park. Pudding Mill Lane was opened on 15 January 1996. Previously this location had been a simple passing point for trains on the otherwise single-tracked section between Stratford and Bow Church.



The name of the station is taken from the nearby Pudding Mill Lane which, in turn, takes its name from the former Pudding Mill River, a minor tributary of the River Lea. This is believed to have taken its name from St. Thomas's Mill, a local water mill shaped like a pudding and commonly known as Pudding Mill. The area had also been called as Knob Hill up until the 1890s.

When all the other platforms on the DLR's Stratford branch were extended to run three-car trains, Pudding Mill Lane was one of the network's stations which remained with a two-car platform, instead using selective door operation. The lack of platform extensions in this case is due to the pending rebuild of the station (see future).

During the 2012 Olympic Games, Pudding Mill Lane station was temporarily closed for safety reasons as, while ideally situated to serve the Olympic site, it was far too small to cope with the passenger numbers.

Future
Crossrail, due to open in 2018/19, will have a tunnel portal on the current Pudding Mill Lane site. Its works requires a replacement station to be built on a new viaduct nearby. The current station is to be demolished to make way for the tunnel portal. This work will also allow for the track in the area, the only significant stretch of single track, to be doubled. The new viaduct is currently under construction. The plans at the present do not include widening the curve between Pudding Mill Lane and Bow Church

In July 2011, Newham Council's Strategic Development Committee approved plans by architect Weston Williamson for the new station. Sited just to the south of the old station, between the River Lea and City Mill River, it will be built with a higher capacity to cope for new developments in the area. It will have three-car platforms, better pedestrian links and access to buses, improved step-free access, and provision for escalators, and is scheduled for completion in late April 2014.