Withdrawn trains will be back in the late summer.
The story so far: Transport for London (TfL) ordered some much-improved trains for DLR services. The first few rolled out in October 2025, to many "hoorahs!" from transport geeks, and a few members of the public. Just a few days later, the cars were withdrawn due to: "an issue with braking performance during wet weather on one train".
Now we know more about when they'll return. In a press release, TfL promises to have the programme literally back on track by 'late summer' this year. The wiggle-room-allowing vagueness means we could be waiting until as late as 22 September, by the astronomical definition of summer.
According to TfL:
To support the safe return of the trains, engineers are introducing a focused package of improvements — including braking software upgrades to improve performance in the type of specific low rail adhesion conditions experienced during the incident. These are currently being tested on the manufacturer’s test track before further testing on the DLR network.
When they are redeployed, the trains will feature walk-through carriages, real time travel information, air conditioning and phone charging points, with a more-than 50% increase in capacity. The gradual rollout will replace the existing DLR stock, some of which is over 30 years old.
