THE DLR network in East London is celebrating the 10th anniversary of its Lewisham extension with trains having run 160 times round the world, sort of. The �200m link under the Thames from the Isle of Dogs has carried around 80 million passengers since it opened in 1999.

By Mike Brooke

THE DLR network in East London is celebrating the 10th anniversary this week of its extension down to Greenwich and Lewisham with trains having run 160 times round the world, sort of.

The �200m link under the Thames from the Isle of Dogs has carried around 80 million passengers since it opened in November, 1999.

Around 10 million passengers now use the extension every year, double the number in its first 12 months.

It runs through twin bore tunnels a-mile-and-a-quarter long beneath the river with two underground stations, Island Gardens and Cutty Sark, and five stations above ground further south. Busiest station is Lewisham, with an average of 15,000 commuters a day Monday-to-Friday.

Another statistic DLR has come up with is that trains have travelled more than five million miles on the extension since it first opened, equal to going around the Earth 160 times. Not many people know that.