Sunday's London marathon was a fantastic event, bringing London together as it always does, with actual athletes side by side with club runners and fun runners.

How it puts the mercenary mentality of today's venal footballers to shame.

However, questions need to be asked about the DLR on the day? Yes, it was free to those taking part and for officials but it would have been a very nice gesture on the part of the DLR manaegment to have waived ALL fares between 7am and 4pm, thus bringing in more crowds to support the runners.

And DLR could have used this 'free' day to run some much-needed maintenance on the appalling ticket machines between South Quay and Lewisham.

These machines must be the biggest cash cows ever devised - stealing away passengers' cash at a whim and having virtually unmanned stations, apart from the helpful staff at Greenwich Cutty Sark, making for complaints and assistance a no-go.