Request ID: FOI-1317-2425 Date published: 21 August 2024
You asked
I just want to register a complaint about the Cutty Sark DLR escalators. It is abysmal that these are still not all back online. For many years now we have been without functioning escalators at all levels. I simply cannot understand why it is like this. If you had just ripped out the escalators and installed new ones in a whole newly built station it wouldn’t take this long. Since before Covid it has been like this! I consider this service standard to be appalling. I refuse to believe other stations and communities would be treated like this and cannot recall any of the other TFL stations I use ever having disrupted escalators on this scale for such an extended period of time.
Please can you let me know when this will be fixed? When is the next time you expect all four escalators to be working and to stay working for a period of many weeks?
Please can I also make an FOI request for any correspondence you have had (received, sent or been copied into) with the Mayor, Assembly Members or any Members of Parliament about the Cutty Sark DLR escalator works in the last seven years.
We answered
Our Ref: FOI-1317-2425
Thank you for your request received on 25 July 2024 asking for information about the escalators at Cutty Sark DLR.
Your request has been considered in accordance with the requirements of the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act and our information access policy. I can confirm that we hold some of the information you require. You asked:
• Please can you let me know when this will be fixed?
We are sorry about the ongoing reliability issues customers are experiencing with the escalators, we appreciate they are the primary way to access the station so are working hard to ensure they are working at all times. We have recently carried out an extensive overhaul to improve the reliability and availability of the escalators at this station. All four escalators remain in safe operation and are subject to regular safety inspections.
Please see the updates below regarding the escalators:
• Escalator 1 This asset was operational and in service until 25 July 2024, when an inspection was undertaken. This escalator was removed from service due to defects being identified during this inspection, but following some minor modifications returned back into operational service on 16 August 2024. There was a previously scheduled overhaul project (similar to the project the other three escalators have gone through) which now awaits a further review.
• Escalator 2 This asset is in service and has been since 3 April 2024 following an extensive overhaul to improve reliability and availability.
• Escalator 3 This asset is out of service following the identification of a safety defect during the routine planned maintenance inspection. As this asset has recently been extensively overhauled to improve reliability and availability, the Dockland Light Railway Limited (DLRL) Project Delivery team continue to work with our maintainer to try and identify the issue and return the escalator back into customer service as quickly possible.
• Escalator 4 This asset is in service and has been since 23 July 2024 following an extensive overhaul to improve reliability and availability.
• When is the next time you expect all four escalators to be working and to stay working for a period of many weeks?
Three of the four escalators are now in service following maintenance and specific overhaul works – the fourth escalator remains out of service whilst we work with the maintainer to resolve the fault. Once this work is complete, we aim to have all four escalators working. Escalators may be taken out of service due to issues found during routine inspections, or to support operational issues, but we aim to keep this to a minimum.
• Please can I also make an FOI request for any correspondence you have had (received, sent or been copied into) with the Mayor, Assembly Members or any Members of Parliament about the Cutty Sark DLR escalator works in the last seven years.
Unfortunately, to provide the information you have requested would exceed the ‘appropriate limit’ of £450 set by the FOI (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004.
Under section 12 of the FOI Act, we are not obliged to comply with a request if we estimate that the cost of determining whether we hold the information, locating and retrieving it and extracting it from other information would exceed the appropriate limit. This is calculated at £25 per hour for every hour spent on the activities described.
We have estimated that it would cost over £450 to provide a response to your current request. This is because it is estimated that it would take in excess of 18 working hours to retrieve and compile the information for this part of your request.
When requests for email correspondence are received the FOI Case Management team are able to conduct a companywide email searches using keywords, dates and email addresses. The more specific a requester can be as to what they are looking for, the more we can narrow the search and therefore stand a better chance of a more relevant or focused result. A search will then return an amount of ‘hits’ which potentially contain information relating to the search terms used. Each ‘hit’ is a single email, although that email will often consist of a chain of emails containing the search term at least once.
We have done an initial search for all emails held by TfL sent/received to the Mayor’s Office and the GLA or anyone with an @parliament.uk email suffix, regarding the escalators at Cutty Sark DLR station. This has returned over 9,000 hits. A brief review of the results suggests that the majority of these appear to be general circulars that are likely to be of little relevance. We would need to manually review all of the emails identified by the search in order to extract and collate the relevant emails.
To help bring the cost of responding to your request within the £450 limit, you may wish to consider narrowing its scope so that we can more easily locate, retrieve and extract the information you are seeking. Please note that we have answered several FOI requests on this topic and it may be helpful for you to take a look at these responses before submitting a revised request:
If you want to refine your request or make a FOI Act request in future, please bear in mind that the FOI Act allows you to request recorded information held by us. You should identify the information that you want as clearly and concisely as you can, specifying the types of document that you are looking for. If you have any further specific questions regarding the escalators these may be easier to process rather than a request for correspondence.
Although your request can take the form of a question, rather than a request for specific documents, we do not have to answer your question if it would require the creation of new information or the provision of a judgement, explanation, advice or opinion that was not already recorded at the time of your request.
If this is not the information you are looking for, or if you are unable to access it for some reason, please feel free to contact me.
Please see the attached information sheet for details of your right to appeal.
Yours sincerely
Gemma Jacob Senior FOI Case Officer FOI Case Management Team General Counsel Transport for London
