Request ID: FOI-2230-2324 Date published: 06 November 2023
You asked
1. In the last five years, how many times have escalators at Walthamstow station been out of service? Please specify how many times per year, which escalator and any reason for their being out of service.
2. Please specify, in the last five years, how many days have the lifts been out of service for? Please specify how many times per year, which lift and any reason for it being out of service.
3. Please provide any engineering reports or surveys produced by or for TfL in the last two years for each escalator and lift.
4. Please provide the approximate amount of money spent on emergency repairs to the elevator and lift per year for the last five years.
5. Please provide any contextual information held, in original form, which might explain why the escalators and lifts are repeatedly breaking. If this is not possible please provide this in summary.
6. Please indicate whether information TfL holds about the lifts and escalators is publicly accessible and if so where.
If five years is too onerous to provide, please provide the information for each of the last two or one years (preferring the longest period available).
We answered
Our Ref: FOI-2230-2324/GH Thank you for clarifying your request about the lifts and escalators at Walthamstow station. 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 do hold the information you require. However, to provide the information you have requested would exceed the ‘appropriate limit’ of £450 set by the Freedom of Information (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004. Unfortunately we do not have any direct way of centrally reporting on all of the information you have requested in a way that would make this easy to collate. This information will be held across multiple systems and comprise of both planned and unplanned incidents, as well as short term temporary stoppages for localised incidents which do not relate to a fault with the lift/escalator. Additionally, in some cases costs for repair may be combined with other repair works to lifts/escalators at other stations as part of a package, where appropriate. Reviewing all of this data to then extract and collate those instances that are relevant to your request would be a significant task would exceed the ‘appropriate limit’ of £450 set by the Freedom of Information (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004. Under section 12 of the FOI Act, we are not obliged to comply with requests 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. In this instance, we estimate that the time required to answer your request would exceed 18 hours which, at £25 per hour (the rate stipulated by the Regulations), exceeds the ‘appropriate limit’. It would take an excessive amount of time to locate and compile the detailed information requested about the lifts and escalators at Walthamstow station. To help bring the cost of responding to your request within the £450 limit, you may wish to consider refining your requests to concentrate on matters which are important to you. Please see the attached information sheet for details of your right to appeal. Yours sincerely Graham Hurt FOI Case Officer FOI Case Management Team General Counsel Transport for London
