Our Ref:         FOI-2239-1920

Thank you for your request asking for information about the escalators at Wood Green and the pink readers at Stratford Station.

Your request has been considered in accordance with the requirements of the Freedom of Information Act and our information access policy.

On the matter of the escalators at Wood Green I would like to see the report that recommended that the escalators were organised in the manner in which they have been. If not included in that report I would like to see the risk assessment for this works package as it relates to passengers.

We do not hold a report or risk assessment regarding the current operation of the escalators at Wood Green. These escalators are currently undergoing refurbishment, one escalator at a time. The old Escalator 1 has already been replaced, and a new Escalator 1 is currently used as the “Up” escalator. This escalator is reversible.

Escalator 2 is hoarded off as it is being replaced. The new Escalator 2 should be brought into service in December 2019, after which Escalator 3 (the “north side” escalator referred to by yourself), will be hoarded off, removed, and replaced by a new escalator. The entire works are due to be completed by March 2020, at which time all three escalators at Wood Green will be fully reversible.

At present, due to its age and condition, Escalator 3 has to be operated in the “down” direction only. This is why the current configuration of the station is set as it is: we cannot run Escalator 3 in the “Up” direction under normal circumstances. However please be aware that in an emergency, and subject to review at that specific time, it may be possible for a fully-qualified and experienced engineer to make the decision to run Escalator 3 in the “Up” direction for a short period of time. For example if the station had to be evacuated in an emergency, and in the unlikely event that Escalator 1 had failed.

Due to Escalator 3 currently having to run “Down Only” it is impossible to operate the station without passengers crossing in the lower concourse. However this situation has been monitored even since the escalator works commenced, and it is being managed in a safe way. During many weekday afternoon peak-periods (Monday to Friday), a member of staff is present in the lower concourse to monitor passenger movements. CCTV also covers this area and is available 24 hours a day to the Station Manager.

On the pink reader issue I asked for correspondence on the service failure not on pink readers generally so please provide that.

The pink readers are located on Platforms 1 and 2 at Stratford Station on the Arriva Rail London (London Overground) platforms. All faults are reported to Cubic Transportation Systems Ltd who are responsible for maintaining these readers.

We have checked our fault logs and none of the validators were reported faulty around the 16 October 2019, therefore we do not hold any correspondence.

When a device has a fault this is reported automatically into the Cubic back office systems. The type of fault is also reported, the engineer attends and looks at the fault code to rectify. Most devices are fixed within eight hours.

Please accept our apologies that we are unable to assist you further on this occasion.

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

[email protected]