Request ID: FOI-4794-2324 Date published: 19 April 2024
You asked
I’d like to complain about the escalator service at Cutty Sark. These escalators have been undergoing works now for an absolutely absurd amount of time – since during the pandemic! They were all back in service earlier but then I’ve noticed very recently two are out again and we have to use the stairs to get to the platform.
When will the works be finished?
Have you punished the contractor for delays?
In the past five years, on how many days have all four escalators been in service at Cutty Sark?
And what is that as a percentage of all the days in that time?
Do you hold a ranking of all the stations showing when they have had escalators out of service and how Cutty Sark compares in that?
We answered
TfL Ref: FOI-4794-2324
Thank you again for your correspondence of 23rd March 2024. Your requests for recorded information have been considered in accordance with the requirements of the Freedom of Information Act and our information access policy. These requests are addressed in turn below:
Question 1: When will the works be finished?
Answer: The works are expected to last 6 months.
Question 2: Have you punished the contractor for delays?
Answer: The contractor has a fixed price and every day over programme costs them.
Question 3: In the past five years, on how many days have all four escalators been in service at Cutty Sark?
And;
Question 4: And what is that as a percentage of all the days in that time?
And;
Question 5: Do you hold a ranking of all the stations showing when they have had escalators out of service and how Cutty Sark compares in that?
Answer: This precise information has not been collated before and to do so would exceed the costs limit for responding to FOI cases, as set out under section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act. Under section 12 TfL is not required to provide information if it would cost more than £450 to determine if the requested information is held, and to then locate, retrieve or extract it from elsewhere. This is calculated at a rate of £25 per hour, equivalent to 18 hours work. The exemption applies because there is no automated way of generating all of this information, and would instead require a manual trawl of records dating back five years. This is not possible within the costs limit. However, that said, we can provide you with the attached spreadsheets which show the escalator outages in each year from 2019 to 2023 by 4-week period.
If this is not the information you are looking for, or if you are unable to access it for any reason, please do not hesitate to contact me.
Please see the attached information sheet for details of your right to appeal as well as information on copyright and what to do if you would like to re-use any of the information we have disclosed.
Yours sincerely,
David Wells FOI Case Officer FOI Case Management Team General Counsel Transport for London
