Angry passengers have launched a campaign to demand that Transport for London fixes the broken escalators at Cutty Sark DLR station once and for all.
There have been years of disruption at the stop in Greenwich town centre, which serves one of London’s best-known tourism hotspots.
In April when two escalators were broken, TfL said all four should be back in service by the end of this year. But now four escalators are out of action – forcing passengers into a small lift or to climb 121 stairs.
Escalate Now! is fronted by Maureen O’Mara, a former Greenwich Labour councillor for the area, and Karin Tearle, a local Green Party activist who used to run a nearby clothes shop.
A petition has been launched by the duo, which had been signed by more than 480 people by 7pm on Christmas Eve. They want Andy Lord, the TfL commissioner, to visit the station to see the situation for himself, and for Seb Dance, Sadiq Khan’s deputy mayor for transport, to pick up the issue.
“This has been going on since at least 2021 and there has never been a time when all four escalators were working together at the same time,” O’Mara told The Greenwich Wire.
“Karin contacted Seb Dance in May 2023 and was told that TfL were awaiting delivery of customised spare parts and they were putting together a programme of works that would ‘give the station a much needed facelift’. Karin contacted Seb Dance again that August to ask for an update but received no response.
“A year and a half later, passengers are finding themselves in an even worse predicament. We want proof that there is a budget and timescale for the replacement escalators, not more promises.”
O’Mara said that the ongoing problems were bad for the reputation of the area – particularly as passengers hoping to visit Greenwich were not being warned in advance about the problems.
“Earlier this year, TfL installed large posters based on Greenwich’s cultural offer at the middle of the station and there’s a large banner saying, ‘Welcome to Maritime Greenwich, a Unesco world heritage site,’” O’Mara said. “The problem now is that no one sees them.”
The situation has previously been blamed on the private company that built and operated the station in its first two decades. CGL Rail was formed in 1996 by a consortium of construction and investment companies to build the Docklands Light Railway extension from Mudchute to Lewisham, which opened in November 1999.
The company owned the track and stations, and was paid back over 24 years, collecting £45 million in 2019. The deal ended in March 2021, with KeolisAmey, which runs the DLR for TfL, now in charge of the route.
Calum O’Byrne Mulligan, a Labour councillor for the Creekside ward, said in April that the company had left the station in a “shameful state”. CGL Rail was liquidated in October, distributing £1.5 million back to its shareholders.
On social media, O’Byrne Mulligan said earlier this month that the escalators were never up to job and had come to the end of their life, and that he was pushing TfL for a full replacement, while a short-term fix could get some sort of service running in the new year.
O’Mara and Tearle say they plan to leaflet the station in the new year when people return to work.
Transport for London has not responded to a request for comment sent on Monday morning.
Updated on Boxing Day with comment from Calum O’Byrne Mulligan.
The Escalate Now! petition is at change.org.
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