All four escalators at Cutty Sark DLR station will be replaced, Transport for London has said, after a passenger petition launched at Christmas reached 1,500 signatures.

Passengers using the Docklands Light Railway to reach Greenwich town centre have faced disrupted journeys for at least four years with each of the escalators in the station failing. 

All four are now out of service, with residents and visitors having to traipse up 121 steps to leave the station via emergency exits.

Now TfL says it has secured the funding to replace the escalators, but has yet to confirm when work will take place.

A local residents’ campaign, Escalate Now!, launched last month to raise the profile of the problems at the station, which serves one of London’s tourist hotspots.

Campaigners leafleted the station on Tuesday morning, while Tom Page, the DLR’s general manager, also visited Cutty Sark to see the situation for himself.

Campaigners handing leaflets to people
Campaigners including Maureen O’Mara, right, leafleted Cutty Sark station on Tuesday morning. Image: The Greenwich Wire

Page said on Tuesday lunchtime:  “We are sorry about the continuing issues with the escalators at Cutty Sark which we appreciate are having a significant impact on customers who use the station. 

“We have secured funding to replace the escalators and are working through plans that will restore a full escalator service at the station. We will confirm these plans and a timeline once finalised.”

It also said an informal one-way system was in place at the station, although there was no sign of it when The Greenwich Wire visited on Tuesday morning.

Maureen O’Mara, a former local councillor who has helped set up the campaign and spoke to Page at the station, said that after years of delays, TfL needed to set out a timeline to show it was serious.

“We want details of the timetable and the budget. no more promises telling us that things are going to go better,” she said. “We need a little less conversation and a bit more action from TfL. We’re going to be here until we see both of those things.

People at back door of station handing out leaflets
The campaign has now reached 1,500 signatures. Image: The Greenwich Wire

“They need to stop making promises they never deliver on and deliver a service for the millions of people who are not only visiting our world heritage site but also live and work here and commute. It’s not good enough and they’re paying high fares, so they need to start delivering.”

One resident who stopped by to support the campaign, Morgan O’Connor, said that in the five years she had lived in the area, the escalators had “never 100 per cent worked”.

“It’s not nice for tourists coming into the area. It’s an embarrassment, really,” she said.

Empty station with escalators sealed off an mural of Henry VIII looking across
There is no timetable for work to begin. Image: The Greenwich Wire

TfL has also pledged to work with the DLR’s operator, KeolisAmey Docklands, to ensure announcements are made on trains warning passengers about the problems at Cutty Sark, and would have additional staff on hand, with a small lift available for customers who need it.

The station, which opened in 1999, was built under the private finance initiative by CGL Rail, a consortium of engineering and investment companies, under a deal with the Westminster government.

The management of the facilities by CGL Rail – whose contract ended four years ago and has since been liquidated – has been criticised by local councillor Calum O’Byrne Mulligan, who has said that the escalators were never fit for purpose in the first place.

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