Cutty Sark DLR station could close for six months for repairs
Transport for London looks set to close Cutty Sark DLR station for six months to fix all four broken escalators.
Escalators have been unreliable for years with TfL previously blaming the PFI operator who maintained an extension from Island Gardens to Lewisham which opened in 1999.
With escalators out of service passengers are being forced to use a small doorway to enter and exit around the back of the station on Welland Street.
The main entrance located on a crescent is sometimes out of bounds.
The Evening Standard have reported the story which follows a petition from passengers and questions from local MP Matt Pennycook.
The station wasn’t due top be on the original extension and was a late addition. Built to a budget, its short platforms cannot accommodate a full-length DLR train. Access is via escalators, 121 steps or a small lift.
With Silvertown tunnel opening it was supposed to be available for free on journeys to Island Gardens from April.
The foot tunnel is an alternative for that journey but as reported earlier today on this site, Greenwich foot tunnel lifts are chronically unreliable with one not working 27 per cent of the past year and the other unavailable 20 per cent of the time.
That leaves people to use Greenwich station to access both the town centre as well as cross the Thames.
The question now is what arrives first: new DLR trains delayed by almost a year without a confirmed introduction or a working DLR station?
