Having been the cause of ongoing travel disruptions for a fair few years now; the pesky escalators at Cutty Sark station are finally being replaced. Brilliant news, right? The less brilliant news, however, is that in order to replace them with shiny new ones that will actually do the job they’re employed to do, the station (which happens to be the third busiest on the DLR) will have to close its doors for the best part of a year.
Transport for London have recently announced that the south London station will close its doors on May 31and remain closed until ‘next spring’. Cutty Sark is one of the busiest DLR stations on the transport network (after Canary Wharf and Limehouse), and sees roughly 7.6 million annual entries and exits. Cutty Sark is also the main station serving Greenwich‘s historic market town and its local attractions, including the Old Royal Naval College, the National Maritime Museum, and – well… Cutty Sark.
The station currently boasts two escalators going from street level to ticket office level, and then a further two escalators heading up to the platform level from there. All four of the escalators have endured ongoing issues in recent yearsand despite TfL’s best efforts to fix them, it’s now reached the point where they need to be entirely replaced.
Cutty Sark will receive four brand-new, state-of-the-art escalators – each of which will be energy efficient and much more reliable. You’d like to think so anyway, considering that the replacement escalators are costing a rather hefty £4 million. Replacing all four at the same time is said to the best way to minimise further disruptions for customers. The only way it (quite literally) up, hey?
Ben GrellierHead of Operations for the DLR, said: “We know Cutty Sark’s escalators have been causing disruption and frustration for our customers and we would like to thank them for their patience during this period.
“We apologise for any further disruption the station closure may cause, but it is not possible to replace these escalators with the station in operation. Once installed, the new state-of-the-art escalators will provide customers with reliable and easier access to DLR services at the station.”
The closest alternative station is Greenwich (served by the DLR and some Southeastern and Thameslink services) which is roughly a ten minute walk or short bus ride away from Cutty Sark.
